High School Students and Chefs Combine Forces

Local chef Daniel Sauer and a talented team of students want to cook for you. This evening, at 6 p.m., the owner of 7a Local Foods is joining forces with Island Grown Schools and culinary arts students to prepare a locally sourced four-course meal. All proceeds for the public event will benefit the high school’s culinary arts program.

Tonight’s dinner is part of an ongoing series of meals, begun three years ago, that Island Grown Schools and culinary arts director Jack O’Malley designed to teach students to plan, source, and prepare a meal using primarily Island-grown foods. Vineyard chefs, known for their locavorism, are invited into the classroom to discuss their use of local ingredients and offer professional culinary advice. The students and Sauer will then prepare a family-style Italian meal featuring local meat and shellfish.

The aim is that “students learn about what is grown on the Island, and the opportunities and challenges around sourcing local foods, but also to help introduce them to chefs and restaurants that could serve as future places of employment,” Noli Hoye, Island Grown Schools coordinator, said.

In the past, culinary arts students have toured local farms to see how the ingredients are grown and to help with the harvesting. “The students really liked seeing how the food they cook with was grown, and connecting to their ingredients in a new way,” Hoye said

Island Grown Schools and the culinary arts department hope that by connecting with the ingredients, students will cultivate a passion for using locally sourced goods.

“By working with these ingredients themselves, the students can develop an appreciation for the difference in taste in fresh foods grown close to home, and the benefits these foods provide to our community,” Hoye said. Those benefits include: "supporting local family farmers, protecting open farmlands and protecting the Island environment by supporting foods grown without chemicals or shipped far distances.”

Though chefs around the world use local foods, not all are faced with the challenges of sourcing food in New England. The skills needed to enjoy local produce during the winter months include drying, canning and freezing. The chefs who sign on to create a dinner with the students will teach the students these skills, in an effort to expand their connection to the ingredients and their versatility.

Tickets for the dinner are $25 dollars and can be purchased at and.

The meal will be held in the Culinary Arts Department dining room at 6 p.m. All of the proceeds will benefit the culinary arts department.