Bruin Bites, also known as Culinary 3-4, is an advanced culinary class offered here at Sam Barlow. The Bruin Bites program was started in 2019 by Culinary teacher, Chef Sam. This year, Chef Sam and the Bruin Bites class are thrilled to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the program.
Like any project, Bruin Bites started as an idea: what if the Culinary program could provide food for staff? This project takes a lot of work from students, as they prepare and distribute a new themed meal every Thursday. A meal includes one entree and a dessert. The time crunch of a class period to cook and distribute the meal takes efficiency and skill from the 25 Bruin Bites chefs.
Chef Sam takes pride in her students’ work, saying, “I’m excited to see what recipes students come up with. They are always so creative and I love seeing them challenge themselves to make new things and improve their skills.”
Thursday, September 19 was the first time a meal was offered to staff this year, with the program starting with a soft open. Meals are free to take pressure off students before giving food to paying customers in the following weeks. The soft open also only includes 12 meals. Once the students get used to making and delivering the food, meals will cost $7, with about 20-25 meals sold to staff per week. Funds raised by Bruin Bites go towards the competitions the Skills USA club competes in.
Each week, Chef Sam picks a theme for the meal, and then the students pick what dishes they will make based on the theme. The theme can be based on a place, like Hawaiian food, or it can be basic like soup and salad. For the soft open, the theme was sandwiches. The theme for the September 26 meal was soup and salad or homemade bread. Half of the class makes the meal, while the other half makes dessert. Each half is further divided into thirds by table group, and each group makes something different. Which piece of the meal each student is on rotates, so each student makes the entree and dessert an equal amount of times.
To get to Culinary 3-4, students must pass both Culinary 1 and 2 and have their food handlers card. To be a manager in their table group, students must have outside experience in the food service. Bruin Bites is an advanced class because it is strongly student-led. Students choose recipes and write menus, then they have to prep, cook, and serve each meal with good customer service.
There are many benefits for students in Bruin Bites. The skills and experience they gain are helpful for any job, especially jobs in the food industry. The focal point of the class is the certified internship with the state, provided by the Bruin Bites program because it is considered workplace learning in the state of Oregon, meaning the class environment closely matches that of a restaurant. Bruin Bites is more than an advanced class; it’s learning through work.
