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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2016)
LIFESTYLES Enterprise man in bike ilm fest/3C Llama drama in Colorado/9C WEEKEND, MAY 7-8, 2016 Camping in retro style/10C TAUGHT FROM SCRATCH Staff photo by Kathy Aney A student in Kristin Swaggart’s advanced foods class at Pendleton High School puts chocolate chip cookie dough on a baking sheet. Pendleton’s culinary arts program turns classroom into kitchen under ‘Chef K’ chef or opening a food truck, she didn’t account for Pendleton High School Assistant Principal Troy Jerome. Jerome urged her to apply for the open culinary In Pendleton High School’s Room 207, there is arts position, and after some initial hesitation, she little doubt who the head chef is. Clad in a bright green chef’s coat, culinary arts agreed to sit in on a culinary class to see if she could teacher Kristin Swaggart navigated the controlled work there. She found herself instantly drawn to helping students chaos of her advanced foods class while students attempted to whip up chocolate mousse in the high learn to cook, and through a special career technical education teaching license, was hired for the job. school’s kitchen Wednesday afternoon. Swaggart said she’s focused her class on clas- “Chef K,” a student nickname that’s a carryover from Swaggart’s days as a professional chef, was a sical cooking skills like knife work, lavoring and master of the environment, giving instructions about weighing ingredients. Although she’s happy to foster interest in culinary how to best sweeten mousse while advising a student careers, Swaggart to put his cellphone said her main goal away. in these classes is The results back to give her students up that perception. the cooking skills Students rave about she learned in her how Swaggart irst year of culinary elevated the program school so they can since taking over in cook for themselves 2014 and the culinary and eat right. team is now a nation- Students have ally competitive noticed an improve- group. ment in the culinary Her ease in the program since Swag- kitchen and the class- gart took over. room belies the fact Hunter Brewer that as recently as 15 said he’d always years ago, Swaggart dabbled in cooking had no intention of through online becoming a chef, Staff photo by Kathy Aney videos, but he didn’t much less a teacher. get serious until he After her students started taking classes begin to settle into and joined the culi- their groups, Swag- nary team. gart takes out a large He plans to scrapbook. follow in Swag- Between photos gart’s footsteps of her family and and attend Walla students is a clipping Walla Community from a 2003 East College’s culinary Oregonian with the program using a heading “Medical Wildhorse Resort & Mystery.” Casino program to The story pay for admission. describes how Emily Hearn Swaggart’s son, John, grew up cooking suffered from eczema ile photo with her mother but and anaphylactic Pendleton High School culinary arts teacher EO Kristin shock throughout his Swaggart irst developed a love of cooking when she hadn’t been able infancy. her son Jonathan developed food allergies and she to work in a formal program D o c t o r s started making meals from scratch. Jonathan, now culinary prescribed medi- 15, also likes to cook. The top photo was taken in the until last year when cations and topical culinary arts classroom this week, the bottom photo she moved to Pend- leton. creams to no avail, was taken in 2003 when Jonathan was 2. Hearn said the and it wasn’t until Swaggart and John visited a naturopath that they program has allowed her to advance her skills, and learned the symptoms were being caused by allergic will enroll at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute at reactions to peanuts, dairy, soy, eggs and fruit-sugar Southwest Oregon Community College in Coos Bay. After college, she plans to return to Pendleton and combinations. Swaggart took it upon herself to cook everything open a bakery. Brewer and Hearn are both members of the high her family ate from scratch to avoid her son’s allergies, and his conditions improved. That story school’s competitive culinary team, which requires ends there, but the epilogue forms the foundation of tryouts to join. The team placed well last year at the Family, Swaggart’s current career. While John would grow out of many of his aller- Career and Community Leaders of America compe- gies, Swaggart’s passion for cooking remained. A tition and did even better this year. The girls team took irst place in the state compe- stay-at-home mom at the time, Swaggart’s husband began to encourage her to take up cooking as a career. tition, meaning they’ll represent Oregon in the After her family moved from Pendleton to national competition in San Diego in July. The boys Kennewick, Swaggart took the plunge and enrolled inished fourth. Swaggart said her students’ competitive edge was in Walla Walla Community College’s Wine Country Culinary Institute in 2008. Taking classes conirmed from their attention to detail. “It’s all in the inishing touches, the perfect knife her love for the culinary arts. cuts, the consistency of the sauce,” she said. “I found my bliss,” she said. The culinary program’s prospects look even Upon graduating, Swaggart was hired as the head chef at the John Bookwalter Winery in Richland in brighter next year, when they’ll move to a full-ser- vice commercial kitchen at the Pendleton Trade & 2011. Despite doing what she loved, the 15-hour days at Tech Center. Swaggart said she’s thrilled to be the irst the bistro began to take a toll on her family. After a stint managing nutritional services for the instructor to use the new facilities, where she can Kennewick School District, Swaggart and her family teach students the ine art of service in addition to eventually moved back to Pendleton. When they cooking. ——— built their new house, they included a commercial Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastorego- kitchen. While Swaggart thought about being a personal nian.com or 541-966-0836. By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Pendleton High School culinary arts teacher Kristin Swaggart instructs her class on the day’s assignment — making chocolate mousse. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Culinary arts student Kendall Walker works on chocolate mousse Wednesday in Kristin Swaggart’s class at Pendleton High School. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Culinary students Maverick Beach, Kyle Curtis and Caleb Schmit work together to make a chocolate mousse.
