Culinary Arts Chicken Salad. Photo courtesy of Senior Aidan Maples

One of San Luis Obispo High School’s most popular electives is culinary arts. In these classes you learn how to handle and prepare food and your way around a kitchen. All three classes are taught by Chef Nathan Jaggers. Expressions interviewed some of the students to find out what food the culinary students are making.

Expressions: What culinary class are you in?

Shopmore Anja Reed: I am in culinary two.

Senior Aidan Maples: I am in culinary arts hospitality management, the capstone culinary class (culinary three for short).

Senior Micah Caffee: I’m in culinary three.

Expressions: What have you cooked this year?

Reed: We have cooked a variety of things from pizza to omelets, as well as a lot of sweets like marshmallows and muffins.

Maples: We’ve gone through several units, so far we’ve made salads, jams, grains, legumes, and chicken. Just recently, my class got to deconstruct a whole chicken, and from there we got to sauté the individual parts. Our group ended up making a delicious homemade canes sauce to go with it as well. I like handling meat. 

Caffee: We’ve cooked legumes, grains, some chicken, sauerkraut, soups, jelly, chutney, and some sweets.

Expressions: What was your favorite thing you cooked this year?

Reed: My favorite thing that I cooked was probably pizza.

Maples: My favorite thing we produced in culinary this year was chicken salad.

Caffee: I think the chicken was probably my favorite.

Expressions: Why was it your favorite?

Reed: It was my favorite because it was cool to try a new dough recipe and different toppings and sauces.

Maples: I had a lot of freedom making this dish, since it was an individual assignment. This meant I could make it taste how I wanted it to taste and arrange it my way.

Caffee: Because we made a really good sauce from the chicken juice.

Expressions: What was the most different thing you cooked or something you wouldn’t have expected?

Reed: The most “different” thing that we cooked was probably the marshmallows because the recipe took a lot of time and effort to get correct.

Maples: Honestly this trimester was pretty straightforward with what we tackled. However, during our salad unit we made salad Niçoise. Truly an unholy dish produced involving canned tuna, sardines, un-crispy potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and “capers”. This salad was stinky. There’s no getting around that but it teaches you an important life lesson as a chef. You’re gonna cook foods you may not like, but as a chef you still have to produce those dishes based on the customer’s request.

Caffee: I definitely wasn’t expecting to cook the legumes or can jelly and chutney.

Overall, Culinary cooks a lot of cool food. Students interested in cooking and food should try out the class. As trimester two begins, students should try to add culinary to their schedule.