NORWEGIAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A trade school in Schuylkill County has a restaurant that's open to the public, and culinary arts students cook up the meals for affordable prices.
Spend a few minutes in the kitchen with these culinary arts students at Schuylkill Technology Center and you can sense their passion for creating different dishes.
"They're in charge of their own education, their own future, so they work on learning stuff from books, YouTube videos, and teaching each other along with my demonstrations," said instructor Jim Gurcsik.
Students get to prepare food in a fully equipped kitchen. Better yet, they can dish out their creations in a restaurant inside the school that was built by other students at STC. The restaurant is open to the public five days a week with a full menu at affordable prices.
"We used the carpentry shop, the masonry shop, plumbing, electrical. The students built the restaurant and my students have the opportunity to serve the food, take the orders. They prep and cook all the restaurant food, baked items, and then they do all the sanitation practices, so they get the full cycle which is nice. Every aspect of the restaurant industry," Gurcsik said.
"My mom is a bargain shopper, so she raised me to look for good quality stuff for a cheaper price. So here, you can get all that stuff for a decent price," said culinary arts student Mekenna Morgan.
"It helps us prepare for the future if we want a job. And it helps us get started for what we want to do with our career," culinary arts student Jalisa Johnson said.
"I'm a line cook at The Brickhouse in Orwigsburg. I work mostly the grill station. Sometimes I do prep, too. A lot of things that I'm taught there I can bring here, and a lot of things I'm taught here I can take there," said culinary arts student Callum Hannum.
The restaurant at Schuylkill Technology Center South Campus is open every weekday for lunch from 11a.m. to 12:30 p.m.