There’s a new restaurant in town run by students who are earning high school and college credit for taking part in the culinary arts program.
Blue Apron held its grand opening Wednesday at the Warsaw Area Career Center, including a ribbon cutting with Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer and Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz.
“Today, (Family and Consumer Science) teachers, currently retired, celebrated the grand opening of the Blue Apron, which has been a dream and a vision come true for over 20 years,” said Sandy Carmichael, FACS teacher. “It’s amazing to see this come to fruition.”
Blue Apron is open 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the WACC. Parking is on the north side of Warsaw Community High School.
High school students learn all the areas of restaurant management.
“They gain knowledge and learn skills for the front and back of the house,” Carmichael said. “It’s a total culinary experience.”
Students in the culinary arts program are in the restaurant for three hours a day. There’s a morning and afternoon group, but they’re all there for fifth period to run the restaurant “so they all get the experience,” she said.
Twenty-two students are in the first level of the program, and three are in the second level.
“Every student rotates through 12 to 15 different stations so they have experience with all the jobs in the front and back of the house,” she continued.
The menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, desserts and drinks. Prices range from $1 for a glass of Coke, to $4 for a sandwich or salad.
Blue Apron’s chef is Theresa Daggett.
“When you look at the menu, there are chef hats by items that are the executive chef items. Those change every two weeks,” Daggett said.
For Wednesday’s grand opening, student Alex Wilkey served as executive chef. He came up with a Mexican theme for the menu.
“I went with a Mexican theme because I had some kids from here take me to San Jose (restaurant on Winona Avenue). I ate there and thought I would bring that style of food here to share with everyone,” Wilkey said.
While the base menu will stay the same each season, the executive chef and other stations will change every two weeks, Daggett said.
Carmichael said, “If a student goes through the whole culinary program and takes the dual credit English, they can complete one semester of associate’s degree from Ivy Tech. So they can take our program in high school and then only have to take three semesters at Ivy Tech.”
Junior Riley Betz was a server for the grand opening.
“I love it,” Betz said of the restaurant. “We’ve come so far, so far. I see it not only as serving people, but also being involved in the community. I look forward to future life experiences.”
WACC Principal Ronna Kawsky said the Blue Apron provides a “resource that combines education with real-world experiences, coupled with the ability to mix that with the community. It’s a triple win. We have student and work-based learning going on while we are able to serve the community. It’s exciting. It’s a lot of hard work.”
“I think it’s neat, it’s cool,” said senior Carley Blakemore.
“I thought it went very well,” Wilkey said of Wednesday’s grand opening. “We were extremely organized. Everything went really well.”
