The alluring smell of spices thrown onto sizzling vegetables flowed out from the classroom of highschool students advancing their culinary skills.
During the Interim Term of 2025, Kinkaid upper school students delved into the art and history of food, exploring worlds brimming with culture and flavor through the five food-focused classes offered to them.
Learning about food was used to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of the world.
“I think the best way to know the world is through the foods, the history of the foods, and why certain countries have different foods and why people maintain those traditions,” said Ms. Christine Cepeda, co-instructor of interim class Sabores Latinos and highschool spanish teacher.
The class Sabores Latinos accomplished this by expanding students’ knowledge of Latin American culture beyond popular Tex-mex and Mexican dishes.
The class Beyond the Plate: How African American Cuisine Transformed America similarly expanded students’ cultural knowledge of food by examining the African cultural roots of today’s American cuisine.
“We want our students to approach everything like they approached the foods and content of this class – with genuine, respectful curiosity,” said Mrs. Erica Baker, co-instructor of interim term class Beyond the Plate: How African American Cuisine Transformed America and upper school director of student life and engagement.
This goal was shared by the other interim term classes. They encouraged their students to be open to new experiences with field trips and by having the students make the dishes themselves.
“Knowing how to cook a good meal is an essential life skill,” said Mr. Jason Johnson, co-instructor of interim term class Cooking 101: Essential Kitchen Skills and highschool science teacher.
Students focused on learning cooking skills that they can use for the rest of their lives in both classes Cooking 101: Essential Kitchen Skills and Global Plates: Cooking through Cultures and History.
“The highlights are always seeing the kids’ skills develop overtime and see their confidence grow and the things they are willing to try in their food,” said Mr. Johnson
Cooking 101: Essential Kitchen Skills makes a point of not only teaching kitchen skills and recipes, but also having the students exercise creativity with freedom over seasonings, and sometimes even the recipes.
“I learned more about my personal spice tastes so that I can better season my food to my personal taste,” said Kendall Adam, a junior and student of Cooking 101: Essential Kitchen Skills.
Students even examined the biology of food in the class What’s in Our Food?, allowing them to decipher information on food labels and have a greater knowledge of nutrition.
“I hope students become more aware of what goes into their food and develop skills to make more informed decisions about their diets, and what’s best for them,” said Ms. Jennifer Shelby, instructor of interim term class What’s in Our Food? and upper school science teacher.
In all five of these classes, students finished interim term with increased confidence and knowledge of the things they eat.
“We hope that when they encounter new experiences that they don’t shy away from them, but rather approach them with an open mind,” said Ms. Cepeda.
