Palatine teacher promotes cooking as a career
When Erika Varela was little she owned Erica's Cafe, in the basement of her home, offering imaginative entrees from a fancy menu she typed on an old typewriter.
“I have a lot of IOUs from my relatives,” she laughs, recalling how they played the role of loyal customers.
Later, after years of creating concoctions in the kitchen as her mother modeled basic cooking skills, Erika went off to the University of Illinois. Her first major, business, was a mistake, but Erika soon discovered her niche in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Erika met her husband after college at her first job with Marriott Lincolnshire. It soon became clear to the couple that working long hours in the hospitality industry would not be hospitable to raising a family, so they both went back to school to to get their teaching degrees.
For the past 11 years Erika has been a Family and Consumer Life teacher at Palatine High School and she loves her job. She even manages a real restaurant again, when the foods classes operate the popular cafe to faculty and students twice a quarter. Enrollment in foods classes has doubled since she began teaching.
“It just shows you the attention that food gets all the time now — especially from cooking shows,“ said Erika. The cooking classes appeal to a variety of students, many of whom are interested in making careers of their passion for cooking.
“There might be someone who struggles in their regular classes, but excels here because it is a hands-on activity that has them up and moving.”
So after teaching cooking all day at school, does she still like to cook when she gets home?
“Yes, and no,” she admits. “What it has done for me is made me much more efficient when I cook at home. Often I'll make something at home that I have done five times before, so it goes very smoothly. I've learned to do a lot of prep work ahead of time. For example, if I'm having people over, I boil up the noodles the night before. I've got a lot of short cuts, like (Semi-Homemade chef) Sandra Lee might use.”
One luxury Erika enjoys about cooking at home is being able to complete a recipe in one evening.
“With 50-minute classes it can take two or three days to complete a recipe,” she explains.
At home she also has time for baking decadent desserts like the chewy chocolate brownies she shares with us today in her video.
Erika has an energetic vision for the future of her PHS department. She's working with the Chicago Botanical Garden in Glencoe to establish a Youth Green garden program so students will be able to grow the food they use in the kitchens.
She also would like to see more curriculum development enhancing the school's collaboration with Harper College and she'd like to see more of her students consider college as a post-graduation choice.
As for Erika, she'd like to go back to school and add a culinary degree to her wall. “I love new challenges.”