VO-TECH CUISINE A REAL HIT

Wearing a puffy white chef's hat, Sam Jones Jr. checked the dough for dinner rolls. Almost ready for the oven, he decided.

Fresh, homemade rolls are just one item on the menu at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School's mini restaurant.

The restaurant is run and operated by students in the school's culinary arts class taught by Carol Scherer. It is open to the public from 11:20 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays for eight weeks.

"The food is wonderful," said Mary Dorlac, a senior at Notre Dame. "It's all fresh and homemade."

Dorlac prepared a fresh pasta salad for Wednesday while Kevin Hayes, a senior at Central High School, chopped apples and sliced strawberries for the fruit salad.

Students spend 16 weeks of class time preparing to operate a restaurant.

At the beginning of the school year, students learned about recipes, sanitation, kitchen tools and all the other information necessary to run a restaurant.

Around the holidays students did some catering and prepared holiday cookie trays.

The restaurant celebrated a grand re-opening Tuesday. The culinary arts program has historically operated the restaurant each year.

Kristen Jamito, head chef this week, has planned barbecue chicken, baked potato, steamed broccoli and hot rolls for lunch today.

In addition to daily specials, the students offer a fresh salad bar with homemade soup and a burger bar.

"We are learning a lot," said Jamito, after checking the status of Wednesday's green beans.

Some students are working at restaurant jobs as a way to earn money for college. Others are looking at careers in the restaurant business.

Jones, the bakery chef who got rave reviews for the homemade rolls, has aspirations of working as a chef for a cruise ship. After he graduates this spring, Jones plans to attend a culinary course in Alabama, in preparation for a job on a cruise ship.

The skills he is learning in the restaurant will help, he said. "The No. 1 thing is teamwork," Jones said. "And you have to follow instructions."

But the teacher's favorite lesson is teaching high school students to hustle. "You have to stay busy," Jones said. "If you finish your job, you help someone else."

Each week students gather on Monday to plan the week's menu and duties. Students switch jobs, including that of head chef.

The lessons are real, Scherer said, because each day they have customers waiting at the door at 11:20 a.m.

"We have to have a product ready to sell," she said.

Students also make decisions concerning purchases, menus and marketing.

"It's a great program," Scherer said. "And we have rave reviews on the food."