Kitchen Lab-Work Plan & Evaluation

This work plan & evaluation will help you and your students with organization, expectations and ensure a smooth/stress-free kitchen lab day that is enjoyable!

-Work Plan for students to complete before a cooking lab.
-Assigned cooking duties
-Assigned cleaning duties
-Lab Rubric for grading
-Teacher approval before entering lab, before groups start cooking, presenting a dish to the teacher and final lab evaluation.

My procedures for kitchen labs (feel free to use what works for you):

Firstly, it takes a couple times for the students to get the routine, but once they do...kitchen labs become smooth, stressful-free and enjoyable! #FoodieFriday (what I call it) is by far my favorite day of the week!

First, I give them the evaluation rubric with the recipe either the day before or right before we go in the kitchen depending how much time the recipe takes. When I cover Work Plans in my curriculum they practice with this rubric so they are familiar with it before we go into the kitchen.

Once they get the recipe & rubric, the head chef will read the recipe aloud to the group. (Head chef changes every week) The Assistant chef will then list ingredients and amounts on the back page and the Line chef will list all equipment. Once the Head chef has assigned job duties (this is for job duties in the recipe and cleaning duties) then they must get an approval and I sign off on them to enter the kitchen. This is the time that I can answer basic questions about the recipe, make sure they have all needed equipment listed and know what ingredients they are working with...and how much!

I have a table in front that ingredients, wash clothes, drying towels and any additional equipment (that may not be in their individual kitchen's) are on. Only the person listed to collect these items is allowed to go get them and once they collect those items, the only person allowed to leave each kitchen is the head chef. Also, the head chef in each group is the only one allowed to ask me questions. This encourages them to support each other, critical think, gives leadership opportunity to the head chef and if they need help I am happy to do so but then I am only answering to 4/5 students instead of 25! This helps my anxiety/stress level a lot!!! lol

Next after they collect their ingredients and equipment they must get approval and signed off to start the cooking process. I go to each kitchen when they are ready to be sure they have the ingredients needed, correct amounts, and equipment needed. I go over the recipe parts again with the head chef and clarify any parts needed. They then can start cooking and have no reason to leave their kitchen! ; )

Next, I have the head chef present a dish to me. I encourage them to show me their best item! I don't eat it, but I may feel it or break it in half to see the texture. I look to see if they followed the recipe and if it turned out how it was suppose to. I may ask them how they did something like "what did you cream in the cookie recipe" or "what utensils did you use to fold in the blueberries", etc. just reinforcing what we have learned.

Lastly, the head chef will tell me when they are ready for their Clean-up inspection or Exit ticket. You can see on my rubric that if a student is horse playing, or leaves the kitchen (at any point) then the whole group loses a point. I have had a student leave the kitchen 2 times in one day and the other group members were HOT, but the rest of the semester they all reminded him each Friday...Do not leave our kitchen! And he did not!

This is how I have organized my kitchen labs, to me it was a huge game changer. Hope it helps you in your classroom & kitchen too!

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Yours Truly FACS