Career and Technical Education Culinary Pathway at Mount Vernon High School gets renewed until 2030

The culinary program through Career and Technical Education (CTE) has been renewed through New York State for another five years, a monumental milestone for the department. Not only has the program been renewed, but through 2030, students have the opportunity to use their culinary credits towards completing English Language Arts graduation requirements due to the literacy embedded in the program.

“The Culinary Program at Mount Vernon High School is just very, very successful,” said CTE Director Brian Simmons. This new approval from New York State has ELA integrated credit; which means not only are the kids learning hands-on skills, how to cook, how to bake, how to bring things from farm to table, they’re actually learning a lot of core academic skills and literacy skills while they're here.”

Mount Vernon’s culinary program is the longest running CTE program, with a variety of additional programs being added beginning in the 2022 - 2023 school year. Currently, there are seven approved pathways including Culinary, Nursing Assistant, Graphic Arts Design, Automotive, Barbering, Cosmetology and Cybersecurity. 

This pathway renewal shows the program's success and sustainability, as it continues to expand and offer more robust opportunities for students during their high school career.

Culinary 2 and 3 students at Mount Vernon High School were slicing and dicing in the kitchen Thursday morning, preparing homemade ratatouille. This French vegetable stew is cooked with tomatoes and summer vegetables, such as eggplant, which were picked right from the school’s garden.

For the lesson, students broke up into groups of four and determined who would be tackling what part of the recipe. After assigning tasks to team members, students made their way into the kitchen to start preparing the dish. Before cooking, Samantha Cohen, culinary teacher, demonstrated the best ways to cut the various vegetables. 

Students then started to create their delectable dishes, as they peeled vegetables and cooked tomato sauce before assembling the dish. To view the recipe students prepared in class, click here! 

Gearing up for today’s lesson, students watched the movie “Ratatouille” in class to learn more about French and culinary culture. Many students were able to take away valuable lessons from the movie, such as the importance of owning their craft. 

“I would say that Remy's understanding of the kitchen is really, really good and helped me focus on how to put the whole meal together and what to put in it,” said Kihana Johnson, a senior at MVHS. 

Superintendent Dr. Demario Strickland and Mr. Simmons were in attendance for today’s lesson, amazed by the students’ passion and skills. 

“Well, let's say culinary isn't my skill set,” said Dr. Strickland. “So the fact that students were actually using chef-like techniques to cook these vegetables to make their sauces, that was very inspiring. Now I feel like I want to go home and chop up some vegetables and chef it up a little bit.”