SVHS sophomores John Klingson and Nina Dalley and junior Mackenzie Coleman have been working hard all week to prepare for Friday’s lunch, and spent all morning cooking and giving their meal the finishing touches before their first customers arrived at the Jag Cafe. On the menu was teriyaki chicken on a bed of white rice with an Asian salad and dessert — choice of a strawberry cheesecake or a strawberry creme dessert.

The Jag Cafe is the restaurant hosted by the SVHS culinary arts class periodically throughout the semester. Students learn about different cooking techniques, food safety, meal planning, how to read and modify recipes and how to cook a nutritious and delicious meal.

The morning of the Sept. 23 Jag Cafe lunch, the kitchen-classroom at SVHS was filled with organized chaos — Klingson standing over a stove with several skillets of cooking chicken, Dalley at another stove cooking the teriyaki sauce that would be ladled over the dish and Coleman at yet another stove preparing several pots of rice. The timing of the elements of the dish had to be precise — the students needed to plan on when to cook each part so that it all came together at the same time for serving.

As the first guests arrived, they were greeted and seated and the three culinary arts students took turns serving the plates of food.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Southeast Valley High School students, teachers and community members enjoy a lunch made at the Jag Cafe on Sept. 23.

Once the lunch rush was over and their 40 guests — students, teachers and some community members — had left with happy, full stomachs, it was time for the student chefs to enjoy the fruits of their labor and take a seat for the first time all day.

Each student has their own reasons for taking the class. For Dalley, it’s a step toward her future career.

“I plan on having a cafe someday,” she said.

Last school year, Coleman was in Vogel’s bakery class and enjoyed it, so she wanted to continue learning from Vogel. Klingson said he thought the culinary arts would be a fun challenge.

The Jag Cafe has been a student tradition for many years, Vogel said. She said the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on the restaurant days, but the student still offered carry-out meals. She’s hoping that it’ll pick up more this year.

In addition to culinary skills, Vogel said her goal is to teach the students decision-making skills, communication skills and nutrition — skills they’ll need for the rest of their lives.

When a cheesecake wouldn’t set right on Sept. 23 and the students decided they couldn’t serve it, they worked to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it when there wasn’t time to make a new one. They had to make in-the-moment decisions on adjusting serving sizes to stretch what they had and what to make as an alternative when they eventually ran out of cheesecake and creme desserts.

The Jag Cafe lunch wasn’t just some food plopped on a plate — the students put in the care and effort to make their food look good and appetizing. From the sprinkle of sesame seeds on the entree to the delicate piping of whipped cream on the cheese cake, the student chefs paid attention to every detail.