Students recently bustled throughout the kitchens at Metro Tech preparing dishes, cleaning prep stations and practicing various techniques.
Some looked on from beyond the glass walls separating the kitchen from Metro Cafe, while others nervously approached their instructor seeking her feedback on their latest efforts.
“In my family, you do one of two things — you go into food service or you go into education — and I found a way to do both,” said Chaya Pennington, culinary instructor. “I think cooking is just a part of my genetic code. I come from a third-generation chef and third-generation teacher.”
Pennington has been an instructor at the CareerTech center for nine years, and spent 20 in restaurants before that. A graduate of Northeast High School, she grew up in Oklahoma City’s historically Black northeast side community. She now lives, works and owns a business there as part-owner of Kindred Spirits, 1726 NE 23, a bar in the Eastpoint development.
“I’m not a bartender, I’m not a mixologist, but I like … creating cool things and places specifically that are for us, because in most restaurants, you don’t really see yourself, especially in elevated spaces,” Pennington said. “We need a place for Black people to come and be authentically themselves and know that that space was created with them in mind.”