So much creativity can start from just a kitchen. A recipe can contain an endless amount of spices and ingredients all coming together and being used to make a perfect meal of any course. From experience levels of beginner to advanced, culinary is the class to go to expand students learning on cooking. 

Elizabeth Martinez, the chef for Shadow Ridges’ culinary classroom, uses multiple techniques and recipes that are used in the kitchen.

“We teach everything in my class from basic foundational skills, basic knife skills, learning about stocks, sauces, and nutrition. We also look at American regional cuisine and cuisines across cultures. We’re lucky enough to be able to make a variety of foods from different parts of the world, regions across the United States, nutritional cooking and classical French cuisine techniques.”

Students are put in groups into their own kitchen out of the 7 that are in the classroom, where they learn together and cooperate to put the dish together as a team. This helps students who are going into the cooking industry, that they are required to work together in a fast paced environment, along with a lot of pressure. Doing this helps the students engage in quick communication and work, which will get the job done much faster. 

“The benefit of being in my class is not just to get someone ready to work in industry at an entry-level position. It’s also for those who don’t want to go into industry to learn how to fend for themselves and be independent in the kitchen,” Chef Martinez says.

There is no such thing as a culinary classroom with no kitchen utensils. Chef Martinez lays out a vast variety and amount of tools and appliances labeled with numbers that are often used in the kitchen. Students are given a paper that is numbered by the amount of appliances and tools that are laid out. Within a certain time frame, students are required to label the kitchen utensils as accurately as they can, or they can skip some if they have no idea. As time runs out, Chef Martinez requires all students to listen closely as she goes down the list of correct answers, this routine goes the same way with guessing as accurately as possible with ingredients as well. 

Learning how to work in the kitchen is a vital thing to learn, it’s important to know the proper ways of using kitchen tools and appliances. But not only is it for students to learn to cook for themselves, but their family, as well creating recipes of their own, and carrying it down for years to come.