Wharton's Culinary Department Offers Fine Dining for the Public

Did you know that offers dining for staff members and the public?

I know what you're thinking: Hooray, we can sit in a tiny desk and eat hot dogs off of Styrofoam plates with apple juice.

Not even close!

The culinary department, headed by Chef Edward Bujarski and wife, Lourdes Sarmiento, delivers a fine-dining experience for $7 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays. It is open to the public.

Let's start with the dining room.

There is a host/hostess podium as you walk in and are seated at table with a white cloth. From there, you'll find yourself attended to by culinary arts students. You are quickly brought drinks and your first course, which in last Friday's case, was split pea soup with ham. Bread, butter, rolled silverware and a centerpiece adorn every table.

Wharton High staff members are big fans.

"It's a special treat," said social studies teacher Elizabeth Glover. "It's a high-class, three-course meal that you would never be able to get at a restaurant for seven dollars."

"With teachers not being able to leave campus for lunch, we look forward to this every Friday," said ESE teacher Janine Anton. "The presentation is always nice; they really teach these kids how to do it right."

And that's just the dining room.

When the school was built in 1997, the "classroom" was an industrial tech shop. Bujarski took over the department in 2001 and Sarmiento came on board in 2004. Now the facility is a massive kitchen and restaurant.

"Our facility is reversed from what you'd see in a regular restaurant," said Bujarski. "In a regular restaurant the dining area would be two to three times the size of the kitchen; our kitchen is two or three times the size of our dining room."

The kitchen is run like a kitchen at any other professional restaurant except that this one is staffed entirely by high school kids. There are four different "teams" that students rotate through so they learn all phases of the process.

• Gard Manger: This station prepares the first course, usually a salad, soup or other appetizer.
• Saucier: This station prepares the main course. In last Friday's case it was chicken and dumplings.
• Patissier: Bakes the breads and prepares the desert. In last Friday's case, wild Maine blueberry pie.
• Baking/Pastry: This station keeps seasonal baked goods stocked in the pie case like you would see at a Village Inn.

These all are part of a New England-style menu that the department is learning — this week. The themes change every week and students are exposed to multinational cuisines in the course of a school year. There are four culinary classes: parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Students are encouraged to take two classes together to give them more time in the kitchen.

"Last year we received, stored, processed and served $70,000 worth of food," said Bujarski. "We want to give students a feel for what dealing with that volume of food is like."

The Wharton Culinary Department does not just serve food on campus either. It also caters events all year long. The next gig is for the Family of Christ Charter School, for which students will serve 250 people: 30 different courses at 10 different stations. The department never charges more than $15 per head and all of the profits go right back into the program.

The department caters the Teacher of the Year Awards at the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts with Strawberry Crest, Sickles and Leto high schools' culinary departments and feeds 3,000 people in an hour and a half.

There are three "concepts" that Wharton offers at the school.

• Chez Paul (Paul Wharton): This is the full-service, three-course, Friday meal that is open to the public.
• Bistro: A single-plate meal, designed more to simulate a lunch rush. It is served on Thursdays and is not open to the public.
• Catering: Both on and off campus.

If You Go

Interested in dining at Wharton on a Friday? Contact Lourdes Sarmiento at 813- 631-4710, Ext. 287, for more information or to see what the menu theme is for the upcoming week. Reservations are not required. It is open from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Special note: The Friday meals will not be served until January because of the holiday season.