HERKIMER — Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES ninth and 10th graders in the READiTEC program recently completed a culinary unit that covered everything from food safety and cooking to developing a restaurant or food truck business plan.

“Our READiTEC students put all of these skills into practice and prepared a pasta and meatballs dinner from scratch,” Herkimer BOCES Supervisor of Equity, Diversity and Curriculum Initiatives Patricia Wilson said. “The spaghetti and meatball dinner was a complete success that everyone enjoyed - including technical education administrators.”

READiTEC, an acronym for Real Experience and Designed Instruction in Technical Education Careers, is a pre-vocational exploratory program for ninth and 10th grade students. It gives students access to all 14 Herkimer BOCES Career and Technical Education programs, the ability to learn trades jobs and the opportunity to then join one of the CTE programs for 11th and 12th grade if they choose.

“READiTEC is a way for students to expand their high school experience and discover if they’re interested in Career and Technical Education programs,” Wilson said. “If students follow the READiTEC and CTE path, when they graduate from high school, they will have the trades knowledge and skills that will allow them to immediately go out and apply for work.”

The recent READiTEC culinary unit was conducted under the guidance of Brandie Reid and Nathan Purinton, who are READiTEC teachers in the BOCES Technical Education program.

Students started with the basics of kitchen safety. They learned about food-borne illnesses, cooking and storing foods at safe temperatures, cleaning and sanitizing in the kitchen, knife skills/safety, converting measurements and how to read and double recipes. They also learned how to make noodles from scratch, how to use the Kitchen Aid noodle press and made bread, marinara and Alfredo sauces and meatballs. 

READiTEC students worked in small groups during the culinary unit. While one group was learning about the application of the culinary arts, the other groups worked on writing a business project. Students in each group had to decide if they wanted to open a restaurant or a food truck and then come up with a full business plan to support their ideas. They were required to do research and put together a presentation of their plan.

“The culinary unit was very successful - and delicious,” Wilson said.