Culinary program opens doors for students

Kim Patrick converted recipes to a new system for GrillSmith this summer. John Burger broke down the costs and amounts of ingredients on a coffee shop's menu. Magdaliz Garces developed a marketing plan for Einstein Bros. Bagels' catering.

This week, the three 17-year-olds are returning to high school, equipped with a better understanding of the working world's requirements.

"I have more of an idea of what I'm getting into," said Garces, a senior and aspiring pastry chef.

Classes resume in Hillsborough County Tuesday, but a group of Chamberlain teens never stopped studying. They spent their summers learning business operations in internships that took part-time jobs to new levels.

Students in Chamberlain's Culinary Operations Academy are participating in a federally funded pilot program that started during the 2009-10 school year and wraps up this year. The program aims to strengthen career academies nationwide.

Seniors enrolled in internships at local eateries that included weekly workshops on time management, customer service and workforce diversity. On the job, while they prepared food or rang up customers, they also completed projects to help their employers revamp menus, save time and money or bring in more business.

"These aren't the old clichéd burger-flippers," said John Burger Jr., who owns Cool Mo's Coffee in Carrollwood. "These kids come out pretty darn smart."

His son, also John Burger, is enrolled in Chamberlain's culinary program and interned at Cool Mo's, performing the menu cost-analysis for his project. The elder Burger said he has worked in food service so long he falls into the habit of "doing things from the hip" and didn't have a formalized system for pricing.

His son created a database with the costs and amounts of every ingredient in every drink and sandwich Cool Mo's serves. Burger said that helped him see where he charged too much or too little.

The internships are the final piece in what could become a new approach to high school career academies.

Career academies combine traditional academic classes with hands-on experience in various fields, including food service, Web design and veterinary assisting. They do a good job at helping students move from high school to college or the workforce, said Susan Bloom, president of Bloom Associates, which has developed curricula for school districts nationally.

The academies' weak spot, Bloom said, is providing students with strong work-based learning. Teens need to connect better what they learn in the classroom with what the real world needs.

MDRC, a nonprofit social policy and educational research organization that has studied career academies, won a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to try out new methods at four high schools. The agency subcontracted with Bloom Associates to design and implement a program that addressed schools and employers.

Bloom knew Pam Peralta, Hillsborough County's general director of career and technical education, and asked her to recommend district programs that would benefit from stronger business connections. After reviewing her suggestions, Bloom and MDRC selected Chamberlain and a multimedia design academy in Concord, Calif. This year, it expanded to an Atlanta hospitality, tourism and marketing academy and an arts and technology program in Los Angeles.

Chamberlain's program, with 150 students this school year, started in 2002. Students learn about the food service industry - business management as well as food safety and culinary skills - while catering lunches and banquets at an Outback Steakhouse-styled café at the school.

The program has a strong curriculum and instructor: Erik Youngs, a former chef with multiple business contacts and a good rapport with the students.

"But he didn't have the time or structure to develop a program of career exploration and internships," Bloom said.

The grant paid half of his salary, allowing Chamberlain to hire an additional teacher for day-to-day duties while Youngs focused on the career component. Before the internships, students toured restaurants and listed to speakers talk about their jobs. Then they shadowed servers, fry cooks, managers and others for about 45 minutes.

Burger, a senior, followed a manager at Outback Steakhouse and got to see his daily inspections. He said that experience and tours of Hillsborough Community College and Johnson & Wales University in Miami have given him confidence as graduation nears. The students had to research admission requirements and the schools' culinary programs before visiting the campuses.

"When I go to college, especially if I do hospitality, I'll already have a basic idea of what I'm doing," Burger said.

Bloom said she and MDRC are relying on the participating schools for feedback and hope to offer the program in more schools eventually. Hillsborough's Peralta said she would love to see the program offered throughout the district.

"I can't wait to replicate this," Peralta said. "It's just a better way to learn."

Without the grant money, Hillsborough can't afford to add extra teachers, Peralta said, but it might be able to modify its existing academies and improve existing relationships with businesses. Companies serve on academy advisory boards and could get involved creating internships similar to Chamberlain's.

The district also could encourage more journaling, such as the Chamberlain students did during their internships and field trips, because it helps them improve their writing skills and analyze what they have learned.

"That experience becomes so much more," Peralta said. "It makes it more authentic, it makes it more meaningful, it makes it more valid in their mind."

Youngs said the internship project requirement also gives students more responsibilities than a typical summer job.

Patrick, who worked in food preparation, salads and desserts at the Carrollwood GrillSmith, went through 25 of the restaurant's recipes to swap out cups and tablespoons with weights for each ingredient. She presented her project to corporate leaders, who may use the standardized measurements to speed up food preparation.

"She's getting to mix and mingle with these highly professional people, when at the same time, she's working her entry-level position," Youngs said.

Patrick, who is starting 12th grade, had worked as a hostess at other restaurants since middle school and loved the chance to experience the excitement of the kitchen. Her internship ended, but GrillSmith is keeping her on.

"It meant a lot because no one ever told me I'd be able to work in a kitchen," she said. She hopes to go to college for culinary and own her own restaurant one day.

Burger already knew what to expect from his father's business, having grown up in the shop. But his father said he thought it was important to participate in the internship progam. The food service industry has become much more professional, Burger said, and the students need to be able to compete.

"I'm more than willing to help bring the level of the prospective employee up," he said. "Food has a new dimension - it's not playtime. These young people are going out there with the food knowledge I had to get the hard way."