PORT ANGELES — The culinary arts program was featured as the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center Program of the Month during October.
Jody Potter, skills center director, announced the recognition of the program this week.
“My interest and love in cooking started at a very young age,” said Denise Dahll, culinary arts instructor.
“Growing up in Iowa, we always had several gardens,” she said.
“I can remember working in the greenhouse getting the seeds started working alongside my grandpa moving the plants out to the garden, harvesting the plants, and then freezing and or canning the food.
“Because I spent so much time at my grandparents’ house, my grandma, would let me help her cook and bake almost every day, even though it would probably have been much easier for her to have sent me to go play,” Dahll said.
“I am sure that is why I have the level of patience I do . . . I learned it from a very early age from a professional.”
After moving to Sequim and graduating from high school, Dahll completed the culinary arts program at South Seattle Community College.
She spent more than 20 years as a manager in the food industry before teaching culinary arts at the skills center.
She has taught at the center for 10 years.
Some of Dahll’s students have gone on to secondary culinary schools.
“I have had students attend The Art Institute, Le Cordon Bleu, South Seattle Community College, Bellingham Community College, Northwest Culinary College, Vancouver Culinary College, The CIA in New York and Oregon Coast Culinary College,” she said.
Many of her students are working in the industry in some capacity,she added.
The Skills Center offers technical training for area high school students from Cape Flattery, Crescent, Port Angeles, Quillayute Valley, and Sequim School Districts in a variety of areas.
These include automotive technology, broadcast media, building trades, collision repair, commercial arts, composites, cosmetology, criminal justice, fire science, green building trades, information technology, marine carpentry, medical careers and welding.
To learn more about skills center programs, including the culinary arts program, see www.nopsc.org, or call 360-565-1533.
