More students learning home cooking at school

By WALTER YOST

The current economy has fewer people dining out.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Freshman Brandi Abercrombie was incredulous when her cooking teacher instructed students to bake their cupcakes in a microwave.

But not only did the cupcakes taste fine, the San Juan High School class learned a simple but valuable lesson: It costs less to use a microwave than a gas oven.

Money-saving tips like that have become a more significant part of the home economics curriculum as the economy sours — forcing people to closely scrutinize their day-to-day expenses.

Teachers are discovering that students have a heightened interest in cooking at home.

“When you eat out it costs more. When people are out of work they have to save money,” said Abercrombie, an aspiring chef.

Nationwide, experts say, more people are enrolling in cooking classes, and home-cooked meals are making a comeback.

Top trend

The Food Channel, for instance, predicts that in our downsized economy, home cooking will be the top food trend for 2009.

And they note the renewed popularity of the classic cookbook “Frugal Food.”

Janice DeBenedetti, a consultant on home economics careers and technology with the state Department of Education, said she’s noticed a difference.

“The skills for living we teach have always been important, but when things were going so well people diminished their importance,” she said.

That attitude is changing as discretionary income shrinks, DeBenedetti said.

While a majority of California school districts have classrooms with food preparation equipment, some schools have taken it to the next level — offering culinary arts academies and operating student-run restaurants.

At San Juan High, for example, Sandi Coulter not only teaches classes in food and nutrition, she’s also in charge of the school’s culinary academy and oversees the student-run restaurant, Cafe Thermopylae.

In one of her recent food and nutrition classes students learned to prepare twice-baked potatoes.

With cost savings in mind, students used microwaves, not the classroom gas ovens. Also, Coulter reminded students not to throw away the aluminum foil wrapped around the potatoes.

“We’ve learned not to waste food, like don’t throw away the end of a celery stalk,” said freshman Eric Amado.

Classmate Kandy Silva said she — and her family — are eating out less since she enrolled in Coulter’s class because she learned it’s less expensive and healthier.

“At home, you can fix healthy food that we like,” Silva said.

“Before I came here, we used to only eat out.” Now, it’s only about twice a month.

Silva also has shared her grocery-shopping knowledge with her mother, who works as a caregiver.

“She usually buys name brands. I told her store brands are cheaper. This class is helping not only me but my mom, too.”

Coulter teaches her students how to plan menus, reuse leftovers and recycle.

Smart Shopping 101

Smart grocery shopping is another part of the curriculum. As the United States increasingly imports produce from other countries, Coulter tells her students, consumers end up paying more for the transportation costs and for out-of-season fruits and vegetables.

She advises them to buy less expensive and fresher produce at local farmers markets.

Tanya Wright, a home economics and technology teacher at Pitman High School in Turlock, Calif., teaches her students to be smarter cooks and consumers.

“We cut out coupons. We talk about store brands vs. name brands. We examine recipes and do cost analysis for food made from scratch and compare it with convenience foods and compare the nutritional values of each,” she said.

At Woodland High School, teacher Cristina Morel recently taught her food and nutrition students a lesson about cooking at home vs. eating out.

They prepared enough homemade pizza to feed 95 students. The cost was $65.

How much more, Morel speculated, would it cost to feed that many people at a pizza parlor.

“It brought up a lot of conversation about the profit margins of restaurants,” she said.

Besides trying to save money, teenagers are more interested in home-cooking because of popular cable TV programs, teachers say.

“I watch the Food Network like 24 hours a day,” Silva said. “My friends and I sit and watch it, get hungry, and go into the kitchen to try and imitate it.”