PORT ANGELES — Five 25-pound turkeys were roasting in the oven, cranberry sauce was cooling in the walk-in refrigerator, potatoes were waiting to be peeled and pans were being prepped for pie.
It was countdown time Monday for the 47 students in Lincoln High School’s Wildcat Cafe, a major component of the Salish Sea Ecotourism and Hospitality career and technical education program.
They had sold 80 Thanksgiving meals, and all of the elements — bird, cranberries, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie, plus a bonus of a mini loaf of challah and candied Salish salmon — had to be ready to go and assembled by Tuesday so they would be ready for customer pickup starting at 10 a.m. today.
“This is as much as for the kids as it is anything else,” said Angela Roszatycki Tamas, who leads the program. “They now know how to make a Thanksgiving meal for their own families.”
Tamas said she was pleased with the positive response to the $25-per-person heat-and-eat meals. The Wildcat Cafe only advertised the dinners on Facebook; it stopped accepting orders Monday so it wouldn’t be overwhelmed.
The success of the Thanksgiving dinners will contribute to what Tamas said she anticipates to be Wildcat Cafe breaking even by the end of the school year. The cafe opened in March 2024; any profit it makes will go into the school’s ASB fund.
Like food served in the cafe, all of the Thanksgiving dinner fixings were made from scratch. No gravy out of a packet, cranberries out of a can, mashed potatoes out of a pouch or dressing out of a box.
Students learn culinary arts the old-fashioned way: measuring, pouring, peeling, chopping, baking, mixing and mashing.
Lincoln High School senior Tara Coville stirred breadcrumbs, apples, celery and onions seasoned with parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme in a large pan as Tamas slowly ladled into it the fragrant liquid contents of a stockpot loaded with giblets and vegetables that had been simmering on the stove.
For some students, the program is more than a reason to hone their cooking skills — it’s the reason they look forward to school.
Coville, 18, transferred from the district’s online learning program, Seaview Academy, just so she could become involved with Wildcat Cafe.
“I love it. It’s so much fun,” said Coville, who is interested in enrolling in a culinary program.
Senior Azrael Henry, 17, who drizzled melted butter from a large pot into a pan of dressing, said he has always enjoyed working in the kitchen. The program has helped him see a path for a career in it.
“I want to study culinary arts,” Henry said. “I was planning to drop out of school, but this class brought me back.”
Students will have a chance to sit down together and celebrate their hard work with a Thanksgiving dinner of their own before they leave for the holiday, Tamas said.
“They definitely earned it,” she said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
