Cooking at School
Mendocino High School’s Culinary Program
by Phannarai Inkun
Hungry bellies wait patiently outside a classroom’s wide metal doors next to a bright red and white food truck. Ten minutes before the school bell rings, the yoga club finishes their meeting. As they funnel out, the first culinary class of the day funnels in. It is a quick exchange made necessary due to the limited room during renovations on the campus. Immediately, students work to transform the yoga studio back into a culinary classroom. The padded rug is rolled up, the tables are moved back into place, and the kettle is turned on. The most impressive part? This is all happening in the former band room of the Mendocino High School.
When the high school first began its renovations in 2021, the culinary class was forced to move into the band room. Instruments were moved into their cases, metal tables were brought out, and electric burners placed on top. With no oven, one sink, and initially no hot water, the culinary students were forced to work with what they had. No longer able to do larger kitchen-based projects, their new project became running a retro-looking food truck that was donated by Fedele Bauccio of Bon Apetit. It looks like a VW Bus, and two or three of us can fit in there. We sell dishes like Pad Thai or fresh burritos to students and teachers. Sometimes we sell drinks or cookies, and we always sell out.
The culinary classroom is a constantly evolving environment. Eventually, construction will be completed in the new kitchen, featuring more stove tops, a washing station, actual ovens, and more space. More advanced students will be given their own section to complete their projects. Other students interested in the dessert aspect of the program will be given the opportunity to bake and make pastries. And on top of all of that, the food truck outside the culinary room will continue its sales to our community. We students dream of what the future holds, but until then, we have to work with what we have and continue to learn.
Carolen Barrett—our culinary teacher, yoga instructor, and honorary tía—makes the most of the situation. The lockers for instruments and pictures of former band students on the walls make it clear we are not in a normal teaching kitchen, but she has somehow managed the impossible: transforming the space into one where we are able to cook. The culinary class is not merely a room with pots and pans, it is an exchange of skills and experiences.
Carolen was formerly a cook at the Fog City Diner in San Francisco. There, she worked tirelessly until she was about to be promoted to chef. She was a woman in her thirties that was about to receive a very notable promotion. It was a big deal, but something in her changed. Sure, she may have been able to create incredible dishes, but she was not sharing them with the people she loved most. She found that she was no longer happy in the big city environment. She wanted more from her life, the ability to cook and also spend time with her family, to also have time for herself. She says, “Sometimes we think we know our path, but we have to follow our hearts to find what’s right.” So she made the decision to move to the Mendocino Coast. Twenty years later, her children were going into high school. And so that was how we got our Carolen, our Chef.
Monday mornings are spent doing book work and satiating our stomachs and brains. Beginners learn from a textbook from the Culinary Institute of America. More advanced students learn from online modules and more complex books. Around fifty students from various grades and levels of culinary expertise come through our doors to learn. But culinary skills cannot be grasped merely from reading and watching videos. It is done through trial and error, through practical and physical experience.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, Carolen pairs beginners with advanced students. We learn from each other: how to cook, how to clean, how to plate, how to compromise and work together, and even how to run the food truck. We learn the skills needed to not only feed ourselves in our own homes, but others in the culinary world. The class gives students the skills and experience they need to work in commercial kitchens. Future hospitality workers are trained within our walls. The classes are a direct pipeline to careers and jobs within the community through the information learned and the connections made. We are a team, a family, and more.
I have personally always been around and in the culinary classroom. I love any opportunity to eat. Whenever I have a moment between classes on the days we have Culinary, I pop in to see if anyone needs a taste tester or if someone has leftovers they are willing to share. I have been met with nothing but kindness from these people. And this year, it was my first time being on the other side of things. I am taking culinary courses as a beginner, and it has been such a filling experience, in both senses of the meaning.
I did not merely learn from a cookbook. I learned from the experience of my peers. We have made Mexican and Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisine, and each time different classmates put their own culture and experiences into the dishes. Everyone in that class comes from a different background, and they incorporate that into their work. I have been taught how to cook by classmates that have been doing it since they could remember. I cooked alongside people who are just trying to make a meal for themselves for the first time.
Despite being originally from Thailand, I never learned how to cook the food. Cooking was never my strong suit. I always preferred to bake, a process which is precise and clear. Cooking was a whole new territory for me. It involved tasting and changing the dish as you went, feeling out the kinks and fixing it when needed. Baking involves following a set of instructions to the T. Yet I wanted to try my hand at the culinary class because I absolutely love to eat, and if I wanted to do the thing I loved, I had to learn how. Carolen’s culinary program has created an environment where each and every member of that class feels as though they can grow as cooks, not just through the recipe book, but from each other. Our hungry bellies and our thirst for learning are satisfied here.
Photos by Phannarai Inkun
Phannarai Inkun is a senior at Mendocino High School. They can usually be found stuffing their face full of food or spending time with friends (usually eating with them).