It is getting late if you’ve not done any food shopping for tomorrow’s holiday meal. But if a trip to the grocery store is on your things-to-do list, you’re in for some good news. You’ll be paying less this year than last for your holiday meal.
According to the American Farm Bureau, an organization that charts year-to-year food costs, that succulent turkey and all the things that will accompany it to the holiday table have fallen by nearly 5 percent from a year ago. And while that may not seem extreme, to Janae Passalaqua, who teaches culinary arts classes at Pueblo East High School, it’s important for her students to know.
While the cooking and creative parts of the class are what get most of the attention, Passalaqua stresses the economics and organization of a kitchen as much as the preparation. “We plan out the order and organize how to prepare the meal, how many hours, how many pounds of potatoes,” and most importantly, “what is its cost?” It’s the business side of the class. It’s also important—essential, in fact—if any of her charges pursue a path in the food world. “We go through all of it.”
Because Passalaqua’s culinary arts classes have moved to a new school and new kitchen—the new Pueblo East opened this school year—she, like her students, are learning their way around. They’re also learning a little kitchen ‘improvisation.’
Her classroom lacks a restaurant-sized oven. Somehow in the planning or because of budgetary restrictions, the oven was not included in the final plan. But Passalaqua’s OK. The oven can wait. When it arrives, her class will be cooking!
Without the oven Passalaqua had been expecting, the focus is on side dishes and desserts. “We talk about pies, pumpkin and pecan,” and how to get around kitch- en limitations. In this case, Plan ‘B’ is as close as the ‘other’ oven. “We just pop it in the microwave for ninety seconds.” A little garnish of whip cream and cinnamon and there’s dessert!
“We could turn out a turkey day lunch for teachers and it would have everything,” said the Pueblo native and businesswoman. “We can even make our own cran- berry sauce.” Passalaqua’s guesses that her students “could do a whole Thanksgiving Day meal for 75-100 people with no issues.”
Passalaqua’s culinary arts program has been a shining light with her students, winning over not only regular diners in the Gold Feather, the student restaurant, or in the school’s cafeteria when more space is needed. To date, all the reviews have been good and the program has won awards in both statewide and national competitions.
“Last year I had the pleasure of taking nine girls to the national conference in Denver,” she said. “I had two groups who placed in the top ten and another group that placed in the top twenty.” One group planned “a whole event from beginning to end and a second set did a promotion.”
While Passalaqua’s students learn about food and its preparation, they also learn about another important side of cooking that they’ll need whether they choose a life in a kitchen or simply cook at home. “Low food waste,” is regularly stressed, she said. Passalaqua doesn’t like to see either perfectly good food wasted, nor unfit or expired food saved. “We collect food wastes,” as part of the class. Much of what might have simply been discarded is, instead, “given to teachers who have their own chickens.”
Passalaqua’s teaching method is a full circle approach. Students learn not only the minutiae of the kitchen—the soup to nuts—but also nutrition, economics of a meal, aesthetics of a table setting and more.
“They leave my class knowing that food is never going away, and that the industry will not ever be taken over by robots. There are just so many avenues that you can go, and they end up learning about them in a number of ways.”
From time to time, Passalaqua also weaves into her lessons a few of the tricks of the trade she’s mastered in her years of running her own business. A Little Bite of Heaven, a gourmet bakery located in the city historic train depot, is a family business.
Incidentally, for those without the benefit of Passalaqua’s tutelage, the American Farm Bureau says this year’s Thanksgiving meal for ten guests will cost just over $61, about $6.20 per person.
