Culinary Arts

It opened in 1928 with 400 students and 12 career programs. From that modest beginning, Camden County Vocational and Technical Schools have grown to two campuses - one here and another in Gloucester Township - with a combined enrollment of 5,000 and more than 75 programs. The full-service educational system is run by a staff of more than 500. Students who reside in Camden County can enroll at either campus free. This year, the institution is 65 years old. Yesterday, officials threw a party to celebrate.

Looking for a five-star restaurant without five-star prices? The Panther Palate may be ideal. And you just might be surprised by the location: A converted classroom in a high school. At the Burlington County Institute of Technology's Westampton campus, the horticulture students have created an ambience, and the culinary arts students have created menus that would have even some of the area's top chefs salivating. The students handle all tasks - creating the menus, preparing the food, taking orders, serving, and cleaning up. "It's the ultimate working experience," said Anna Cacciatore, lead teacher in the culinary arts program, which has 150 students.

Gene Blum, culinary arts teacher at Bucks County Technical High School, was helping a volunteer tie on her apron while calmly fielding questions about cooking utensils from all corners of the kitchen. In a minute, hundreds of Bucks County Technical students and volunteers would begin the daunting task of making 7,000 pies over a 48-hour stretch for MANNA's Pie in the Sky fund-raiser. "I love challenges," Blum said during the planning stages of the bake-a-thon, which took place last weekend at the high school.

If the Weinstein Brothers were still flush with Disney cash and running Miramax, the documentary Pressure Cooker would have been gobbled up and turned into a sappy feature. It happened with Small Wonders , the nonfiction portrait of a music teacher in hard-pressed Harlem schools: Presto, change-o, Music of the Heart , starring Meryl Streep. So, there's an upside to the cutbacks that have hit Hollywood - and the now-struggling Weinsteins. Audiences can discover the real uplift in a story of high school students inspired to cook - yes, cook - their way to a better future.

Mixing high school academics with the art of cooking is an idea Joe DiGironimo has let simmer for more than five years. As director of the JNA Institute of Culinary Arts in South Philadelphia, he's noticed how rewarded his students feel after preparing a good dish. He had even mulled the possibilities of combining curricular and culinary matters with a teacher he knew. So when the state offered money last year for people to plan publicly funded charter schools, DiGironimo decided it was time to get cooking.

Delaware Valley College in Doylestown and the neighboring Middle Bucks Institute of Technology in Jamison have joined forces to establish the Delaware Valley Culinary Institute. The postsecondary culinary arts program will begin next month. Students can earn a certificate or an associate degree in culinary arts and technology. The courses can be applied to the college's bachelor of science degrees in food service management and in food science and management. "This provides an intermediate step," said Neil Vincent, DelVal's vice president for academic affairs.

Most days, the Cinnaminson High School cafeteria is just another lunchroom, with the same speckled floor tiling and long plastic tables that are familiar to anyone who ever brown-bagged it. But yesterday afternoon, it was almost miraculously transformed. The chipped yellow walls were hidden behind billowy white sheets knotted with pale green napkins. The metal legs of the plastic chairs had been polished and were gleaming. Even those dreaded cafeteria tables had been draped with fine, dark green linen, the kind that would befit the finest restaurant.

Camden's Aaron McCargo Jr. was in the right place last night at a viewing party for Food Network's finale of season four of "The Next Food Network Star. " The right place was Victor's Pub on Camden's waterfront, and McCargo, 37, was announced as the winner. He bested the two other finalists, Lisa Garza of Dallas and Adam Gertler of South Philadelphia. More than 200 friends and family members - including McCargo's wife, Kim, sons Josh, 14, and Justin, 4, and daughter Jordan, 1 -- attended the Camden party.

Catch up with Hai Doan in the pre-dawn darkness and you are likely to find him busy at work at the Vale-Rio Diner. (He can be found there at the dinner hour, too.) Catch up with Doan a little later, about sunrise, and he'll be at the Center for Arts and Technology-Pickering on Charlestown Road, on the northern edge of Schuylkill Township, putting together breakfast for Head Start youngsters. After that, he'll check the day's lunch menu for teachers at the technical school, bake his desserts, set up the teachers' dining room, check on supplies, supervise fellow culinary arts students as they start preparing lunch, wipe down counters, and take his place behind the counter as teachers file into their private cafe for lunch and some peace and quiet.

Caryl Atmajian began sewing as a way to stretch her budget, and discovered a career. She was studying at Philadelphia College of Bible to become an English teacher when she decided home economics was her true love. Atmajian used the memory of that moment to develop Senior Seminar Field Experience, a career-selection course that won her the state level National Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year Award. "I remember I was sewing, and I suddenly said to myself, 'I love this.