Roosevelt Culinary Arts

Fall 2021

The work that Roosevelt culinary students have done thus far would be impressive on its own. Given the adversity inherent in this time, it is all the more commendable. Here are some of the highlights:

Great Roosevelt Bake-off (Also the Quarter 1 Final Project)

To finish out quarter 1, all of the students competed in the Great Roosevelt Bake-off. It is a friendly competition in which the each team gets to decide the style, flavor, and overall theme for their cupcakes (Level 1) and layer cakes (Level 2). They are then judged by staff members in the school based on the flavors, textures, presentation, and creativity of their products. It was not easy to pick any winners because they were all AMAZING!

Fried Rice

In a unit on fried rice, we learned that day-old rice is always used so that it doesn’t come out mushy. Each team first chose which style of rice, add-ins, and flavoring they wanted to use. We also learned the important of mise en place in prepping everything ahead of time, as everything fries quickly at high heat. There were delicious combinations of white and brown rice with all sorts of veggies, eggs, and chicken, and with sauces from soy and fish to curry and oyster. It was DELICIOUS!

Tacos

Tacos are such a varied and diverse food. After learning about different types of fillings and salsas, each team spent one day making a fresh tomato pico de gallo or a roasted tomatillo salsa verde. The next day they prepared the fillings, from spiced beef, riced cauliflower, chicken or jackfruit tinga, to marinated pork al pastor. Let’s just say there weren’t very many leftovers!

Food Poems

As a holistic reflection on the meaning of food, students thought about and chose a meaningful memory they had with a particular food. In order to bring that memory to life, they described sensory details relating to the memory. That included the tastes and smells of the food, but also the people present, the sounds in the background, and the feelings associated with it. All of their poems were beautiful tributes to their experience and the people in their lives!

Cookies

In the final week before winter break, we embarked on a cookie baking adventure. We paid careful attention to science involved, especially creaming the butter and sugar before adding in the rest of the ingredients. First up was chocolate chip cookies or snickerdoodles. Then we turned our attention to sugar and gingerbread so that we could do some colorful decorating to take us into the winter break 🙂

Important Chef Report

It isn’t all cooking in class. We also take quizzes on things like food safety and nutrition, and do some writing projects, including this research report on an important Black, Indigenous, or chef of Color. This includes historical examples as well as present day chefs from our own city and around the world. Each student presents their report to the class, and we take notes and ask questions to learn more about the great diversity of culinary talent among us 🙂