The Norwalk High School Culinary Arts Classroom is designed to be a fully functional commercial kitchen. The Culinary Arts program will utilize CTEIG funds to expand and enhance the Culinary Arts Pathway at Norwalk High School. The goal is to expand the pathway to include a capstone course, Restaurant Management, and to build a kitchen conducive to teaching, demonstrations, and application of technical skills in the Food Service and Hospitality pathway. The Culinary Arts Pathway will elevate the program to a level that incorporates industry certification, as well as provide opportunities for students to actualize work-based learning experiences via catering school and community events.
The Culinary Arts Classroom consists of flexible teaching spaces and preparation, cooking, baking and Culinary Arts Photography areas for students. The Teaching space is deigned to be the centerpiece of the room not only for teaching but also for fully digital documentation and distribution of the classroom curriculum. The teachers’ space is outfitted with a commercial grade (6) burner oven, as well as hand washing and vegetable sink along with 4K digital camera. The Student areas consist of (2) cooking islands with (4) commercial-grade (6) burner ovens. To support the Student cooking, (2) preparation islands with and hand washing and vegetable sinks are integrated into the work spaces with overhead storage and display. The Baking area is a distinct area that is integrated into the classroom to support unique technical needs of baking in a culinary environment. The Culinary Photography area is a multi-use area to store, display and document the production of work that the students present utilizing contemporary and classic design techniques.