It’s challenging enough trying to prepare a meal with more than a dozen other student cooks in your space. Add on professional chefs watching and sampling, and the heat rises, even without the oven.  Lars Mitsuda’s Culinary II students planned and executed a four-course meal in just over an hour during Exam Week last month and did so at a level that the professionals said was “excellent.”

The student chefs prepared a miso gochujang appetizer with Kauai shrimp, tomatoes, cucumber, and octopus. Special education teacher Jackie Kaya caught the octopus herself the previous week and was on hand to taste the dish the students had created with it.

“We braised the tako (octopus),” Mitsuda said, “and that helped it remain tender.” Braising is to cook meat in a liquid for a long period of time.

“I couldn’t even tell it was octopus,” science teacher Alan Cabanting said. He was one of four teacher guests at the counter in F 201.

The students proceeded to serve pepperoni pizza, seared pork tenderloin, and pasta with cream sauce, applying the lessons from the first quarter.  Teams worked at separate food stations, each team preparing one of the dishes. Mitsuda and the visiting chefs provided feedback.

While the appetizer was formed in a mold, the pizza was hand-tossed.

“I use my knuckles to shape the (pizza) dough,” Keanu Paia-Batoto said, demonstrating his technique of holding the disc of dough and folding the edges down and under while rotating it.

The pork and pasta dishes required the most time in front of a hot surface.

At the end of the period, pastry teacher Justine Perkins brought in toasted banana bread with poi anglaise (sauce) for dessert from her room next door. Her students had made the dish earlier in the period and tried to time it to coincide with the entree service, she said. 

Hayley Matson-Mathes, executive director of the Hawaii Culinary Education Foundation, was one of the guest chefs observing and encouraging the students. She said the program connects professionals with culinary educators. 

“We reach out to the chef community (for mentors), and they are very gracious in helping the next generation of chefs and their teachers,” Matson-Mathes said. “We want to show the students what the possibilities are in our industry.”

Mitsuda said Moanalua has been involved with HCEF for the past few years and has worked with a number of professional chefs. 

“The program helps us build connections with professional chefs,” Mistuda said. “They might invite the students to visit their properties, or they might share recipes or techniques that are new to us.”

This year, Moanalua’s mentor chefs hail from the Sheraton Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian Hotel. In the past, chef Kevin Lee from the restaurant PAI demonstrated how to make Portuguese sausage.