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Students get a taste of their future
Cooking skills can assist them in job market
April 28, 1997
Web posted at: 1:21 p.m. EDT (1721 GMT)
From Correspondent Carolyn O'Neil
CHICAGO (CNN) -- Home economics courses used to teach students how to run a home -- offering tips on cooking, cleaning, shopping and sewing. These days, such courses are often designed to boost job prospects outside the home.
Englewood High School -- in an east side Chicago neighborhood known for its crime -- is taking advantage of growth in the $700 billion-per-year food industry with an innovative program teaching students cooking skills.
"They're going into hospitality, into serving people," says the school's Darlene Austin. "That's the transition that's taking place."
To help bridge the gap between classroom and career, chefs and other cooking professionals volunteer their time, rolling up their sleeves and cooking side-by-side with students.
Chef Monique Hooker helped coordinate a special class on baking apple pies with visiting members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Some of the students, she said, will use the skills they learn for "after school, weekend, (or) summer jobs." Others will take what they learn home.
Even some of those students who profess a distaste for cooking were pleased with the results of the pie baking, and some even added special touches -- like one senior did when she created a '97 in the center for her graduation year.
Principal Tommy Brown said he learned something new too.
"I feel good about it," he said of his own pie. "I think it's really fun, and it's been a great experience for me."
Brown and the students got more than apple pie, though. They learned new skills that can help them see the future, and almost taste it.
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