All semester long, Columbia Area Career Center students have been harvesting the skill of cooking in a variation of methods in Culinary class. Now, their work is being displayed in the form of a CACC holiday food sale lasting from Tuesday Dec. 16 to Thursday Dec. 18.
“Culinary will have the holiday food sales going each day from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.,” CACC Culinary teacher Brook Harlan said. “It is open to the public during that whole time and to students after school until six. One hundred percent of the proceeds go back to the CACC Culinary department, this helps fund the purchasing of food for Culinary 1, 2, and Baking and Pastry.”
Because of nutritional restrictions placed upon the class that refrain them from selling food to students during school hours, senior Miranda Burke, a Baking independent study student, knows that the need for funds for the culinary program has risen greatly.
“This year it became more crucial for us to sell stuff because of the new health codes,” Burke said. “We can’t technically sell anything to students [during school hours], only to parents and outsiders.”
Senior culinary student Jacob Ventrillo was reluctant to take a Culinary class at first, but now says he wants to be a chef by occupation. His included items in the sale is a thick turkey noodle soup, crab bisque and braised short ribs.
“It was suggested to me to take the class and my parents thought it would be a good life skill,” Ventrillo said. “I didn’t like it at first, but now I love it and want to be a chef at the next level.”
Harlan has watched over the different classes, each bringing a multitude of items to the sale to create a large variety of options for customers.
“Common items that we use and sell normally throughout the year are stocks, sauces and sausages,” Harlan said. “We also have many items that have been made in the last several days, and some that are even being finished Tuesday morning before sales start at 10:30.”
Like Ventrillo, Burke also has a high level of interest in the culinary program, starting classes her sophomore year, the first year CACC classes were available to her.
“I went to the orientation at RBHS when I was a freshman,” Burke said. “And I saw the baking class information, and I knew I wanted to be involved in that so I took the prerequisite course, Culinary 1, until I was able to take the baking class.”
By Luke Chval