Edmond Memorial High School is home to various programs where students can learn skills outside of academics. One of these is the culinary arts program, where students can better their cooking and baking skills in three levels ranging from “beginner” to “advanced.” Anyone can enter the program with zero experience and leave with necessary cooking skills, such as handling knives and making elaborate recipes, all while building confidence in the kitchen.
“The class is focused on teaching students how to cook to industry standards, so they can leave and secure a job in the industry,” culinary arts instructor Kristen Ellis said.
The advanced culinary students have started a new project to help raise funds for their program, called the “Bulldog Bakery.” In this project, groups of students bake treats and sell them to other students. So far, they plan to do it each Friday in the upper commons before school begins for the rest of the year.
In order to keep the student body interested, they have a theme to follow for their treats. For example, for their Sept. 13 sale, they did a “Celebrity Brownie Showdown.” Students baked Gordon Ramsay’s and Rachel Ray’s famous brownie recipes, and the one that sold more was the winner.
“We choose our themes by having a class discussion over what has been recently going on in the media,” junior Zachary Flores said.
Preparation for a sale takes place over the course of four days. Students break down the recipe on Tuesday alongside the cost of ingredients, and prepare the ingredients on Wednesday. They bake on Thursday, and package the goods on Friday right before the sale.
“We try to bake closest to the time that we’ll be selling so the consumer can have the freshest product they can,” Flores said.
Students are all encouraged to try the bakery treats for only $3–although it must be noted they only accept cash as of right now. Their goal is to sell 100 items each sale, so they are extensively advertising the project.
“They’re homemade, and they’re really good,” senior Charissa Lutonsky said. “I wouldn’t sit here and lie, saying they’re good when they’re not. I promise they’ll taste good.”
The Bulldog Bakery is a new project by the advanced culinary program at EMHS to help raise funds for their program. They plan to continue selling fresh-baked goods for the rest of the year,and possibly make this permanent. Culinary students are encouraging all EMHS students to head to the upper commons every other Friday before school starts to enjoy a freshly-baked treat.
Contact Noelia Ocampo Resendiz at [email protected]
