Apr 10, 2018 6 min read

Lysa Lukachyk reminisces how, 11 years ago, she was enjoying her duties as chef for the Back Porch and Speers Street Grille catering company called “2 Fine Caterers.”

“I never had any intention of leaving the kitchen,” she said, smiling. “I really liked the variety and fast pace of my workday as a chef. It was really fun, and I loved the work.”

But her family had another career path in mind for Mrs. Lukachyk – culinary arts instructor at Washington Area Career and Technology Center (WACTC), where this year she oversees 34 high school students pursuing their own career dreams. Or possibly, just seeking a snack.

“Yes, it happens often,” Chef Lysa, as she’s known to her students, said with a wink. “A few students believe they are going to take culinary classes so they can eat. We get to taste the food, of course, but we sell everything we make. I like to tell them a restaurant will never make money if they eat all the food!”

She laughs, then adds, “The truth, I think, is that most students come here because they have a family member that they loved to cook with, and they want to further that knowledge. I have some students here to learn basic kitchen skills, while others plan on going as far as they can in this industry. I also have students who come here because they are going to use their culinary skill to work their way through college. I know that two of my past students have graduated and are now in pharmacy programs.”

The common denominator? “They’re all surprised by the amount of dishes they have to wash and the floors they have to sweep,” the instructor said. “It’s all part of the job.”

Mondays at WACTC Culinary are usually book work and lecture days, while the rest of the week includes about 45 minutes of daily class time with the remainder of the day in the kitchen.

“We provide breakfast and lunch for the day care behind our school,” Lukachyk said. “We also have a different entrée, side dish, two soups, salad bar and dessert in our restaurant every day. The 22 morning students do the major production of all of this food, while the 12 afternoon students feed the day care and get everything ready for the next day. We also do a food cart twice a week for the students in the school.”

And that’s not to mention providing food for several catering events booked through the community and any meeting or event going on in the building.

“My students do everything. I am just here to guide them. Usually everything comes out great and everyone loves it, but there have been a few times where, well, the recipe just didn’t come out right.

The students have also successfully pulled off several large events.

“The craft dinners that we had years ago were always a challenge,” she said. “It would be three days of prep and setting tables and then two days of cleaning afterwards. We would do a ridiculous amount of different types of appetizers, main food items and desserts. And the dinners all turned out great.”

How intense is the training?

“They learn everything I can get into their heads,” the affable Chef Lysa said. “They learn how to make stocks from scratch using animal bones and to fabricate large pieces of meat. They learn basic baking skills, salad preparation and measuring, as well as how to read a recipe and how to set up and tear down a serving line. Last year we fabricated around 50 whole tilapia fish for one of our home schools. The students got to fillet and package all of the fish. They loved it!”

If there’s one thing that still baffles the instructor, though, it’s the occasional lack of basic vocabulary knowledge.

“I sometimes am teaching and I have to stop myself and see if they know the meaning of some of the non-culinary-related words. Yesterday, I had to explain the meaning of mesh in a screen door.”

Lukachyk is understandably proud or her students’ achievement.

“One of my students competed in the SKILLS USA competition and won on both local and regional levels, and made it to the national competition. Another former student went to Johnson and Whales University and did so well they are grooming him to become a chef instructor.

Success coming out of the WACTC culinary program appears to be the norm rather than the exception.

“And another student was accepted into the apprenticeship program through Nemacolin Woodlands and WCC. She has not only worked her way through all of the kitchens but was asked to work full-time in each one of them. I am so proud of her. It is a really hard program, and not everyone makes it through, let alone makes such an impression on the chefs. She is a really talented girl.”

And success coming out of the WACTC culinary program appears to be the norm rather than the exception.

Lukachyk said that former students have told her that they are considerably ahead of others in their culinary knowledge when they begin their career or further culinary schooling.

The instructor said she can understand some of her students’ passion for culinary work.

“I started working in the SpringHouse kitchen when I was 17. After I graduated from high school, I went to W&J for one year with plans to work in sports medicine. But I hated it, and I would miss class to go to work at the SpringHouse, because I would rather be in the kitchen.”

After graduating from Pennsylvania Culinary in Pittsburgh, she married and moved south, where she became a banquet prep chef for the Country Club of North Carolina. After her husband left the military, the couple returned to Pennsylvania.

Lukachyk, who now also has a 5-year-old son in the family, has no regrets.

“It is so gratifying watching students grow from day one until the final day of school,” she said. “It is a time of their life where most of them go from being very immature to being confident young adults. Seeing that progression in their attitude and skills is awesome.”