Culinary School Student Spotlight: Lisa Rogers

January 9, 2017

Lisa Rogers works two jobs to support her family and attends class at The Culinary School at the Food Bank of Delaware on week days.

Before her day at The Culinary School has begun, she’s already been on the road for several hours driving a bus for a local school district. Weekends are spent working at Burger King.

And when she’s not driving, working or going to school, this mother of three is interning at Hartefeld National Golf Club.

Lisa is busy, but she’s thankful for the opportunity to advance her career thanks to The Culinary School.

She started the current 14-week session with prior food service experience and also participated in the National Restaurant Association’s ManageFirst training that was offered at the Food Bank last summer.

Lisa says that developing knife skills has been a valuable component of her current training, in addition to the hands-on internship at Hartefeld.

“I like it. The people are friendly. The chef is awesome. The staff is pleasant,” she points out. “And I am learning a lot. It’s way different than the classroom.”

Providing students an opportunity to experience a real kitchen outside the Food Bank’s training kitchen and classroom is a vital component of the training students receive.

The training is paying off for Lisa so far.

Looking down the road, she hopes to own her own business one day.

She envisions owning “a mom and pop restaurant, something that I can pass on to my children.”

In the meantime, Lisa enjoys experimenting with different recipes and she is the go-to student for The Culinary School’s baking needs.

“Any baking that we do for the events, that’s me,” she says.

Lisa advises future students “to go for it.” “It’s a great experience, you have great chefs, the atmosphere is very calm. It’s never hostile and you have good people. You learn something new every day,” she adds.

Interested in a career in the food service industry? The next class of The Culinary School in both Newark and Milford begins Monday, February 13. Learn more or apply today by clicking here.