Teachers were treated to fine dining when culinary arts students presented their annual Holiday Tea on Dec. 11 at Bob Jones High School.

Bob Jones culinary students organized and cooked for the annual Holiday Tea. (Photo contributed)

Culinary instructor Chef Julie Bone said she “had all kinds of kids working from three different classes.” Students with white chef hats are in the hospitality and tourism class (first level). Red hats signify the culinary I (second level) class, and blue hats are culinary arts II (third level) students.

Bone’s students worked all week to prepare for the teachers’ feast. “The students get to put on a large-scale catered event. They design the menu, schedule the kitchen (timing wise) and look up nutritional values,” she said.

Four (student) executive chefs coordinated their classmates’ work. “They were in charge of everything from managing students in the kitchen to making sure the teachers are happy in the dining room,” Bone said.

Principal Robby Parker said the students not only used cooking skills but also “mathematics, statistics, inference to ‘dig out’ data, collaboration, problem solving … it’s very much a cross-curricular lesson.”

The classes also reviewed the history of different food products. They had a science lesson by studying “how carbon dioxide develops in the yeast to make bread,” Bone said. “We completed math conversions and took small recipes to feed 200 people.”

Parker compared the Bob Jones dining room to “a five-star restaurant.” On the tables, one cylindrical ‘tree’ was covered in different varieties of grapes, while another held fresh vegetables, cheese and appetizers. Chafing dishes held hot meats, potato recipes, along with sauces and bread for fondue. Chocolate cupcakes were among the desserts.

“Our dining room is first class,” Parker said. “We have hosted governors and senators. At the tea, we hosted the most important people — our students and teachers at Bob Jones.”

Last summer, two Bob Jones culinary students worked at a private inn in Maine. One student then enrolled in culinary studies at Johnston and Wales University in Rhode Island.