Newtown HS Culinary Course Proves Ever Popular

By Susan Coney

With Newtown High School’s continued population growth, popular courses such as the culinary arts program are progressively more difficult to get into.

For the 189 students who signed up to take the introductory course, only 80 slots were available. The culinary arts course is one of the most popular classes the high school offers. Fortunately for culinary instructor Brian Neumeyer, the decision of who gets in the program is left up to the guidance department. As students progress in the program, however, they must apply for the more advanced opportunities, and that is when Mr Neumeyer must choose who will be selected to continue in the program based on class/kitchen performance and an application process.

Currently, 110 students are enrolled in the program at different performance levels.

What makes the program so enticing? A single answer to that question proves to be difficult. Is it the instructor, the love of food, the social aspect of the way in which the class is run, or is it the opportunity to use the class as a stepping stone to a future career? The reasons are as diverse as the students who line up hoping to get into the class. Two facts are evident when observing the students at work in the kitchen: they all love the food preparation and thrive on the camaraderie that comes with it.

Brian Neumeyer has been running the culinary program for the past four years and has coached the boys’ soccer team at the high school for the past eight years. Mr Neumeyer grew up in the food service industry. He received his training from Johnson & Wales University and worked extensively in the food service industry in the Hamptons and New York.

Mr Neumeyer entered the educational side of the food service business six years ago while working in a welfare program entitled Education Training Incorporated where he worked with the state to train and find job placement for people reentering the work place after being incarcerated. “It was a great job that I found very rewarding. I taught a basic food service skills course and then helped place the students in jobs. It was a course mandated by the court so the people enrolled in the class were required to be there,” he said. “I actually have a past student who turned his life around and benefited from the program. He now runs the catering department for the Bridgeport Bluefish at Harbor Yards. He is just one of the many people helped by the program,” Mr Neumeyer said.

Clearly finding that teaching others about the food service industry was a rewarding experience, Mr Neumeyer went on to receive his teaching certification through Central Connecticut State University. Because he had developed a prior professional relationship as the soccer coach at Newtown High School with previous principal Bill Manfredonia, Mr Neumeyer took over as the culinary instructor when the former teacher, Tom Zmuda, left the position to care for his newborn son. “Tom Zmuda did an unbelievable job setting up the program. I think that the program has continued to grow and develop; it is a wonderful program with great students,” said Mr Neumeyer.

A student must be at least a sophomore to enroll in the culinary courses.

In the beginning students are required to take Introduction to Culinary I and II if they wish to advance in the program of study. These are both half-year courses that involve learning about sanitation, food safety, and food-borne diseases. Students must pass specific tests prior to being allowed to work in the kitchen preparing food. Students in the introductory classes learn food preparation and are allowed to eat what they make. Some of those students progress on to the more advanced classes in which the students prepare, serve, and sell food through the Checks business.

As students progress through the program they are subjected to a wide variety of skills, responsibilities, and hands-on experiences that better equip them to pursue work in a related field. Checks, the high school’s culinary business enterprise, plans, prepares, serves, and sells food to the community and is run by the advanced students under the direct supervision of Mr Neumeyer. Some students work in actual food preparation roles such as prep cooks, line cooks, and sous chefs while others work in menu development, purchasing and budget, customer relations, and marketing. It gives the students real life experience and responsibilities, requiring a great deal of time, effort, and commitment on the part of the students.

Mr Neumeyer said that the revenue earned from the Checks enterprise comes back to the culinary department and is used to purchase educational equipment to enhance and update the kitchen, items that are beyond what is allowed in the school district budget.

As part of the enterprise teachers throughout the Newtown system review a menu distributed by Checks and purchase lunches. Checks workers prepare the lunches and students deliver them personally to the schools. “The faculty is one of our main customers and they give us tremendous support. They book us and recommend us for all kinds of events, allowing for all types of experience for the students,” Mr Neumeyer said.

Checks also provides a variety of catering services in the school system as well as in the Newtown community. Checks recently prepared appetizers and desserts for the high school evaluation reception and will provide refreshments for the upcoming College Fair to be held at the high school on October 11. Checks will be involved making more than 600 French pastries to be sold at an upcoming fundraiser to be held at Reed Intermediate School in November. “Making over 600 pastries for a Monday night event means these kids will be in all weekend beforehand preparing food,” Mr Neumeyer emphasized.

What does Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson think of the culinary program? “I love that program! It is really an exemplary program in that students of all types are involved, in its excellence, in what the kids are able to learn and do, and to help kids make transitions to adulthood,” she said.

Mr Neumeyer emphasized that his goals in teaching the culinary class are to give his students an appreciation for food and also to help them realize that if they want to pursue a career in the food service or hospitality industry that they understand it is a nights, weekends, holidays type of work when entered in the real world.

Senior Bridget VanKuren is an apprentice in the program and would like to pursue a career in the hospitality field. She plans to attend the Restaurant School of Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia next fall and work toward a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management. When asked about the culinary program at Newtown High School, Bridget said, “It is so much fun. Brian Neumeyer is an awesome teacher. We all come in here during free periods and before school. We don’t have to, we want to. The hardest part of the program is the introduction I and II classes because you really have to study the book to learn the basics about sanitation and food-borne illnesses.”

Fellow apprentice and senior Katie DeSimone concurred, saying, “We are all here when we don’t have to be. We even come in on weekends for several different kinds of events.” Katie is interested in attending Johnson & Wales to pursue an associate’s degree in culinary and later a bachelor’s in business.

The culinary program continues to grow, develop, and motivate all types of students. It attracts a diverse group of students who work well together in a team effort to produce a finished result.