XENIA — Today, people grabbed lunch at a restaurant run entirely by high school students.
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The Greene Room at the Greene County Career Center is open to the public two days a week.
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The facility has a full-size kitchen, a dining room, a host stand, and a full menu as you’d see inside a typical restaurant.
Executive chef and culinary arts instructor Khalid Hamdy told News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson that on Thursdays and Fridays, they open to the public for lunch and the students run the show.
“They prep it, they cook it, they serve it, and they set it up,” Hamdy said.
It’s a two-year program for juniors and seniors. Hamdy said some people, like Oliver Dumont, go through the program knowing they want to start a culinary career after high school.
“My dad’s a chef, so I learned a lot with him before I got here, but I wanted to extend my outreach by coming here,” Dumont said.
Dumont, a senior, has plans to go to pastry school after graduation.
Then there are students, like Marly Price, who love being in the culinary program for now, but don’t see a future career in it.
“It’s just, it’s a lifelong skill,” Price, a senior, said.
Hamdy told News Center 7 that all students who complete the program have enough culinary skills to go work anywhere.
“I have students working as sous chefs, as restaurant managers,” Hamdy said. “One of my students just opened a bakery, you know, so they do a lot. They can do anything they want after my program because it’s (a) very compact program, very busy.”
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