Culinary Explorers

Our Culinary Explorers program for 2025-2026 finished last week with a competition! Most of the competitors were seniors who competed for our scholarship opportunity. First prize and a full tuition to our culinary program at Jefferson State went to Mr. Jacob Lee of Pelham High School, and the runner-up one semester scholarship to our program went to Ms. Emma Davis of Helena High School! Congratulations, Explorers!!! We enjoyed getting to know you all this past year, and look forward to getting to see you next year, either in the next Explorers program for our underclassmen, or the graduates who will be in our classes!

Photo dump from the Explorers Field trip last month. We would have taken more pictures, but we were having too much fun enjoying the great food and atmosphere at Ross Bridge Resort & Spa!

The Culinary Explorers gathered together in February to learn the art of chicken fabrication with Chef Kenneth Moore. Students had to use advanced knife skills and follow careful sanitation guidelines for this lab. They learned the details of how to properly fabricate a raw chicken, being careful to minimize meat loss, and also how to properly season and cook the meat to achieve maximum flavor and tenderness.

The Culinary Explorers tried our hand at homemade pizzas in January. Voted the most popular class by student's choice, this class is taught by Chef Jason Bierley, who is the head chef for Bistro Provare Smiles were the name of the game, and it looks like it was a great success!

Our Culinary Explorers had a most festive Christmas cookie decorating contest this month. All of the entries were judged and given high remarks, but there were only 3 who could make it to the top. Congratulations to our winners on their creativity and skills!
1st Place: Quinn Garner of Pelham H.S.
2nd Place: Emma Claire Davis of Helena H.S.
3rd Place: Josie Tubbs of Evangel Christian

Our November meeting was great! Students learned the art of soft skills in the workplace from special guest Scott Jones of , and the basics of pastry-making with Chef Rinsky. They had a blast making apple tarts with almond frangipane and puff pastry.

The new Culinary Explorer class of 2025-2026 had our first official meeting last week, learning about the importance of networking, how to use knives properly and safely, and the basics of vegetable cookery. The students had a great time, and added some really great points to the discussion. Special thanks to Mr. David Cohen from The Whole Scoop Ice Cream Shop for teaching us all about Networking in business!