Culinary classes provide a pathway to food service, hospitality
FORT BRAGG, CA » When Mary Makela, Culinary Arts teacher at Fort Bragg High School, was ready to retire, Amy Valla was prepared to step in. Valla is a college-educated chef and former culinary artist for an acclaimed bed and breakfast inn. “It was destiny,” Valla recalled. “I went home and told my husband what I wanted to do next. I will be eternally grateful to Mary for making it possible for me to teach at Fort Bragg High School,” says Valla, who met Makela while teaching at Mendocino College.
Fort Bragg High School offers course programs in Career Technical Education (CTE) for students interested in either college, employment, or both after graduation. The goal is to provide opportunities for students to acquire hands-on job training and learn the practical and technical sides of specific careers. The outcome is simple — employability. Other CTE courses include sustainable agriculture, agricultural mechanics, and web/social media programming. Valla’s expertise lies in the hospitality industry, and her Culinary Arts classes provide a pathway into food service and hospitality for her students.
Valla runs a two-year program of Introduction To and Advanced Culinary Arts classes. “It’s about getting people industry-ready,” she said. There are cooking days, textbook readings, and projects. She also teaches units about customer service and conducts roleplaying sessions about dissatisfied customers. “I stress communication skills,” she said. “It’s more than just as a chef; it’s in all of life’s facets.” Since students cook in teams, part of their performance evaluation includes how well they get along.
Introduction to Culinary Arts does teach students about the interaction between health and nutrition, but Valla has them cooking in the second week of the class. She begins with baking. Her reasoning is two-fold. Mistakes will be made, and baking ingredients are relatively inexpensive. More importantly, “baking is a science,” said Valla. “Students have to learn how to read a recipe and how to make precise measurements. They have to learn how to be exact.”
Advanced Culinary Arts guides students through what Valla calls “the savory foods.” Meats, vegetables, starches, sauces, and garnishes become the focus over time, leading to a final, challenging project where students are tasked to create a chef’s “signature dish” — a specialty meal that is always available on a quality restaurant’s menu. Students also gain some experience in catering and food sales.”We do a lot of fundraising because we have to,” said Valla. Some of their offerings are seasonal sales of pies, cookies, fudge, dog treats, and frozen
soups in quarts.
This past fall, agricultural students grew strawberries on the campus, and some of the crops went to Valla and her students to use in class. She estimated that her advanced students made enough strawberry jam to last the year. Unfortunately, most of the ingredients Valla uses in her classes are not organic. “Organic produce,” she said, “is above my budget.” She maintains contracts with two local grocery stores and sometimes with a friend who has an organic farm. Valla believes cooking the food you eat is far better than opting for processed foods and tells her students, “It’s okay to eat cookies, but make them yourself.”
Television baking shows have made their mark on her students, and a frequent request is cake decorating. She does remind them that someday they will need to be cooking on their own, “not at home with mom and dad anymore.” This reality triggers questions about cooking on a budget and cooking for yourself. She includes the importance of health and nutrition for families of their own, “way, way down the road.” Valla also trains her students in hygiene and safety procedures, and time in class is directed.
However, she said, “I just want the kids to have fun.” She is proud of their selfdiscipline since “they know when to focus and when they can be looser.”
An example of this balance is the excitement of cooking competitions. Valla has developed longterm friendships with some former students, something she never expected would be part of her experience working as a high school teacher. “It’s surprising and incredible. I didn’t think it would be a component of high school,” she said. Three years of instruction at Mendocino College never led to any “true, lasting friendships,” but now she brings back former students to join the fun as judges for class competitions.
Valla describes herself as very happy at Fort Bragg High School, but unfortunately, “last year online classes were very hard,” she says. The COVID-19 shutdown brought an end to student participation. Valla was a technological beginner, and digitizing her entire curriculum was an immense challenge. Beginning students never cooked. They tuned in live to watch her cook, and they completed textbook assignments online as well. “Not all my students had the resources at home. I didn’t want to put financial pressure on their parents. We had a student living in a tent last year,” she explained. Advanced
students were able to use cooking kits at home that Valla created for them.
Now that school is back to in-person instruction this year, Valla has a full classroom again. Students eat outside as often as possible to take a short break from in-door masking requirements. Her dream is to develop a third-year culinary class, but for now, she takes heart from the high school’s new tradition for graduating seniors who completed any CTE pathway program. The graduates are awarded a special cord worn over their graduation gowns. “They get the recognition they deserve and are just as important as the scholarship winners,” she said. She sees this as an example of why the high school’s administrators “are great people” and is happy to be a part of it all.