If you think doing math or language arts was difficult during online learning last year, try a class where you cook and bake for your grade. Students in Pendleton High School’s Food and Travel 3 & 4 class on Wednesday, October 6th were very happy to be in the P-Tech kitchen, in person and learning hands on.

Melissa Smith, PHS Hospitality/Tourism Instructor, said students are enjoying being back in the kitchen, learning and cooking. This PHS program focuses on food and beverage, restaurant management and customer service. These students take this class all year and earn one credit in the CTE program.

PHS Senior Milee Smith said, “It’s a lot nicer to be back here in person. Online learning was not fun and one of the reasons you take a foods class is for the hands-on learning.” Milee’s group was whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen lab.

On this day, the cooking groups were allowed to choose a recipe to make, so another group was making a bacon/egg/potato skillet, which called for lots of knife skills practice. Lucas Myrick, PHS senior, said his skills from the program helped him recently get a job at a Pendleton restaurant.

A third group on Wednesday was creating matcha green tea macarons with white chocolate/buttercream filling. The group of four junior students said the whole class had made macarons last week, but they were just the basic ones and they wanted to try something different. “We figured we have a little experience making them last week, and we wanted to create our own flavors this time.” The results were pretty delicious.