Some students may cram for math or history tests. 

But for students in the culinary arts program at Tombstone High School, the hardest test to pass may be the taste test.

Tombstone High opened its remodeled culinary arts lab for classes this semester and students are quickly learning what it takes to work in commercial kitchen by learning how to prepare a wide variety of dishes.

Culinary arts students have just begun to explore the kitchen through baking after completing weeks of rigorous health and sanitation training. They will be baking for the rest of the fall semester and have recently learned how to make quick breads, biscuits and muffins, said Heather Ritchey, who is in charge of the program. 

While it may seem easy, many students are surprised to find that the program involves a lot more than just cooking. Students receive college credit through Cochise Community College for the two-semester long program, which covers a wide range of culinary topics including nutrition, food preparation techniques and the restaurant business. Students must prepare for tests and write term papers just like any other class, Ritchey said.

But unlike regular academic subjects, students are also graded for taste and presentation when they prepare food in the culinary arts lab, Ritchey added. 

“I didn’t think much of cooking really,” said Josh Uchimura, a junior. “I just cooked at my house, threw in whatever was in the cupboards and stuff.”

Like many students in his class, however, Uchimura quickly learned that there was more to cooking than meets the eye. 

“It’s pretty fun actually,” Uchimura said.  “I’ve actually have (learned a lot). The fact that there’s this new facility and lab makes it a whole lot better than last year.”

Now in its third year at Tombstone High, the culinary arts classes have quickly become popular on campus. Classes are at capacity, Ritchey said.

“This is a program that gets a variety of students,” said Robert Devere, Tombstone High School principal. “The student just wanting to go out and get a job—they come out of this program and they’re not going to work at McDonald’s. They’re going to work in your better kitchens or they’re serving in your better restaurants where the pay is considerably higher. The other thing is that the majority of students (in the program) have no interest in the culinary field and are going to college, but they know that with this background they can get a good paying job at the better restaurants while going to college.”

Students in the program have been accepted into Scottsdale Culinary School and the American Culinary Institute, Ritchey said.

The culinary arts club, in its first year, is planning to attend a cooking competition in Scottsdale in April, Ritchey said.

“They just want to learn,” Ritchey added. “I have kids that have never cooked in their lives. Then they go home and they’re like, ‘I made biscuits today. What are we cooking next?”