Cafe Gourmet: A restaurant where students in a gourmet foods class were able to take orders, cook, and serve their food. Students prepared by testing recipes until they felt their food was ready to be served, and got to practice their people skills and customer service.
“Seeing all the teachers in the environment makes it a little more realistic than just being with your peers,” Maile Lee (10), a gourmet foods student, said.
Teachers and parents came in for all lunch periods to have their orders taken and to be served by the students.
“All students were able to be chefs and then tackled different roles in the restaurant…a hostess, server, sous chef, or general manager,” Jan Sancho, the gourmet foods teacher, said.
Sancho explained how each student switched roles throughout the process in order to gain experience with different skills that can be transferred to a variety of careers.
While the restaurant was only open for one day, it took more than a month to plan, prepare, do trial runs, and redo mistakes. Students made and planned the menus, went grocery shopping, and made posters so their restaurant and the food were perfect for guests.
“I love how organized everyone is… not one detail is missed,” Genner Herman, a parent of a gourmet foods student, said when she explained her experience at the cafe.
Sancho and parents said they could see and appreciate the hard work put together by these students who wanted to be successful during this unit. Students had the restaurant filled every single period.
“It makes me feel so proud to see that the students themselves were doing such an amazing job,” Sancho said. “We had so many great reviews from staff and parents, and we had constant questions of when the next
one will be.”
