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.