Summer 2019 Advisor

INNOVATING

SUMMER 2019 CEA ADVISOR 11

CULINARY ARTS PROGRAM CHALLENGES STUDENTS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX Local supermarket supplies ingredients; teacher provides inspiration

When Bridgeport music teacher Sheena Graham was named Connecticut Teacher of the Year, students at Harding High School, where she teaches, were ecstatic and eager to join the celebration. The school’s choirs sang at her ceremony, and culinary classes busied themselves planning, preparing, and serving the food at her reception, which included savory vegetarian and sausage frittatas, scones, cookies, muffins, pastries, and other mouthwatering delights. Culinary arts teacher Judy Marshall, who guided them in catering the reception, says it was a great opportunity for her students to previously taught at Wilton High School, just completed her first year at Harding. Food for thought “When I started, I contacted a number of supermarkets and asked if they would donate food to our program,” she says. Marshall had a plan in mind. She called it “out of the box,” and it would be a way for her classes to learn and experiment without straining the school’s budget. Whole Foods in Fairfield agreed to donate food that was good but perhaps imperfect or close to the expiration date. Every Monday, the entrepreneurial educator ventures out to the grocery store and receives a different assortment of foods set aside for her classes. “I might go there and pick up cartons that have one or two cracked eggs in them, or milk that is still fresh but close to the sell-by date. I get discontinued items as well as produce, meats, and other foods that put to use the skills they were learning. Marshall, who had Student-athletes at Bassick High School in Bridgeport and Stonington High School in Pawcatuck have gained a competitive edge thanks to grants in the amount of $1,000 each from NEA- endorsed California Casualty. The Thomas R. Brown Athletics Grants will fund an in-ground net system for the Bassick High School girls volleyball team, and coach Patrick O’Rourke is excited that the team will be able to practice and compete with the same quality equipment their competitors use. The crew teams at Stonington High School will use their $1,000 grant to buy new oars. Coach Bruce Yarnall, who is a Mystic Middle School special education teacher, says the funds will be used to purchase a new set of grips for existing oars, oar locks, riggers, and possibly a seat. While crew is widely regarded as a sport for the wealthy, Yarnall says it opens up opportunities for students of all backgrounds and abilities. “One of the great things about crew is that ninth-graders come in not knowing anything; all the students are starting as beginners,” he says. “It’s an especially important opportunity for students who haven’t yet found a sport they enjoy and may struggle with the

and take a risk.” Marshall’s students have made everything from potato pancakes to homemade applesauce. “On Thursdays,” she says, “they go back, write down what they’ve done, and begin to reflect and think critically about the recipe. What worked? What could be improved for the next time?” Some of her classes, she explains, work

Culinary arts teacher Judy Marshall (front row, second from left) guided Bridgeport’s Harding High School students in planning, preparing, and catering a reception for music teacher Sheena Graham, who is the 2019 Connecticut Teacher of the Year.

are perfectly fine to cook and serve, and I take these to school. Every Monday, it’s a surprise. I show my students what we have to work with, and their challenge is to create meals out of these surprise ingredients.” Sometimes Whole Foods provides prepared foods, such as grilled chicken, or salads with beans and corn, and the students’ challenge is to repurpose those combinations: to use them to create something different. Marshall’s students have three days to come up with and execute a plan. “They look at what we have on Monday and brainstorm ideas for meals that we sell on Wednesdays to our faculty,” says Marshall, adding, “They’re often cooking with ingredients they’ve never encountered or things they’ve never

tried, like spaghetti squash or swordfish. It’s great, because in addition to developing their cooking skills, they’re developing their palates.” MasterChef Junior Marshall teaches her students techniques for working with food— for example, how to cook a steak or supreme an orange, removing the bitter, white pith and membranes— and ways of thinking creatively about what they can do with various ingredients. “Some of my students have experience cooking at home,” she says. “They will see a box of ingredients and run with it. Others need more guidance. There is a wide range in my classes, but in the end, they come up with these great ideas and great dishes, and I let them loose. I like for them to experiment

like a restaurant, with each student taking a different position: salad station, roast station, vegetable station, servers, and so on. “We learn the back of the house and front of the house, all the inner workings, and we take a family-meal approach for cooks, dishwashers, and others— like they do in restaurants—where everyone sits down together for a meal.” Marshall also focuses on international cooking and the foods and preparation methods popular in different countries.

Two Connecticut High Schools Score $1,000 Athletics Grants

Mystic Middle School teacher and Stonington High girls crew coach Bruce Yarnall and Mystic Middle School’s principal, Tim Smith, receive the athletic grant. hand-eye coordination that other sports require. It allows kids who don’t generally like ball sports to compete and be part of a team.” During the fall and spring, approximately 90 Stonington students row. The school provides coaching

Mystic Seaport is very supportive of the Stonington High crew teams and gives the students a place to row out of.

stipends in the spring, as well as transportation to and from regattas, but teams must fundraise to cover many other costs, including gas for coach boats, oars, seats, riggers, stretchers (the shoes rowers put their feet in), repairs to the boats and motors, and rowing shells themselves, which can run more than $40,000.