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Lake View Culinary Arts program is making a huge impact

At a recent local food event, our Keni Mac learned about the Lake View High School Culinary Program. Here is the story of the new program and its students.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — As the school bell rings for the last class of the day at San Angelo Lake View High School, 18 students make their way to cooking class. Many of the students will spend the rest of their evening in that kitchen at the school.

They'll spend hours baking goods or frying chicken, long after the final bell ring of the school day. It is the first year the cooking class has been offered at Lake View, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Nanette Daniels and her husband, Marc. The two moved with their children to San Angelo from Angleton, Texas. Both were teachers at Angleton High School prior to their move to West Texas.

"My husband actually taught for five years and he started a program in Angleton and he grew it where he was doing the culinary classes and I was doing the intro to culinary classes." Nanette said. "The school I came from was twice as big and there was probably a whole lot more discipline problems."

Marc is the executive chef at Community Medical Center in San Angelo. He said both he and his wife have worked the commercial side and educational side of cooking. However, education is what they are most passionate about.

When it comes to his wife's Lake View culinary students, he said, "These guys show so much passion for it. It kind of drives you and makes you want to devote more time to them and I know that my wife, working with these kids, it's great."

As a teacher, Nanette has earned multiple certifications. She said she is certified in art, finances, technology and culinary arts. Even with a wide range of certifications, Nanette explained she wasn't sure what to expect out of her new students in West Texas on the first day of school.

She said, "Before I walked in the first day I was wondering if it was going to be worse than where I came from and I have never seen any of that. My first day, and I tell my students this... My first day, I walked in and I was shocked because they would walk out and say 'Have a good day Mrs. Daniels.' and they were respectful and polite. These are good kids over here."

Lake View senior, Logan Price, grew up with a family who loves to cook. The first time Price heard about the new cooking class, she was eager to get started.

She said, "Last year, I was in Mrs. Daniels B.I.M. class and she would talk about it and I was like 'That would be so awesome. I love to cook.' and she was just so excited about it and I was like, I want to let these students have something new that we've never had before."

Logan's classmate, John Hernandez, said that his high school has never had the best rep in San Angelo.

"We get the stigma that we don't really have much here. We're not the best because we're not the best at sports, so we are taken for granted because of our location and our funds and everything. Which I think is kind of sad..." Hernandez said, sighing.

Despite the negative outlook some people have on the student's high school, they feel a change of energy in the air.

"We're actually doing something from our heart, that we actually love in the kitchen and its just amazing that two people brought this together..." Price said.

Daniels' student, Dalilah Reyes, is a senior who is looking forward to a future ahead in baking, thanks to her new class.

Reyes said, "Like, I get super excited because cooking is something I never got to do on my own until this happened... Like, I'm so grateful for that because I would've never discovered this if Mrs. Daniels and chef didn't put up a fight."

"We can't do everything the first year but I hope that we have a full culinary program where as many kids who want to be in these classes are doing it." Nanette said with a smile, "We have a group of them who like to stay after. There have been friendships that have gotten closer. I called my boss and I said we're doing some things after school and they want to stay and they want to keep cooking, so my food budget might get big this year."

Her husband added, "There's a lot of kids that wanted to do it but they didn't want to make the trip to Central or to a training ground. So, this is kind of proving that the proof is in the pudding."

The long time husband and wife say that their double-team program is changing their lives just as much, if not more, than it's changing their students. Their students, on the other hand, say the duo is making a difference for their entire school with their love, support and hard work.

To Nanette Daniels... it's not a job, it's a family.

"We had a couple days off and they're getting ready for competition and they wanted to be up here and you just don't say, 'I'm sorry, that's not in my contract hours.' You say, 'I'll be there at 8 o'clock...' I told this first group, you're the legacy. We're growing this and that's what we want to see."

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