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Welcome to Culinary Arts
This class is intended for juniors and seniors who are interested in all aspects of the restaurant and hospitality industry. We offer a two year program that will expose students to many fun and challenging projects, including our CAFE! That's right, we operate the Career Cafe, where we get real world experience running a restaurant. This allows us to directly apply what we are learning through catering and really fun sales to our own students like cookie sales and candy sales. We also cater luncheons, offer food sales at holidays with special menus, and once each grading period we host a multi-course meal in our own dining room.Who is this class good for? Someone who likes to move, someone who likes to stay active in class, and someone who learns best by doing. We spend most of our time in the kitchen experiencing hands-on learning. We will experiment with recipes and I encourage the kids to suggest changes to the menu and want to see what happens if we just add a little bit of this.....and maybe a little bit of that. Creating food and fun experiences for our customers at the cafe allows the student to really stretch themselves and their personal creativity.In this class, we will work to obtain 3 certifications that will give the student a leg up in the job market and when applying to college level culinary programs. The first is ServSafe. ServSafe Website This certification shows that the student fully understands how to stay safe in the kitchen and how to make sure he or she is serving food that meets very high sanitary standards. The other 2 are Prostart Certifications through the National Restaurant Association. Natl Restaraunt Assoc Website Along with information about the program, the website also provides great study tools to help them achieve the certification. Prostart Certication WebsitePrerequistites:Culinary Management & Hospitality ManagementHOSP 101: Sanitation & First Aid (2 credits), HOSP 102: Basic Food Theory and Skills (3 credits)Advanced Culinary Arts & Hospitality ManagementHOSP 104: Nutrition (3 credits), HOSP 105: Introduction to Baking (3 credits)
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My name is Mary Koselke and I'm very excited to be a teacher at AK Smith Career and Technical Center. I have been in the restaurant and food industry for almost 30 years. I started cooking when I was a child, by the side of both of my grandmothers. They had very different styles of cooking, but each of them instilled in me the importance of food and the importance of the family meal.
I am dedicated to my students and each of their abilities to create interesting and delicious food. I want to help them find their uniqueness in tastes and plating styles.
I received my bachelor's degree from Earlham College and majored in Studio Art. I studied elementary education at Purdue University Northwest and I have an MBA from Purdue University. School has always been important to me and I am so happy to be to share my love of food and education with my students.
I have 3 cats who I ADORE and spend way to much time talking about, and I love knitting.
Feel free to give me a call. I'd love to hear from you.
