PUHI — They only had one chance to try and the panel of judges was tougher than any instructor. Ten students in the 2009 Culinary Summer Institute were busy preparing Thursday for the ‘Ohana Luncheon that marked the end of
PUHI — They only had one chance to try and the panel of judges was tougher than any instructor.
Ten students in the 2009 Culinary Summer Institute were busy preparing Thursday for the ‘Ohana Luncheon that marked the end of a 10-day course at Kaua‘i Community College.
“They had a chance to practice once, and today the students are using the skills they learned over the past nine days to prepare lunch for their parents, grandparents and other relatives,” said Chef Martina Hilldorfer, one of the institute’s instructors.
Funded by Carl D. Perkins through the Office of the University of Hawai‘i Director for Career and Technical Education, the program was designed to expose high school students and recent graduates to the American Culinary Federation-accredited Culinary Institute of the Pacific at KCC.
Valued at more than $2,000 for the 10-day period, students paid $25 with the remainder of the course being funded by the grant.
One of the goals of the institute is to strengthen the channel between the Department of Education and the community colleges.
Thursday morning, under the cover of the fine dining facility, the kitchen bustled with activity amidst an otherwise quiet campus.
“Everything they’ve learned up until today comes into practice,” Hilldorfer said. “During the practice run, the students worked in groups of two or three, but today they each have their area of responsibility and they are working by themselves.”
On the menu was a “Caesar Salad Action Station,” steamed rice, mashed potato, grilled vegetables, beef stew, roast chicken, steamed mahi hana style, apple and cream pies, cookies, and Bananas Foster over ice cream.
“The students got a taste of how the real world operates during a field trip to the Sheraton Kaua‘i earlier,” said Billy Gibson, another instructor. “Chef Ben Takahashi and Ikaika Manaku were really good in that they took the students into the back where they could see first-hand what working in a restaurant was like.”
During that field trip, students were exposed to different areas of the hospitality industry as they toured the Po‘ipu property that is gearing up for the return of its block party that kicks off the Koloa Plantation Days Celebration.
Gibson said the students also worked with a math software program through the KCC Learning Resource Center and in addition to gaining culinary skills, also discovered their prowess in mathematics.
“This was pretty awesome,” Gibson said. “After a little more than a week, one girl, after taking the evaluation test, discovered she was a pre-calculus level.”
Students enrolled in the program include Lesther Domingo, Jacob Flores, Gorey Garren-Hamura, Aeron Inouye, Aiko Kajiwara, Rusty Klutke, Karen Ramento, Kayla Shimatsu, Colton White and Savannah Yamamoto.
