Greetings from the Roosevelt kitchen!
The beginning of the school year is always full of such positive energy, and this year is no different. We are all getting settled into our routines – getting to know each other and building community, and of course cooking and eating delicious food 🙂
There have been some exciting changes at Roosevelt Culinary Arts this year. Due to an overwhelm of interest in the class and long waiting list to get in, Roosevelt was able to hire another culinary teacher so that the kitchen is in use all 7 periods of the day. Carlyn Shanley joined us in June and is teaching the first three classes of the day, before scooting off to her other job as catering director for Union Hmong Kitchen. She brings experience as a classroom teacher in language arts as well as many years in the restaurant industry. The students love her and she’s already made a wonderful impact on the program.
Looking ahead, we are planning a community meal with chef Jamal Hashi and Project Success in November. It will be a great opportunity for us all to learn from a leader in the food world and bring together our greater community. Be on the lookout for more details.
We hope that your autumn is a time of bountiful and delicious harvest (in any sense of the word) as we all bask in the beauty that comes with this change in seasons.
Kind regards,
Ben Rengstorf
(he/him/his)
Culinary Arts Teacher
Roosevelt High School
https://rooseveltculinaryarts.org
What We’ve Been Up To
The first week of school, level 1 students made smoothies. We used immersion blenders so that each student could customize them individually. They simply blended them up right in the cup, cleaned the end of the blender, and the next person on their team was able to use it.
We prepared smoothies two days in a row, and on the second day we talked through what went well and what people would change the second time around. One idea that came up often this semester is that adding too much of any ingredient made it hard to fix, so starting off easy with things like protein powder, orange juice, and peanut butter worked better and then adding if it still needed something 🙂
While Level 1 was making smoothies, Level 2 students customized their own plates of nachos that they baked in the oven. Here, learning to balance ingredients was key, as well as waiting to add things like salsa and sour cream until after they came out of the oven.
In the second week of class, both levels combined to prepare the fixins for burritos, which included a West African jollof rice, Cuban black beans, and a corn salsa.
One important break though we had was sprinkling cheese on the tortilla while it is being warmed before adding the fillings, and then searing it shut at the end. The teams also started to get more comfortable in the kitchen and work together as a team, as you can see from some student reflections.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, November 16th – Community Meal at Roosevelt High School
We will be working with local chef Jamal Hashi to prepare an East African meal. All are welcome. Stay tuned for more details!
RECIPE CORNER
We make this corn salsa to go in our burritos, but it is also great on its own with chips or as a side dish. Each team taste tested their salsa and then decided on anything they wanted to add. Some salsa ended up being quite spicy while others were more citrusy.
Wk-02-Recipe_-Corn-Salsa-3CONNECTING TO ROOSEVELT CULINARY ARTS
Volunteers are always welcome. Helping out in the classroom is a great way to create meaningful relationships, learn cooking skills alongside the students, eat delicious food, and have fun! If interested, please email Ben at ben.rengstorf@mpls.k12.mn.us
Providing these opportunities to students at Roosevelt costs over $40,000 each year in ingredients alone. Financial donations are also welcomed as you are able: