Field trip educates culinary students

Meredith Comas, Staff Writer

What’s inside the kitchens of Manhattan? On Friday the culinary arts students of Manhattan High found out just that with a field trip inside some of Manhattan’s restaurants and food suppliers.

“[The field trip] was for us to go around and see and tour the different types of kitchens that we could be working in,” senior Austin Gonzales said.

Students took the day off school to visit the kitchens of Hy-Vee, Chick-fil-a, Kansas State University and Carlos O’Kelly’s, giving them a variety of different kitchen types to explore.

While at Hy-Vee, the students learned how the staff set up their kitchen and followed safety procedures. They also learned the importance of fresh food for the customer, and the many safety regulations restaurants must abide to.  

“This all surprised me because I would have thought that everything was frozen and the employees then reheated it, then served the food to the customer’s,” junior Rachel Phillips said, “and I was always concerned about buying food from grocery stores that have dining within them due to food items being out of date. It was great to find out that Hy-Vee cares so much about their customers.”

The different restaurants took students on tours inside the kitchens to allow them to see how kitchens run in a large restaurant, as well as giving them a look at potential, future workplaces.

“I’m going into culinary myself as a profession and I look to own a restaurant and cook in it as well, so looking at all the things that go into a good restaurant work is great,” Gonzalez said.

Among other things, students were also given a glance at the research facilities of KSU. This allowed students to learn further what goes into the culinary arts besides simply cooking and baking. Not only were they allowed to tour the research rooms, but students were also allowed to sample the meats to see which they liked.

“Along with the tour, we got to try beef cuts and choose our favorite and I think everyone in my group loved at the end of the tour when we got a gift that included a brush for meats, other small items to use when cooking meats, along with a dishcloth, “ Phillips said.

In the end, the trip proved a successful outing for the culinary arts students. Giving them a good look at the diverse fields of culinary arts, as well as providing insight to the kitchens of Manhattan, the trip gave students valuable knowledge to students for their future in the culinary arts.