Do you remember sitting in the middle of the class and suddenly a student walks in holding a container of good-smelling food for your teacher? Have you wondered where they order their food from?  Here’s the answer: The Emperor Restaurant Row.

Culinary teacher, Mrs. Martha Macias, explained what Emperor Restaurant Row is.  “It’s a variety of student-run restaurants that cater to Dinuba High School staff.”  Advanced culinary students form “restaurants” and plan menus for teachers to choose from when they place their orders.  Menu items change periodically.  The four student restaurants are Belly Busters (featuring burger offerings), Doughlicious (featuring pizzas), Wok N Roll (featuring Asian food), and Flavor Authentico (featuring Mexican food).

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Dell'Anno

Restaurant team Wok N Roll

How do the teachers know what they want to order? This is where the soft opening comes in. At the soft opening, students in advanced culinary classes prepare the food they intend to serve to the teachers and offer them a sampling of the meals to determine what they like best and will want to order for their lunch.

Aden Almaguer from Doughlicious explained what they offered at the soft opening. “We made both pepperoni pizza and balsamic vinegar pizza with arugula. It’s a new experience, and it felt like I was a vendor at a carnival,” he said with a smile on his face.

Alessa Hall, whose group, Belly Busters, made smash burgers with fries, said the soft opening was “a little overwhelming and exciting.”  Kamila Navarro from the Flavor Authentico restaurant agreed. “We made quesa birria tacos. My group and I sold out, and some teachers didn’t get any since they came late.” She added that “it was fun talking to the teachers I did and didn’t know. ” Finally, McKalee Ringer from group Wok N Roll, who made orange chicken with white rice, described her experience with the soft opening as “kind of nervous but excited.”

Through all the nerves and excitement, the students of the advanced culinary class were able to have fun creating and serving meals to the teachers, and the teachers were able to see the variety of options available for lunch.