This school year, Diamond Bar High School has begun to cook up something new, DBHS Culinary Arts. The most recent addition to the Career Technical Exploration courses, the class covers various cooking methods, food history, and global cuisine.
“I think that people really enjoy the concept of cooking for themselves and learning to make fun foods that they love eating at restaurants at home for their families,” Culinary Arts instructor Marcy Hail said.
Recently, Hail was contacted by ABC7 News, who wished to feature the class on their program. During the feature, ABC News would interview several students and film them cooking a few dishes.
“The day before they came over, we prepped our equipment,” senior Ian Nakama said. “We made sure we had all our things ready, and we looked over basic things and recipes on how to make our stuff.”
In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl game, the class made jalapeño poppers, a popular snack often consumed at Super Bowl watch parties. The class also showed off several cakes they had previously baked for a class competition. In total, the whole process of filming took around three hours.
“It was fun to let all the students know they were going to be on the news and showcasing the cakes they had made a week before,” Hail said. “We actually prepared a few dishes for filming so that they could see the hands-on process of the student in action.”
Hail also picked a few students she thought would interact well with the news crew for them to feature. One of these students was Nakama.
“It was honestly just a normal day and I walked into first period,” Nakama said. “She told us that she would be having ABC News come over and film us and make a little story about us.”
The day after filming, the students of DBHS Culinary saw themselves on television. The segment was met with excitement from both the students and their parents.
“I thought it was kind of cool,” Nakama said. “My parents are really happy that I was on TV so that’s what really matters to me.”
As the students and staff of DBHS Culinary Arts program wrap up a successful first year, they look back in pride at their many accomplishments.
“It’s nerve-racking,” Hail said. “But it’s always really exciting to showcase something you have been working very hard to achieve and see the hard work pay off.”
