- May 1, 2024
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Walking into the culinary classroom at Matanzas High School is like walking into a food mecca. Rows of steel-table prep stations stretch across the room, peppered with students accomplishing various tasks: chopping vegetables, frosting cakes, garnishing cupcakes. As you round the corner into a second room, students can be found at the convection oven, deveining shrimp and washing dishes. It’s a full working kitchen, and then some.
My visit to culinary class happened a few too many years late, as I’m convinced if I walked into a setup like that when I was in high school, I might have taken a different career path. But for several students in the class, it is the perfect place to gain experience for their hopeful career launch.
One senior who takes full advantage of the learning experience is Miranda Carattini, who recently placed eighth out of 34 students across the state for creating an edible centerpiece last month, at the ProStart competition.
“I love art and anything that has to do with art, so the idea of combining art and food to me was just so fascinating, I knew I had to do this,” Carattini said, while etching a butterfly into a small watermelon that would be used as part of her centerpiece at the school's steel drum concert.
Carattini, who learned to carve fruit on YouTube, but then elevated the craft in class with teacher Lisa Kittrell, was proud of herself for her top-10 placement in her first culinary competition.
“Some people might be disappointed, but it was my first time going into a competition like this,” she said. “I got nervous, but the fact that I got eighth really means a lot to me.”
Another student who shined at the competition was Mattie Vidor, who received an award and also a ProStart scholarship, which she will put toward her tuition when she joins in the culinary program at Johnson and Wales University next year.
The day I visited the advanced class, students were preparing a variety of items to be sold in their restaurant, The Black Pearl, where teachers can purchase lunch, or where special events can be held.
In the back room, the majority of the class has divvied up tasks associated with a new dish, shrimp stir fry, while the bakers in the class occupied the front room, frosting a double-layer coconut cake, mixing espresso buttercream frosting to top chocolate cupcakes and preparing the batter, for what I’m told is a top pick among Matanzas teachers: Italian rainbow cookies.
With the passion and drive that I saw in that class, I expect great things out of these young chefs.
