A unique school within a school in Ventura County is helping to cook up the next generation of chefs and other food service professionals.
Pacifica High School's Culinary Arts Academy is teaching high school students everything from the best use of seasonings to how to prepare for a well-done job interview.
Around 35 students are in a wing of the high school campus in Oxnard.
Part of the huge rectangular room is a series of gleaming stainless steel counters, where students practice food preparation. Next to it is a classroom area, where they conduct academic work related to the culinary program.
"It's a three-year program," said Kristen Collins, Director and Chief Instructor of the academy.
"The students join in the sophomore year, and we keep them until they graduate. It's funded by the state of California. It's a California Partnership Academy, and we take students who may be at-risk or are looking for more of a trade and a skill. Science, history, English, and culinary are all looped together. The students are learning things like the science of why a cake rises. In my class, they're making the cake. And then, in the English class, they're learning about one of the famous pastry chefs who made cakes. It's all linked together."
Today, the focus isn’t on preparing food. It’s about preparing students to get jobs in the food industry. Representatives from the Cheesecake Factory and Urbane Cafe are on hand.
Students are learning how to conduct interviews, prepare resumes, and even basic skills like what to wear during an interview.
One of the coaches, Chris Miller-Root, is a Senior Project Manager/Kitchen Operations with the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain.
"The biggest thing we're trying to get to them is that they understand how important it is that you convey yourself," Miller-Root explained. "You express to people what it is you want to get out of it, and (know) how to take that into your actual interview. You want to convey what it is you are looking for in your position, and communicate the questions you have."
The industry instructors discuss the basics of interviewing with the high schoolers.
"What I'm learning is how to communicate and how to act professionally," said student Esmarelda Arieza.
"Students maybe don't even know how to shake a hand, or to look you in the eye, or what to wear, so were showing them things they can not only take into the restaurant space, but to any industry in general," said Caprice Kindren with the Urbane Cafe restaurant chain. She added that she hopes they’ll soon see some of these students as part of the team in their restaurants.
Pacifica High School senior Antonio Guillen said he’s in the program because he wanted to learn to cook, but not necessarily to become a chef. But he thinks the interviewing skills he’s learning are universal.
"I have a good mindset, and I'm coachable. I'm willing to learn, and willing to adapt," said Guillen.
The Culinary Arts Academy also partners with Wells Fargo Bank, which has employees teach a financial literacy program that covers topics ranging from how checking accounts work to establishing credit.
