ABOVE: Fairmont High School senior Jayden Smith frosts a cake in a culinary course at Fairmont High School.

FAIRMONT- Fairmont High School’s culinary program is in the midst of another busy semester. In recent years the program has been completely overhauled to help students develop culinary skills that can be used both personally and professionally.

Jeanne Garbers was hired as the school’s culinary teacher in 2018 and has helped introduce more professional skills into the program.

“When I came to this school five years ago we didn’t have a very intentional culinary program; it was just a snippet of each cooking style and now I feel like we’ve really made this a program (that students) can enjoy. They can take those skills and use them in a profession or a future career,” said Garbers.

Since 2018 Fairmont’s culinary courses have implemented ProStart, a nationally recognized two year development program used in the restaurant industry which helps students develop professional culinary and restaurant management skills.

Currently Garbers is teaching three levels of culinary classes. Culinary I is the program’s introductory course wherein students learn introductory skills such as measuring, equipment use, reading a recipe, knife skills and nutrition. While students in this class spend roughly half their time in the kitchen the remainder is spent in a traditional classroom setting, more so than in any other culinary course.

In Culinary II students focus on techniques related to baking and pastry making such as different forms of mixing, formula conversions and cake decorating. Starting in Culinary II students also begin to assemble a portfolio of foods they’ve prepared which can be used in job applications or education scholarships. In Culinary III students focus on skills and techniques which are more often found in commercial kitchens such as how to make pasta from scratch, working with a wider variety of proteins, and how to plate and garnish food.

While it’s not currently being taught during this semester, Fairmont also offers a fourth culinary course wherein students focus on more commercial techniques such as food service management and applied culinary math. This course also gives students a chance to work in a commercial kitchen and take the National ServSafe exam, a nationally recognized food handling certification.

In each course students start with a simple recipe but go on to make increasingly complex foods, each one teaching skills which can be utilized in subsequent dishes. For example, in Culinary III students make sauces and pastas from scratch before combining these skills when making gourmet ramen.

“I love this job because I can see a student grow from the first day they walk in as a Culinary I student to when they leave. … Seeing a student who maybe doesn’t like sitting and learning using their hands to learn and create is a very cool experience,” said Garbers.

Outside of the classroom students in higher level classes have the option of attending several culinary expos over the course of the semester.

On March 23 Culinary III students attended a culinary expo at South Central College in Mankato. During the trip around 24 students toured the campus and participated in breakout sessions where they could work on specific culinary skills and techniques. They also were able to see presentations from experienced chefs detailing knife skills, knife cuts and pastry decoration.

On April 19 around 20 students will travel to Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall and participate in a cooking competition where they will compete in various culinary areas such as knife skills and menu design which will be judged by panels of experienced chefs from area restaurants. The event will also feature more interactive instructional sessions where students can learn culinary techniques which can’t be found in area schools such as how to prepare Hmong food, spring rolls and farm fresh food.