Teaching high school kids to cook rewarding for teacher, too
Here's a story problem: If our Cook of the Week, Lauren Wilhelms from Hoffman Estates taught four cooking classes with about 26 kids in each, during both semesters, for nine years, how many students has she taught to cook?* Anyone? Let's suffice it to say — a lot.
Luckily, in the last few years, with the arrival of her own two children, Lauren has been able to ease up on her teaching schedule somewhat at Barrington High School.
“It's not the teaching, it's all the shopping!” she explains. Stocking groceries for five lessons in six kitchens is a whole other math problem, especially with two small children in tow!
Still, Lauren loves what she does.
“It is so fun to see kids walk in barely able to use the microwave and walk out at the end of the semester able to make a meal for themselves. As a teacher you always hope to see that light bulb moment, and I see that often when my students find something they're really good at.” The cooking curriculum at Barrington offers three levels of cooking and a unique, hands-on atmosphere that appeals to many students.
“I was one of those kids who didn't do well on standardized testing,” she says. “I was really drawn to the consumer science classes because they offered real life stuff.” Lauren loves being able to provide the same opportunity to her students — though there are challenges.
“In the first level class the biggest difficulty is figuring out where everyone is. Some kids don't know how to boil water, and others have been cooking with their families for years. In the higher level classes the challenge is that they want to try everything. Time is a big issue — classes are only 49 minutes long, so the biggest struggle is matching their creative imagination with reality!” she laughs.
In their pre-family years, Lauren and her husband enjoyed eating out often and she admits she would come home from cooking all day and not be especially enthused about putting together another meal. Now, however, with two children and the decision to follow a rigorous plan of saving, to rid themselves of student loan debt, the Wilhelms put themselves on a strict budget, which means home-cooked meals.
“We gave up going out to dinner — it was insane how much we were spending!” Now, successfully into the plan for two years, Lauren says it is hard, but totally doable.
“I've had to get really creative to keep our meals interesting and on our budget. This is something the average American struggles with, but it can be done.” The key, according to Lauren is planning.
“Being a teacher helps me — I'm used to planning meals and I'm very familiar with how much things cost.” The Wilhelms invested in a deep freezer which helps them take advantage of sales and to buy in bulk once a month. On Sundays, Lauren sits down to plan two weeks of meals and the Wilhelms shop for fresh staples once every two weeks, which means that second week's meals often use frozen vegetables.
“We stay away from processed stuff, but sometimes we'll buy the occasional Goldfish or Oreos.” A usual meal at the Wilhelms' is some sort of roasted vegetable, a salad and in the teacher's terminology, a protein.
“My husband loves to grill and I do love to try new recipes. Sometimes they're keepers, and sometimes not so much! Even though I teach cooking, I still make bad recipes and I still burn stuff! My students think I make fancy food all the time, but I usually don't have time for that. My cooking style is very much how fast I can put something on the table!” Lauren enjoys cooking chilies, serving soups with Panini sandwiches and putting together casseroles. She shares a favorite family casserole recipe with us today. When her children were babies she made all their baby food and now that the children are older they eat whatever their parents are having for dinner.
“My son eats everything — he's had sushi and enjoyed it. That's a credit to my parents; that's how I was raised. There's a vast amount of delicious food out there and all they asked was that we try something once. My son even tried alligator while in Florida!” (“It tastes like chicken!”)
The third level students in Lauren's classes delve into some international cuisine they have never had before.
“They'll make something and say, ‘wait, are we going to eat this?'” Yep!
• To suggest someone to be profiled here, send the cook's name, address and phone number to food@dailyherald.com.
*Answer: Nearly 2,000 students!