Last week, Chamberlain High School entered the cutthroat world of chain dining.
Outback Steakhouse has stocked the school with a mini-café, complete with a fully operational restaurant kitchen. Students will learn to cook, manage and serve at the Outback Café, preparing them for a life of subpar wages, stinking like fry oil and sneering at stingy Canadian tippers.
To counteract that, perhaps Chamberlain could use Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential as a textbook. Bourdain's drug-addled sex-capades should light the fire of learning in any upstanding high-school student. At least until they see his bony, wrung-out mug on the back of the book jacket.
Seriously, though, this is a great idea. I can but hope that moving restaurant education into the schools will increase the quality of the Bay area's eateries.
According to the press release, "big, bold flavors and made fresh daily are the only rules at Outback." I think Chamberlain's vice principal might have some other rules in mind as well.
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2007.
