Many people have taken a cooking class during their high school career, but not many have taken a professional-grade culinary class. ProStart is a culinary class that provides professional experience at the high school level. Senior Matylda Kopacz, sophomore Jackson Peek, and senior Teegan Geinosky share their experiences.

   “You can learn how to run a restaurant, or in our case a food truck. We also learn about sanitation and kitchen math,” Kopacz said.

   Students in the class don’t simply learn about professional cooking, they gain experience they can use right now.

   “At the end of the course, you get your food handler’s permit, which you can use for restaurants and in the real world,” Peek said. 

   This class is good for students who have professional aspirations in the culinary world and want to pursue them in the future.

   “I really wanted to join the class just because I thought it would be fun. I’m also going to culinary school so I thought it would be a great experience for me. I can get dual credit too which is a major plus for me,” Geinosky said.

   This class doesn’t have to be for people with professional aspirations, it can be for those who simply want to cook and learn about food.

   “It’s a really fun class to take to learn about cooking, about other cultures’ food, etc. We even have competitions, like a small ‘Master Chef.’ We had a pizza competition and I won,” Kopacz said. 

   Just like any class, though, the students have to get down to business by learning the practical aspects of cooking.

   “It’s a lot of learning: the kitchen math, weighing out the food, making sure you’ll still make a profit off of what you cook, a lot of little things you have to make sure you have right. We made a lot of profit off our food truck,” Peek said.

   The students used their practical skills through the food truck seen at football games this past fall. The students used the profit from the food truck to fund the class.

   “The school thought it was a good opportunity for us to learn how to make food for a big event, like 200 people or more,” Kopacz said.

   The students cater for more events at the school, like the cultural diversity fest at the end of November. 

   “I liked cooking for the cultural diversity fest because I’m an exchange student, so I cooked something from Poland, so it was nice to show people something not American, Italian, etc.,” Kopacz said.