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This is a place built on the efforts and dreams of many teachers and teens, but the casual words of Cyrus Agacalon may best sum up the spirit at work:
Leilehua High students have
the spirit -- for the holiday
and for their training in
the culinary artsBy Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin"I like try chance 'em," he says. "Be a chef, maybe."
Be a chef. Maybe.
Chance 'em.
It's a tentative thought, but it aims high, and that seems to speak to the Culinary Arts Academy at Leilehua High School, a 3-year-old work-in-progress.
For many students on this Wahiawa campus, the fine-dining establishments of Honolulu may as well be on the other side of the world. Cynthia Elia, vocational education coordinator and a Leilehua teacher for 28 years, says a sit-down restaurant for most of them means Zippy's.Their experience with fine dining: "Zero," Elia says.
Their pre-knowledge of cooking: "Some of them, nothing."
But that doesn't stop them from signing on for this rigorous program. And it doesn't stop her from pushing them to master classical cooking techniques. They will learn their basic sauces, she says. They will make creme brulée. They will flambé.
In a few years they will have a full commercial kitchen to work in and they'll be running a formal dining room in the school's old library.
"I'm the Don Quixote of the school," Elia says. "I fight with windmills. I dream impossible dreams."The students sign on as freshmen or sophomores, taking a food science course first. In the second year, they must take two culinary arts classes per day - one lecture, one lab class. They run a bake sale on campus every Friday and sell chili bowls on Wednesdays at lunch. To get their experience in a commercial-size kitchen, they intern for full days at the Schofield Barracks cafeteria.
And they run their own catering business. Two months ago they cooked for the governor at Washington Place (they got to make tiramisu), and this week they're doing breakfast and lunch for an IBM function in town.
The students wear uniforms and punch in and out every day."Sometimes they have to come to school at 4:30 in the morning, or work weekends," says Tammy Nakamura, instructor for the Culinary Arts Academy.
"A lot of time they have to miss classes, but they understand it's their responsibility to keep up."
The Leilehua culinary academy is not the only one of its kind -- Farrington High, for example, has a more established program -- but Leilehua's is somewhat unsung, and that's what brings us out here on a muggy day in October.
We have a holiday coming up: Halloween. We have this cool culinary program in a public school. And we have a major chef -- Alan Wong -- who happens to be a Leilehua graduate, class of '74. (That was long before this culinary arts program was born, but he did take a family-foods class here and fondly remembers learning to make pizza).
All these elements came together in the form of a challenge to the students, to produce Halloween-themed desserts and show Wong what they've learned to do.
Chance 'em.
The result was an impressive array -- and not just of desserts, but also of decorated displays complete with cobwebs, coffins and jack-o'-lanterns. They made chocolate candies in molds, Chinese pretzels in spider shapes, mini-cakes decorated in spider webs. Some ideas were as simple as using Halloween candies to dress up cupcakes, or burying gummy worms in Jell-O. Others were as sophisticated as a Raspberry Decadence cake with the sophisticated garnishes of haute cuisine.Everyone took home a gift from the Star-Bulletin, but three claimed the ultimate prize: the chance to spend a day in the kitchen at Wong's King Street Restaurant.
Wong found the program impressive in its ambition, but in need of support from the outside world, especially after he found out it runs on a food budget of $700 or less per semester. (Thank goodness for donations from the campus farm, part of the school's agriculture program.)
"I want to be involved," he told Elia. "Call me."
Why do the kids sign up? "To be honest," Mary Alombatin says, "because I like to eat."
Some plan culinary careers, hoping to go on to Kapiolani or Leeward Community College. Some just want to learn to cook, finding they pick up other skills along the way.
"We have to cooperate, we have to listen, we have to be very dedicated," Alombatin says. Plus, her knife work has gotten better. "I don't cut my nails anymore."
We'll check out here by revisiting Cyrus Agcalon, the young gentleman who set the tone for this story at the beginning.
He's discovered he especially enjoys baking, to the point of creating his own recipe -- "My 7-Up Cake," he calls it. He bakes a chocolate cake (from a box mix), and while it's cooling he pokes it full of holes using a toothpick. Then he drizzles a quarter-can of 7-Up all over the top, lets it settle in and frosts the cake.
"The first time making it was not that good, but I'm still working on it."
Chance 'em, Cyrus.
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