Cultural Culinary Lessons
Chef Mallow, Independence High School's culinary CTE teacher, makes diversity and cultural exploration a priority in her classes. This is the third year in a row that she has invited guest chef, Edwin Cruz, to visit during Hispanic Heritage Month to teach her students how to make traditional hispanic cuisine. This year, the focus was on tamales!
Throughout the day, each class worked on a different step in this full-day preparation process. From making the masa and filler ingredients, to prepping the banana leaf and corn husk wraps, to finally assembling the tamales for steaming, the students learned about the flavors and variety of this dish alongside the cultural and familial experience from the guest's own history.
Independence is one of several schools that offers a culinary CTE pathway program and teaches its students in a commercial kitchen environment. These high school culinary programs are a far throw from the basics of home economics. Students in this CTE program are learning the foundations of how to thrive in a professional setting!