The kitchen at the Eliot Street Cafe gets pretty hot during lunch and itap not just the ovens. Itap the number of people that cranks up the heat with nearly a dozen cooks peeling potatoes and carrots, baking cookies and grilling tri-tip steaks while the wait staff runs in and out collecting orders and dropping off tickets.
In addition to the steak, there is also chai-poached salmon with ramen noodles and grilled bok choy, a caprese burger, a Mexican chopped salad and turkey sliders on the menu for the week. The bustling kitchen is like most other restaurants on any particular day, except for one difference: This cafe is run mostly by high school students.
inside the CEC Middle College of Denver, is in fact the only high school in the state that runs a restaurant open to the public, according to chef Trish Wilson, one of the lead instructors of the program.
The cafe, which opened in 1977, supports the culinary career program, one of several the school offers, and provides a practical application where in this case, students don’t just learn how to cook, they learn how to run a restaurant and get feedback from the public.
“For them to get that immediate feedback is really something. Itap important to learn how to take criticism and to hear that, positive or negative,” head pastry chef Joe Rivera said. Rivera is one of three full-time chefs who work with the students and teach them how to prepare food and serve the customers after working for years in hotel restaurants.
The students can take the culinary career path for up to two years and some come in part-time while attending another school. They also get an opportunity to compete in culinary arts competitions through the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America organization locally and if they win state championships, nationally as well. Winners will take home scholarship money. This year’s . Teams compete in a variety of categories from preparing meals to setting up tables.
“They can go to trade school or culinary school if they have the money to go and that helps a lot,” Wilson said.
CEC culinary students have seen success locally and nationally at competitions, which chef Steven Fling says is a result of the cafe.
“This is definitely more practical, hands-on start-to-finish work,” said Fling, who is also an alum of the program, going as a part-time student before graduating from George Washington High School in 1995. He later went to Johnson and Wales in North Miami before working at restaurants around Denver for a while. Itap his 11th year at CEC.
“It gave me an idea of what I enjoy doing. I liked cooking when I was young and then I found out about this program when I was in eighth grade,” he said.
CEC junior Paloma Martinez Ramos, 17, is in her second year in the culinary program and said she returned this year to compete in the FCCLA competition in hopes of winning some scholarship money.
When starting, she mainly wanted to learn how to bake, but really enjoyed all aspects of preparing food and whether or not she continues in the culinary field, she’s learned valuable skills.
“I think itap awesome. I think a lot of people should look into culinary to gain more experience. A lot of students are spending a lot of money to learn what I’m learning right now,” Martinez Ramos said.
The cafe is open from noon-1:30 Tuesday through Friday, but is closed whenever school is not in session or when the students are in competitions. Fling said the best idea is to call ahead to see if it is open.
Regardless of the hours, Fling thinks the most exciting thing in the kitchen is watching the students grow throughout the year from struggling with measurements to putting together complex dishes by the end of the year.
He said: “Itap kind of exciting to think of where these guys might be 20 years down the road if they were to pursue it.”