McHenry High culinary arts students cater event for county leaders

The reviews were raves.

“The baked ziti these young chefs made brought me back to my grandmother’s kitchen eating the best food ever. It’s been 12 years since I’ve had a dish as good as my grandmother’s,” said Lou Leone, Harvard’s city administrator, declaring it “molto bene,” Italian for “very good.”

The meal was served Thursday at the McHenry High School Upper Campus. The chefs were the students in Melanie Kadlec’s Warrior Chef class at the McHenry District 156 school, the culmination of the district’s culinary arts program.

The diners were 40 area leaders, at the school for a Leadership Greater McHenry County event. The program invites community officials, business people and others to learn about the county and public leadership.

Once a month, over 11 months, the year’s leadership class meets somewhere in McHenry County to learn about issues facing its communities and residents.

Thursday’s program at the high school focused on human trafficking, said Marcy Piekos, executive director.

She believes it was Upper Campus Principal Jeff Prickett who suggested the students prepare the meal of salad, two kinds of baked ziti, bread rolls and dessert.

“He was the catalyst to make it happen,” Piekos said.

For the students – all who have taken at least three culinary classes at the school before joining the Warrior Chef class – the event was a chance to learn about menu planning and cooking for larger groups.

Nate Luedtke, one of the class seniors, said helping to prepare the 40-person spread showed him “I was capable of making a large amount of food.”

Preparation started Tuesday, Kadlec said, with the students assembling the baked ziti – one version without meat and one with Italian sausage. On Wednesday, students prepped the salad during their 45-minute class, and at 6:40 a.m. Thursday, some of the seniors came to school early to get started on mixing the dough for homemade dinner rolls. They came out of the oven just minutes before they were rolled into the dining room.

Not all of the students are aiming for a career in the culinary arts, Kadlec said. For many, the class can prepare them for working in restaurants upon graduation – they get food handling certification as part of the curriculum.

Others may decide to go on to McHenry County College or other culinary programs.

That is one thing he’s thinking about after graduation, Luedtke said, noting he has to make up his mind, soon.

It’s also a career path Anastazja Wygrzyn has considered. As someone who did not cook at home and did not know her way around a kitchen, she started in the program as a freshman.

“It is a good skill to have, baking and cooking,” she said, adding that a sweet tooth makes her more likely to bake than cook.

She’s leaning toward interior design as a college degree, but knows that having kitchen experience will probably help her eat better when she leaves home.

“Instant ramen isn’t actually the cheapest thing to eat,” Wygrzyn said.