Hello readers!

The San Dimas High School culinary team is in Baltimore for the National ProStart Invitational this weekend. Did you know BUSD has two culinary programs? One at San Dimas and one at Bonita High School. Both programs are award-winning. How cool is that?

I had the best time visiting the San Dimas team back in April, hanging out in their classroom with instructors Laurie and Nick Brandler. You can feel the energy (and the talent) the minute you walk in. I hope that comes through in the story I wrote for this week.

Staci

San Dimas Culinary Students Turn Pressure into Opportunity on Path to Nationals

“Get a little bit of everything on your spoon.”

That’s the advice San Dimas High School culinary student Alexa Aguilera offered me while I studied a carefully plated appetizer—thin slices of hamachi, tuna and salmon layered with cucumber, jalapeño, and a coconut-based sauce made with jalapeño, cilantro, ginger, and lemon grass. It's topped with tobiko (flying fish eggs) and green apple sorrel. There's also micro-wasabi, charred avocado, fried shallots, ikura, furikake, shichimi, togarashi, cilantro oil, chili oil, and flowers.

It’s the kind of dish that looks too precise to eat. It's so pretty, I told them I didn't want to it eat it (which was totally untrue, I wanted to devour it!).

"Don't worry about destroying it. Dig in," insisted culinary arts instructor Nick Brandler.

For these students, this level of perfection is the result of months of trial, error and persistence.