MISD's The DEN: For Lunch?

MONTGOMERY, TX -- Montgomery ISD's Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center, also known as The DEN, is a game changer in the county in regards to providing a quality and avant-garde training environment for students interested in obtaining a skill and possible certification the moment they graduate from high school. The new culinary lab at The DEN is state of the art with actual workstations that provide realistic conditions that students will actually face in real-world restaurant kitchens. The associated full-service diner, the ‘Café at the Den,’ has the look and feel of an actual dining facility that impresses. Customers enter through the front office and pay for a three-course meal; an appetizer, entrée, and dessert, then proceed into the dining area. The price differs for each meal and is set based on the ingredients needed for each serving session. And diners have to remind themselves that food being served does not come from trained chefs with many years of experience, but from high school students; kids just beginning to learn the craft, and in time will learn to impress new supervisors and employers with what they learned in MISDs culinary program.

Chef Dennis Kozak, MISD culinary instructor, has worked with CTE food programs before and does wonders with students looking to get a headstart in the industry with experience while still in high school. Since the opening of The DEN in mid-August, Kozak has been training his classes initially in safety in the kitchen with knife skills, cooking techniques, and everything involved in getting them ready for preparing restaurant quality dishes, and his efforts are paying off. In the past month, with the opening of the Café at the Den, at first to MISD Administration and staff, and now the public, the students have been creating courses for diners that are mouth watering. MCN recently attended one of the first tastings open to the public, and it was incredible to see the students in formal positions as if it were an actual restaurant, attending to their customers.

Each table has a host, and each student trades over the semester the different positions to experience every aspect of what it takes to run a restaurant. For this session, Triston, a senior, was attending several tables. He is a brave young man, a little shy, but performed his job wonderfully, in interacting with customers, making them feel welcomed. And in time Triston will be seasoned in the restaurant game forging his own path forward.

The first item served, a classic Caesar salad, had a great presentation. It was an excellent appetizer, readying diners for the rest of the meal. The croutons were made fresh, and placed last to remain as originally intended, crunchy and delicious. The salad was enjoyed with refreshing conversation of the story over its naming. Not in remembrance of Julius Caesar, but by Italian-American chef, Caesar Cardini, who first served it in Tijuana, Mexico of all places. The salad is purposely a tad under-seasoned allowing the diner to make the final adjustments to the dish for their enjoyment; with the romaine lettuce, the backbone of the salad, being crisp and enjoyable, along with the parmesan cheese and tangy Caesar dressing bringing everything together.

“I’ve enjoyed my time with this class,” said Robert, a senior with the program who prepped the salad. “I also enjoy cooking at home as well.”

The entrée was Chicken Piccata with fettuccine and broccoli, which was incredible and perfectly seasoned. The broccoli was blanched and shocked with julienned carrots allowing for a wonderful presentation that allowed for a tender yet crisp bite, while still allowing for its beautiful color, and maintaining its healthy vitamin C, protein, and fiber intake. The fond and juices from the baked chicken are a great starter to the making of the sauce, which includes the ever present capers, chicken broth, lemon zest, mushrooms, garlic powder, butter, olive oil and heavy cream. The fettuccine and its accompanying sauce were excellent, needing no seasoning adjustment at all, and were heavenly with the chicken in the bite.

“I made the noodles for today’s meal,” said Sean, a senior with the culinary program. “We are taught the traditional way which takes some patience to complete the process.”

The class makes a lot of noodles and has bags of pasta on sale for $5.00 as you leave the diner. All funds collected from sold products are put right back into the program.

The dessert was a lovely cupped Lemon Panna Cotta covered with whipped cream and a lemon slice. The sweet was served with a chocolate covered strawberry, topped with a coating of chocolate powder. It was perfectly creamy, with its tasty sweet and tart filling, that made for a wonderful end to lunch. Again, it’s still hard to believe that the cooks creating these dishes are teens still in high school, and with the setting and conversation, you don’t feel that you are in a learning environment at all.

“The students have worked hard to get to this point,” said Chef Kozak. “And will continue to improve between now and the end of the school year.”

CTE Director and Principal Kristy Starkey, and CTE Coordinator Toni Tennison are very supportive of all aspects of the center, and are not above helping the students cleaning up after a dining session. MISDs CTE program offers a whole new world to the students, a glimpse into life’s realities of a profession even before they graduate from high school. The principal laid out a nice analogy in regards to the differences between the school house and her center.

“I tell the students that the structured classroom is more like a fish bowl,” said Starkey. “While the education gained at the CTE center is more like an aquarium.”

Starkey went on to say that there will eventually be a Point of Sale system installed, along with other small improvements that will make the system run even smoother. Of course, the students themselves cannot be tipped, but the teachers can accept tips that will go back into the system just as pasta sales do.

The café occasionally offers special breakfast events in addition to their luncheons at the diner. Please follow the ‘Montgomery ISD Career and Technical Education’ Facebook page for further announcements, which include offers for free Tire Rotations from the Automotive Students, Cosmetology services, as well as a new ‘Mobile Market Produce Distribution,’ program on the First Tuesday of each month from 5pm till supplies run out. It’s a combined effort between Montgomery ISD’s CTE Center and the Montgomery County Food Bank.

The DEN is located at: 1520 Lone Star Parkway in Montgomery. Phone - (936) 276-5100 to make reservations for the next available lunch, or use the QR code on announcements located on Facebook when the announcement becomes available.

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