Photograph by Robert Scheer
Fremont students enrolled in El Cajon Project include (from left) Richard Sayers, Jason LeGore,
Joe E. Hernandez, Bobby Tracy and Daniel Otiz.
By Cristy Shauck
When Betty Ewing, founder and coordinator of El Cajon Project, recited her recipe for a drop-out prevention program to Fremont High School administrators and Michael's Restaurant personnel, Laura Faravelli had a few reservations.
But two months into the project, the banquet manager at Michael's said her concerns haven't materialized. Rather, the new program, which puts at-risk students to work for the family eatery on El Camino Real, is operating smoothly.
"In this business, you can always use an extra pair of hands," Faravelli said. "Their appearance is great; they show up for work clean and neat."
Three students work the morning shift and three work the afternoon shift, each clad in a spiffy chef's uniform and hat to avoid the wrath of head chef Trino Suarez, who oversees their work and assigns their duties.
Suarez is an appropriate role model for students aspiring to be chefs: He was 17 when he started washing dishes and prepping in Michael's kitchen 22 years ago, and he has been a chef there for the last 15. He encourages students to explore the realm of cooking.
"I tell them, 'If you want to learn, you ask me,' " he said. "They're great kids."
According to founder Ewing, students enter the program with different problems affecting their school performance, such as truancy, slight learning disabilities and problems at home. Yet each student leaves the program with a foundation of work experience that will enable him to go further in the food-preparation business.
"They've been offered an opportunity to think about the future," Ewing said. "Without more education, maybe they will be stuck peeling carrots the rest of their lives."
According to Faravelli, students learn about food rotation (first in, first out) for freshness, sanitation, food preparation for sauces and soups.
"They also learn the tabletop: Where the silverware goes, how many forks and spoons to a setting, where the water goes," she said.
Not many adults could properly set a table these days, yet by the time they graduate, students will be able to set up an entire banquet, she added.
Jason LeGore, 17, said he is eager to graduate from chopping mushrooms and washing dishes to making sauces and pastries. "I'm enjoying watching the cooks here and making tasty dishes at home."
LeGore, a junior at Fremont High School, may return next year. "I want to do some advanced work," he said.
Classmate Joe E. Hernandez, 17, keeps mostly to himself, but does his fair share of grunt work. "I wash dishes, peel and clean shrimp, and prepare fillings and whipped cream for pastries. Kids should do this instead of going out and getting into trouble," he said.
Eighteen-year-old Richard Sayers believes he was born to cook. He laughed and joked as he, LeGore and a full-time restaurant employee sort and rinse spinach, then squeeze it dry.
"I've cut up chicken, made sauce and mousse desserts," Sayers boasted.
"We peel buckets and buckets of shrimp," he added cheerfully.
New England seafood is the restaurant's specialty, so it's no wonder that those extra hands spend a lot of time peeling and gutting the critters for omelets, cocktails, soups, salads, scampi, cannelloni, linguine and other pasta dishes.
Francisco Pina, 17, said he had gotten into trouble at school and the program is helping him turn himself around. "It's keeping me in school, and it's fun," he said.
Although the project's initial group consists entirely of boys, Fremont High School project coordinator Karl Sonntag invited both male and female students to participate. No girls accepted the initial offer. However, he believes several are interested in signing up for next year.
Sonntag said the project appears to be helping students turn their lives around.
"If we can find niches in the real world for kids whose needs can't be met here at a comprehensive high school and back it up with training, then I think we're on to something," Sonntag said.
"These guys will be able to leave with valuable training and a certificate," Sonntag continued. "If we can back it up with job placement, which is what we're working on for this summer, we'll be able to get them started in a great career. We're looking into providing scholarships to the Culinary Academy in San Francisco or local community colleges. Other schools in the district are looking at this program."
Budding chef Daniel Otiz, 18, said his experience inspires him to stay in school. While grating lime peel into a bowl, he laughed at a comment made by a female employee cutting up chicken nearby.
"If it wasn't for this program, I'd be a fifth-year senior," Otiz said. "I was truant a lot. But now, when I graduate in June, I could get a scholarship to a culinary school."
Otiz would like to attend one of the nation's top three cooking schools or one in Northern Italy, where he has relatives. Sayers said he dreams of entering the prestigious Culinary Academy in San Francisco, a place he toured last month with fellow El Cajon students.
On April 25, Ewing and the students plan to tour the hospitality-management building at Mission College, which has a food-preparation training program.
Ewing, a chef and former restaurant owner, said she works to inform students about the versatility of the food-preparation business.
"They can go into the nutrition field, school field, even a cruise line. I tell them rich people are always looking for their own perfect chef. And with this industry changing all the time, there are a lot of opportunities," she said.
"They can flip burgers or work for the White House."
Ewing charges Fremont High School $5,000 per year for her services, which include books, uniforms, tests and counseling, and parent visits. "That's not much, when you consider that the school loses $34,000 a year per student who drops out. And it doesn't cover even half of my costs," she said.
Ellen LeGore, Jason's mother, is pleased with the effect the program has had on her son.
"He needed guidance, not the kind you get at school. He was a borderline kid who could have gone either way. He has to show up and do the best job he can. They get lunch and the feeling that they're special. And that helps with self-esteem."
To celebrate their completion of the program, the students will set up and prepare a banquet for their parents and teachers June 5.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 20, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.