The 2019-2020 school year has just begun and it already is unlike any other school year due to the changes—big and small—that have taken place around our school campus.
For some students, these changes have been more perceptible and accentuated than for others. This is particularly true for the students in the Entrepreneurship Academy, more specifically, the Culinary Strand, where there has been a new addition to the family.
The new culinary teacher, David Nuñez, has big plans for this year. He just started teaching and he already feels happy to be at Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC).
“I think this school is fantastic. I have siblings that also worked in this school,” said Mr. Nuñez. “I’m lucky because at the end of the day, it’s all about the support system you have. The administration here and the people I’ve met are very supportive of the program and making it better.”
The Culinary Strand teaches students the skills and knowledge necessary to become cooks, bakers, chefs, caterers, event planners, and restaurant managers. Students gain experience by preparing food in a kitchen and bakery and serving it at the MLEC Culinary Arts Cafeteria, “C-Caf.”
Mr. Nuñez hopes to redefine what the culinary program is and help make his students well-rounded people.
“My goal for this year is to really refocus what the culinary program is. I think that making it rigorous academically and also with hands-on experience is going to be a very good balance,” said Mr. Nuñez about his plans.
“I think that people don’t think that culinary arts could be academically rigorous, but if done the right way, you’re looking at a great education that really combines several different subjects,” continued Mr. Nuñez. “They learn a little bit of French, not a crazy amount of French, but our verbiage is a lot in French; they learn how to connect with people; they learn about different cultures. Really, it’s a class that can make a well-rounded person—that’s my ultimate goal for the program.”
By making his class a fun, hands-on experience, Mr. Nuñez hopes to share his knowledge and lead his pupils onto the right path.
“I want to make [my students] good people. It gives them a skillset that a lot of people don’t have. One of my favorite projects that I even did with my seniors last year is taking a pack of ramen and making it into something better than what it is,” said Mr. Nuñez.
Initially, MLEC was scouting Mr. Nuñez’s wife. She later told him about the job offer and he didn’t think much of it, until a month later when he was looking for a job where he could “grow” and remembered the opportunity.
“I was at work once and she actually told the administration here, ‘Oh, maybe my husband is interested’ as a joke because I was in the field and she told me about it one day,” said Nuñez.
“I had already peaked in the level that I was at. I knew in the company that I was at, I wouldn’t go much further higher because they weren’t ready to have regional kitchen managers or anything,” continued Mr. Nuñez. “I knew it was going to be another four or five years before I got a promotion as a possibility. So, I said to myself, ‘If I’m not growing, then what am I doing?’”
His passion for cooking started when he was in middle school. He wanted to eat something different from the meals he ate every day, so he learned how to cook. His love for the kitchen grew from there.
“Realistically speaking, it was forced upon me because, much like a lot of families in Miami, my parents both worked two jobs, so it was either eat the same mac and cheese box powder, the Kraft single ones, or learn how to cook and make something different,” said Mr. Nuñez.
“Initially, I was at a necessity just not to eat cereal, or just the same things over and over again for dinner. So, I would go to the supermarket with my mother and ask ‘Oh, can we buy this?’ and I would roast something. I start off with instant mashed potatoes and then say, ‘Oh, I’m not really liking how these taste’ and developed like that. Sooner or later, it became more passion than it was a necessity,” he explained.
Although he went to school to become a chef, Mr. Nuñez wanted to give back. He recalled enjoying his high school experience in the culinary program and explained that it was the reason he went to culinary school in the first place. He wants to help his students build on their love for the kitchen — just like his teachers did when he was a student.
“I know when I was in high school my culinary program, which is nowhere as big or as expensive as this is here, was the reason I ended up going to culinary school because I enjoyed it,” said Nuñez. “They taught me new things, it wasn’t as intense as this one is in particular, but it was a fairly new program when I went to school and it was something different.”
As a former culinary student, he understands the rigidity of the program — it isn’t easy, and he knows it. This mere fact is what has led him, as a teacher, to see himself in his aspiring students. He has done all the projects, homework, quizzes, tests. He understands.
Although Mr. Nunez didn’t intend on working in the Culinary field, let alone teach students about it, he now works towards bettering the strand as a whole.
Chef Nuñez has only been at MLEC for a few weeks, but the educational road ahead is going to be one that will incalculably impact lives. In the foreground of Mr. Nunez’s future here at MLEC is the passion of culinary students, which he hopes to influence in the fours years he spends with them.
Who knows? Perhaps the next world-famous secret recipe or next Gordom Ramsay is one day going to be right here at MLEC, sitting in Mr. Nuñez’s classroom.
