Wearing aprons and holding order pads, students from Leo A. Palmiter Jr./Sr. High School and Elinor Lincoln Hickey Jr./Sr. High School took lunch orders at their Culinary Café today. The acclaimed Café, re-opening for the 2016–17 school year, served dozens of hungry customers.
Students participating in SCOE's Culinary Arts Program—under the direction of teacher Chef Jeff Zahniser—learn to prepare meals, serve customers, maintain a clean kitchen, and operate a business. They are young people with educational challenges who are learning employability and social skills. Many students who are successful in the Culinary Arts program have been placed in jobs at Sacramento area restaurants.
During this year's invitation-only re-opening, guests were treated to a lunch of grilled pear salad with blue cheese vinaigrette and toasted walnuts, seared salmon with sauce gribiche, smashed potato, summer beans and cherry tomatoes, and a chocolate fountain display with fresh fruit and pound cake. Produce grown by students in an on-campus garden was featured during the lunch and will be a part of the menus this year.
lunch reservations for Thursday seatings. Lunch costs $7 (gratuity not included) and all proceeds go back into the program. Those interested in making reservations should call the Culinary Café at (916) 228-2039.