Many students sign up for the culinary classes to get snacks throughout the day.

Some however, like senior Lillee Samounty, take these classes to better their life skills.

“For a lot of people, probably, it has helped become more comfortable in the kitchen,” Samounty said. “At least from a cooking standpoint. Obviously being comfortable is good for a college level by yourself but also the basics about cooking to build off of.” 

To get into the culinary classes you have to start with culinary essentials and work your way up.

Culinary teacher Lexie Dill believes everyone should take these classes.

“I think the skills that they learn in this class, whether they go into the profession or not, are skills that you can use every day in life, everyone has to eat,” Dill said. “These are teaching not only physically on the part of learning to cook, but it helps you nutritionally, cost-wise, and there’s just a lot of benefits to be able to cook and learn how to make things from scratch.”

Students who do work in food industries say that these classes have helped them in their jobs.

“It’s taught me a lot when it comes to my job,” junior Lane Murphy said. “It’s also educated me just as far as cooking goes and social skills, as well.”

Watching her students be able to interact without phones is something Dill enjoys about these classes.

“I get to see students talk to each other without cell phones and actually interact,” Dill said. “I’ve seen a lot of really cool relationships being built in here and friendships that probably wouldn’t have been made had they not been in class together, which is a cool part of it.”

Unfortunately, there is one problem that some schools face when it comes to a culinary class — the budget. 

“I wished we worked with fish and actually meat and poultry,” Samounty said. 

The school’s budget has been a difficult factor in the school’s selection of types of foods, including the meat industry like beef, poultry and fish in general. 

“Food is really expensive, and it’s gone up tremendously. So it’s been a little bit stressful this year trying to make sure we’re making good choices with the purchases,” Dill said.

Life skills, current jobs and education are just a few examples of why all high school students should try to attend a culinary class of some sort.

“The biggest takeaway from an academic standpoint — it’s a really good pathway into the PLTW (Project Lead The Way) culinary field,” Samounty said. “Also, you can have that experience to say, especially in fast food, putting that (Culinary classes) on your resume especially if you have your SafeServe certification.”