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Comet Cafe student’s dinner is their final exam

 

  • Charles City High School seniors Johnathan Oelrich and Acacia White work together in the kitchen preparing food for the Comet Cafe final exam Friday night dinner. Press photo by Thomas Nelson

  • Johnathan Oelrich, senior, works on preparation of the Comet Cafe final exam dinner Friday night. Press photo by Thomas Nelson

  • Charles City High School seniors Priscila Sepulvaeda, Johnathan Oelrich and Acacia White prepare potatoes for the Comet Cafe final exam Friday night dinner. Press photo by Thomas Nelson

  • Charles City High School junior Jodie Sindlinger takes notes for the Comet Cafe Friday night dinner. Press photo by Thomas Nelson

  • Charles City High School senior Kayla Neve carries salads to the kitchen for the Comet Cafe Friday night dinner. Press photo by Thomas Nelson

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Some final exams are different than others, as students in Dene Lundberg’s class at Charles City High School found out Friday.

Students from that class had their final exam in the form of a dinner they put on Friday evening. 

“This is our food production and services class,” Lundberg said. “This is their final exam for the year.”

The students served at least 100 members of the community from 5 to 7 p.m at the Gil & Donna White Charles City FFA Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.

“They picked the menu, they cost the food, they do everything we need to do to have it ready,” Lundberg said about the juniors and seniors who make up the class.

Madelyne Tjaden and Jodie Sindlinger, both juniors, said they took the class because of Lundberg.

“She’s really impacted a lot of my decisions in high school and she’s the one that told me to go out for Comet Cafe because she saw a lot of qualities that I could learn being in the class,” Tjaden said. “That’s what really made me join.”

“Mrs. Lundberg was a big reason for me, too,” Sindlinger said. “I’ve always loved cooking and baking.”

This is an experience few high school students get the chance to do. The exam involved students setting up the meal, preparing and taking care of diners at a restaurant level.

“We’ve learned so many new things,” Tjaden said. “How to communicate with people and how to prepare food correctly, and how professional it is.”

“We get to learn how to be better people, and better employees,” Sindlinger said.

Both Sindlinger and Tjaden are interested in food science and possible exploring it more after high school.

“I’m not really sure what kind of career that looks like yet,” Tjaden said. “But I’m interested to see what’s out there.”

The menu included a choice of beef medallions with a wine and mushroom sauce or salmon Oscar (salmon on a bed of asparagus with a lemon-dill sauce), along with Comet Cafe Signature Salad, wild rice pilaf and asparagus, and for dessert a chocolate raspberry tart.

Sindlinger and Tjaden helped prepare the chocolate raspberry tart that diners got to experience Friday night.

“There are 12 kids in (the kitchen),” Lundberg said. “We’ve been doing this for about 17 years.”

She said people from the community are invited to the final exam meal.

“They make a reservation and come on out and we take care of everything,” Lundberg said.

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