Unlike other classrooms on campus, Room 162 fills daily with heat coming off the stoves and fresh air filtering through the classroom windows to release the haze of steam filling the class. Leading the class is Culinary Arts teacher Christina Martin, who guides her students with many varying lessons throughout the weeks. The course has two class levels, with the first year introducing students to basics in cooking, food business management, tourism and hospitality basics and leadership. Culinary Arts II builds upon what students learn their first year to be proficient in the course.

Senior Abyss Widmann is in Culinary Arts I and appreciates that the class is very hands-on. In the span of the week, class will consist of labs some days where students learn curriculum like knife, egg skills and more depending on what Martin is teaching. Other days, class will have more lectures and a slower pace than when students are cooking.

“The environment is always encouraging to learn because we’re all beginners in this class. [Martin] definitely lets us all ask questions [and] she does demonstrations sometimes. We always watch videos before we actually do the lab, which is helpful. It definitely is a good learning environment and it’s pretty productive in producing a good understanding of the skills,” Widmann said.

Martin’s hope is that in the class she can create an environment that students are safe in, while also encouraging them to be passionate about what they are doing. 

“I want students to feel like what they are doing really matters, and that requires a fast paced, exciting environment during labs, and then a more serious learning environment for the lessons leading up to labs. So every week, it’s dramatically different,” Martin said.

Education had a positive impact on Martin’s life, which is what sparked her interest in education as her career and to have a positive impact on her students as well.

“For me, education was a way to get out of some really tough circumstances and I had a lot of friends who came from very difficult backgrounds, whether the background was poverty, or maybe English wasn’t their first language, or they were a minority. One thing that I saw in a lot of these people and mentors in my life, was that if they got an education, they could improve their circumstances,” Martin said. “No matter what is going on, maybe you’re not going to make a million dollars, maybe you won’t be working at a Fortune 100 company, but you can improve yourself and your life and become successful in your own sphere if you become educated. I wanted to be a part of that, and I wanted to help people never give up on their dreams.”

Martin had wanted to be a teacher throughout her life, switching majors from English to History in college. However, Martin felt as though neither were right for her, and made a list of interests to show her campus advisor in university to see if there was a class for her. 

“While I was waiting, there were a bunch of brochures and advertisements on the wall, and I saw family and consumer sciences education, which I didn’t even know was a thing because it used to be called home economics. I saw that, and it was like a light shone down from heaven,” Martin said.

Although this is Martin’s first year teaching at Redondo, she has been teaching for about 14 years and in a variety of subjects such as culinary foods and nutrition, food science, and nutrition and dietetics. Since Martin has started here at Redondo, she has already made a big impact on campus by holding fundraisers to give students new opportunities. For example, a lunch box fundraiser for teachers helped the Culinary program pay for a hospitality and tourism leadership workshop at Disneyland in Anaheim. The rest of the fundraisers have been to raise money for the Family, Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) program that Martin serves as an adviser for. Through this national program, Culinary Arts students qualified for regionals, and even went to a state competition and conference that allows students to have access to seminars, workshops, scholarship and internship opportunities and more. FCCLA has over 50 events to participate in, but at Redondo, students mostly participate in culinary service, leadership, and food business.

“I coach all the students and then they present or compete live depending on the event, and then they are scored and can receive awards or scholarships or cash prizes depending on who’s sponsoring the events that year,” Martin said. “All the fundraisers that we do are to directly go to benefit students in one way or another.”

Often, the events that students compete in connect to their career interests, and as such help them gain experience in their chosen field. For sophomore Tyler Throckmorton, the class helped him discover an interest in cooking.

“I want to be a chef when I grow up,” Throckmorton said. “I think it’s good to have cooking skills in life so you can treat yourself and know what to eat nutritionally.”

Martin already has had a positive impact on the class, especially with the excitement her students bring when they enter the room. Throckmorton, although being in Culinary Arts I, looks forward to being in Martin’s classroom.

“I love Culinary. I think it’s the best class I have right now [because] I just have a lot of fun in it,” Throckmorton said. “I think [Martin’s] teaching ways have really impacted me. I’ve never done Culinary before, but she’s a really good Culinary teacher. She’s kind of a hands-on learner, so if we’re doing something wrong, she’ll come over and show us what to do and make sure we’re doing it perfectly.”

Martin always wanted to help others, and that ultimately is what she is able to do through education.

“I want the students to take value in what they’re doing and really want to learn something and gain something out of this,’” Martin said. “Even if their major isn’t food based, they’re using what we learned in class to enhance their life. That is the most fulfilling part [of teaching the program].”