Students recently bustled throughout the kitchens at Metro Tech preparing dishes, cleaning prep stations and practicing various techniques.

Some looked on from beyond the glass walls separating the kitchen from Metro Cafe, while others nervously approached their instructor seeking her feedback on their latest efforts.

“In my family, you do one of two things — you go into food service or you go into education — and I found a way to do both,” said Chaya Pennington, culinary instructor. “I think cooking is just a part of my genetic code. I come from a third-generation chef and third-generation teacher.”

Pennington has been an instructor at the CareerTech center for nine years, and spent 20 in restaurants before that. A graduate of Northeast High School, she grew up in Oklahoma City’s historically Black northeast side community. She now lives, works and owns a business there as part-owner of Kindred Spirits, 1726 NE 23, a bar in the Eastpoint development.

“I’m not a bartender, I’m not a mixologist, but I like … creating cool things and places specifically that are for us, because in most restaurants, you don’t really see yourself, especially in elevated spaces,” Pennington said. “We need a place for Black people to come and be authentically themselves and know that that space was created with them in mind.”

How Chaya Pennington’s experiences as a Black woman in the culinary arts shapes how she teaches

But for all of Pennington’s successes, she acknowledges it wasn’t always an easy path as a Black woman in culinary arts.

“Whenever I worked at a restaurant, I was always the only woman, and chefs would always just want to put me in the pantry and just give me garde manger [cold prep such as salads, fresh fruit, etc. in a restaurant]. They would never want to let me work the stove or man the grill,” Pennington said.

“I had to work twice as hard to prove that this is what I was supposed to do. People would just come in and move up over me, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I can do hot things.'”

Pennington uses the things she saw, learned and experienced along the way to influence her teaching and create opportunities for students who need to see themselves represented in the industry.

“This is probably the first job I ever had that doesn’t feel like work at all,” Pennington said. “It’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m definitely where I’m supposed to be.”

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Pennington took over the role after a former instructor who’d held the position for Pennington’s entire life — spending 35 years teaching students — approached her to step in.

“She came and got me and said, ‘Hey, I want you, I’m retiring, and I want you to take over this program,'” Pennington said. “And I felt honored and blessed, but I also knew I had some big shoes to fill.”

Pennington stepped into those shoes and has been continuing the growth of the Culinary Arts program at Metro Tech ever since.

“We have a wait list currently. We’ve currently got 59 students [enrolled]. Opening another kitchen that will house another 30 seats,” she said. “I’m just excited about being able to put more kids on.”

‘There’s so much opportunity’

Students who come to the school are offered a chance to set themselves up for a career in culinary arts, with the ability to leave the school and obtain jobs making $18 an hour, even as high school graduates, by working for organizations like the OMNI hotel chain and others across the industry.

“The one thing I learned about teenagers, especially post-COVID, especially teenagers from this community, they want to get the bag,” Pennington said. “Starting at $18 an hour —18 years old, making $18 an hour for the Omni Hotel — you can go live anywhere in the world, there’s an Omni. There’s so much opportunity, especially for kids who never even considered that they could leave Oklahoma or travel.”

Pennington’s work with the school to add more kids doesn’t stop there, with efforts to create an extension program that might be housed at nearby Douglass High School and a March board meeting agenda item to consider a food truck that will serve as a mobile kitchen, allowing her and the Metro Tech team even more access to reach more students.

“The earlier we can get in contact, connect with kids, the more lasting the impression is,” she said. “But also, this is a life skill they’re going to need forever, whether they ever go and work in a commercial kitchen or go become a chef at a restaurant. Knowing how to cook and having comfortability in the kitchen is something that will serve them for their entire lives.”

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Pennington’s no-nonsense attitude in the kitchen sometimes leads to students warning one another to “beware” of her because she can be “scary,” an idea that Pennington laughs at because of the things she’s learned about herself through teaching.

“I always find it interesting that my other two instructors think that I’m the softy, and I think it’s because I’m a mom and so, I mother [the students], too,” Pennington said. “I think I’m a lot more empathetic than I thought before.”

With students in her classes ranging from 16 to 73 years old, Pennington said she is constantly surprised. She gets to see generational differences and learns from those she’s instructing, all while enjoying the discovery process for them in the kitchen.

“References are different, experiences are different,” Pennington said. “They actually want to have careers in culinary arts and so, it’s just exciting, I think, to watch the spark in their eyes. There will be like ‘ah-hahs” or figuring out what about culinary they’re really good at.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Metro Tech culinary instructor leads students through representation