New $1.4M kitchen gives students a leg up
Rich Township’s professional facility helps students train to pursue culinary careers
When 16-year-old Malachi Baines randomly woke up at 4 a.m. on a recent weekday, he decided to get an early start in the kitchen — the $1.4 million professional culinary kitchen at his high school.
“He was in by 7 a.m., helping me in the kitchen,” said his teacher, chef Mark Crawford. “He didn’t have to do that, but he’s got that drive.”
Malachi is a junior at Rich Township Fine Arts and Communications Academy in Olympia Fields. On an educational track called ProStart, he’s able to study the culinary industry alongside his classic high school classes.
A career in professional baseball would be cool, but if that doesn’t pan out, Malachi said he is seriously considering a career in the culinary field.
“I’d love to get into the high end of culinary, and open my own restaurant,” he said.
To support students in ProStart, a program of the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation, Rich Township High School District 227 installed the impressive kitchen in time for the 2020 school year. With students stuck at home by pandemic restrictions then, this is the first year the kitchen has seen real use.
The new space sports professional appliances including an oven, grill top, griddle and bakery oven, along with steam tables, refrigeration and plenty of prep space. There’s a new walk-in cooler and freezer, and a storage room.
Prior to its installation, Crawford taught culinary classes for 15 years out of a home economics classroom equipped with not much more than an oven.
Inside the roomy kitchen and adjacent “cafe,” Crawford has space to teach his expansive curriculum. Students in ProStart 1 and 2 learn to cook, including reading and writing recipes, shopping for ingredients, measuring and adjusting, execution and plate display.
“I teach them about putting an event together, setting it up according to proper sanitation standards,” Crawford said. “We have to make sure they understand that (a food event) doesn’t just pop out of nowhere. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of work.”
Crawford stresses the importance of math and numbers in culinary work, with practices of revisiting ingredient measurements, understanding guest counts, and preparing to make a profit. You can make a beautiful pie, Crawford tells them, but you want to make money from that pie.
“Each year, the students come up with a concept restaurant,” he said. “They create a business plan to learn how to launch a business. We go through math, nutrition, equipment, tools, management, communications, and even the
basics of international cooking. They get a really great round of things to learn about this industry.”
During their junior year, ProStart students earn certification in both food safety and food handling, positioning them for opportunities in the industry.
Crawford describes the culinary program as similar to an advanced placement class, preparing students to transition easily into college or directly into a career.
District 227 Superintendent Johnnie Thomas said the ProStart program is one example of curriculum models employed at the Fine Arts and Communications Academy designed to “allow for our students to have choice, postsecondary.”
“If a student decides they want to go into industry, they can go into industry directly,” he said. “If they want to go into college and study the culinary arts, they have the ability to do that. I think this program allows for that true choice for students.”
Crawford also teaches them how to develop entire menus, adjusting for different numbers and needs of guests.
Allowing students to drive the process and helping them to execute their vision gives them a sense of life as a culinary professional, said Bob LaFrance, administrator for the school’s culinary department.
“That was the board’s vision — giving our students a safe place to test out their passion and really put their goals into practice,” LaFrance said. “Chef does a fantastic job of letting the students guide the direction they go from year to year.”
The school will soon debut its food truck, LaFrance said, which is currently being developed collaboratively between culinary students and those in the school’s business incubator.
Crawford said students in the incubator are creating a business plan for the food truck, while culinary students will carry out the physical operation serving food at special events. The chef reminds students, however, that making good food is only part of the equation for culinary success.
“(The program) is giving the kids an opportunity to be creative and envision their life as a restaurateur, being exposed to the business part and the culinary part. We want to teach them how to succeed by using both entities,” Crawford said.
“Our students always hear from me that your passion has to be followed up with math. You’re in business to serve up beautiful food, but you’re really in business with numbers.”