PORT TOWNSEND — Homegrown salad was displayed in perfect presentation. The scent of chicken and mushroom broth wafted throughout the classroom and the “real” chocolate butter creme cakes atop the checkered tablecloths were works worthy of recording on cameras.
Paul Krabill softly crooned the strains of Buddy Holly’s classic “True Love Ways” in the background.
Taking in the fine cuisine and music were Port Townsend School District board members.
Cooking and serving it up were Port Townsend High School seniors in home economics teacher Martina Haskins’ “Cooking and Beyond” class, taught with Port Townsend Chef Arran Stark and others.
Class’ first year
It is the class’ first year.
“I really enjoyed it,” senior Nick Rich said, slowly stirring mushroom broth over a stove burner.
“I only knew how to make pasta. Now I know how to make a bunch of things.”
The best thing he made, he said, was pesto from scratch.
That was no easy creation, he acknowledged, saying, “It took a lot of time but it was worth it.”
“They are rock stars,” an amped up Chef Stark said of the youths scurrying about, preparing the tables.
Owner of Andina Restaurant, open Friday and Saturday nights at Sweet Laurette’s uptown, Stark added, “They are really doing it today.”
Equally excited was home economics teacher Haskins, who said, “I’ve never invited a school board, so this is a first.”
She explained that “real” chocolate cakes are baked, each with a pound of butter, seven eggs and seven ounces of unsweetened chocolate.
Stark, impressed by the variety of fresh vegetables from the fields, oysters and fish fresh from the sea, wild mushrooms in the woods and other foods available around Jefferson County, sees the need for support staff at restaurants like his, especially during the peak summer months.
Hungry for good food
“You have all this commodity around here. You just need to use it,” he said. “It’s the type of community that’s hungry for good food.”
So why not train youths how kitchens and restaurants produce for the refined palate?
Students who further their education can take the recipes with them and impress their friends, he said.
“This is a one-pan meal, and they can take it to college,” Stark said.
The idea for the class came out of his conversations with local chefs who needed good staffs.
“It’s all about training,” he said, recalling how he learned while living in England that such life skills are taught at a young age.
“It’s a hospitality kind of community and it’s summer jobs when we are busy.”
He talked further with Haskins and the class was, well, cooked up.
A chef for 22 years, Stark said he will propose to the school board a 20-week class for next school year.
Judging from the school board members attending the special luncheon along with Superintendent Tom Opstadt, chances are good.
“It’s so good to see what these young people can do,” school board member Ann Burkart said.
Said school board member Bobby DuBois: “It’s pretty impressive.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
