Student interest in cooking leads Rolling Meadows to expand culinary program

Some students dream of becoming the next “Top Chef,” and the new professional kitchen and new culinary program at Rolling Meadows High School are helping them on their way.

The kitchen opened this fall, and Wednesday was the first day students got the chance to hone their culinary skills in the lab, making more than 450 Oreo truffles for an open house that night.

“I want to be a chef, and this will help so much,” said Brendon Cox, a senior at Elk Grove High School who commutes to Rolling Meadows for the class. Cox said the new kitchen makes waking up an hour earlier for school “totally worth it.”

In response to increased interest in culinary classes, the kitchen and the culinary arts program at Rolling Meadows went through a total makeover this year, said teacher Kimmi Drendel, who helped redesign both aspects.

Drendel said more students were signing up than they had room for in the old program and sometimes two cooking classes were being taught in the same room at the same time.

“With our society now, a lot of kids don’t know much about cooking, but they watch the Food Network and shows like that, so they’re interested to learn,” said Mark Koch, director of career and technical services at Rolling Meadows High School.

Students from Prospect and Elk Grove high schools travel to Rolling Meadows to take culinary classes, while Buffalo Grove High School already had a professional kitchen that Hersey and Wheeling students also use.

Students do not pay any extra fees for the classes.

At the end of the Rolling Meadows program, after taking Culinary Arts I and II, as well as serving 400 hours of internships, students will be ProStart certified, which sets them apart in the industry. ProStart is a nationwide, two-year high school program to train food service professionals. Students can also get 12 hours worth of credit from Harper College.

The internship program will have students work four separate, 100-hour rotations in locations from fast-food to fine dining kitchens. Drendel and the district internship coordinator are setting up partnerships in the community, which will start this fall. Students can be paid for half of the hours done through the internships.

Drendel has had a huge hand in forming the new kitchen and culinary curriculum.

“It’s unbelievable,” Drendel said of the opportunity she got. “I wrote on a white piece of paper what I thought would work, and this is it. Holy cow.”

Drendel said she has been working around the clock since school started, getting ready, unpacking and working on “her baby.” She got to help with everything from the design of the kitchen to picking out the chef jackets students wear while cooking. “I feel so blessed,” she said.

The kitchen features a commercial convection oven, six-burner stove, large sinks and refrigerators, and other stainless steel equipment students may see in a real restaurant.

Senior Haley Junius commutes from Prospect for the culinary class.

“I love to cook. I like being creative with food and learning recipes,” said Junius, who wants to be a consumer science teacher like Drendel after college.

“I always wanted to be a teacher, and when I got into culinary arts it seemed like a good fit,” she said.

Junius and her classmates are expected to dress and act like they are in a professional restaurant as they learn the ins and outs of the business from sanitation to marketing to the science of cooking.

“It’s so hands-on,” Koch said. “They’re experiencing exactly what they’ll see in a real restaurant.”

The students will cook and serve 20 different dishes for the grand opening of the kitchen from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20. The event will be open to school board members, alumni and the young chefs’ parents.

When the class cooks for the public, its members call themselves the Galloping Gourmet, a play on the school mascot the Mustangs, not on the TV show of the same name.

The Galloping Gourmet will host three luncheons for the staff during the school year, working as a fully functioning restaurant. Students will take turns working as servers, chefs and managers, creating the invitation and look of the luncheon — giving them a look at how an entire restaurant staff works together and how to deal with customers.

“Working with the people is almost as scary as working with the food,” Drendel said.

The students are mostly juniors and seniors, and Drendel pretty much leaves them on their own for the cooking.

“I have to trust them not necessarily just as students, but as workers,” Drendel said. “We’re a full team, and I need them to be working as hard as I do.”