“Chef” can be heard around the kitchen at St. James High School by potential chefs in the making at the Kitchen Brigades program.
La Tablée des Chefs, an organization trying to address food insecurity in Quebec, reached out to Alicja Reynolds, hospitality teacher at St. James to see if the school would be interested in it.
She took the opportunity and students from Grade 9 and up have been learning to cook for the last five weeks on Thursday evenings after the final school bell rings.
There were 32 students interested in the course and about 25 join each week with students on standby to try out the class if some are absent.
One of the reasons students take time out of their day is “they want to learn how to cook. They want to be able to cook for their family, their friends. And I think they love food,” said Reynolds.
She is passionate about students learning to cook for themselves and is a firm believer they should learn basic skills in the kitchen.
“Groceries being super expensive these days, we can't afford to eat out all the time,” Reynolds said. She noted in a couple years time students will be in post-secondary education and will need to start cooking for themselves.
Students heard an experienced chef would be teaching the 24 week program and thought it sounded amazing, she said.
Chef Sam Fuda, restaurant coordinator at the Sleeman Centre guides students through food safety, handling, knife skills, ingredients, recipes, time management and reducing food waste.
Fuda is an alumni of St. James. Cooking is something he pursued throughout high school and in post-secondary at Conestoga College.
He couldn’t believe how many students signed up for the course.
On Thursday students had the choice to make General Tso’s chicken or tofu with rice, green beans or broccoli.
“I feel like maybe they just see the value in having this as a good life skill and be able to cook a meal for themselves,” said Fuda.
If students are here because they want to pursue cooking as a career or are just here for fun, regardless they are learning, he said.
A common takeaway from students in the class were the knife skills they’ve learned, being able to cut ingredients properly and safely.
The first time Natalya Maceroni cooked was last year in Grade 8 she made biryani as her mom supervised. Now in Grade 9 she joined the Kitchen Brigades because she wanted to learn more about cooking and help her parents in the kitchen.
“On the weekends I like to cook and stuff. So if I’m finding new dishes to make … I can make them for my family,” said Kendall DeCarlo, Grade 9 student in the program.
She made rice paper wraps for her parents after learning how to make them in class.
“They're learning so I think they feel really accomplished. And I feel like they leave here thinking ‘oh my gosh I made this … I can do this at home.’” said Reynolds.
