GWINNETT COUNTY — Berkmar High School in Lilburn is earning some accolades. The school’s culinary program recently competed in the NASA Hunch Culinary Challenge. The challenge requires students to create a meal that will be presented to astronauts working on the International Space Station.
“The students had to learn about the space conditions astronauts face,” says Culinary Instructor Preston Gouge, “and the amount of nutrients it takes to keep their bodies going.”
Berkmar’s team of 4 exceptional chefs won their regional competition, earning students a trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to present their dish: Solar Flare Tinga Tacos.
“When we first were arriving we saw the spaceship from a mile away,” shares Nina Galindo, a senior at Berkmar. “And we were all really excited, it was something really cool to see and it’s not something you see everyday.”
Our Family 2 Family partner, Delta Community Credit Union, wanted to honor these students with a donation, to help them continue to succeed in the culinary program.
Reina Jones explains, “At Delta Community, we are all about innovation and setting young people up for the workforce, not only do we want people to be financially secure and prepared for their futures, we also invest in schools and in students to help prepare them.”
The students are hoping to take the skills they learn into the workforce, as servers, chefs, nutritionists, caterers, or even restaurant owners. A sentiment shared by Chef Gouge.
“These skills would be able to get any student into a restaurant job, most of us wind up in through college. Whether it’s waiting tables, serving, having to cook, they learn all of the essentials skills to learn how to work with people.”
Students tell us, they continue to learn and grow every day.
“Personally for me beside culinary it’s taught me patience and hard work,” says Dareus Dean, a senior, “I’m a very impatient person so it showed me you don’t have to do everything fast just to get the results you want.”
Part of the curriculum is learning how larger kitchens function when it comes to mass production. The students at Berkmar get hands-on opportunities to cater for Gwinnett County and local sporting events. They also can get Serve Safe Certified through the program.
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