MOVE UP, MOVE UP 

• We observed that overtly naming in the Chef Meeting that the increased level of independence in the lesson required an increased level of responsibility allowed our students to collaborate much more successfully.
• We found that encouraging students to recognize listening as a form of leadership and pay attention to whose voices were being heard meant that group power dynamics were less likely to fall along lines of larger social power dynamics (i.e. the white boys in the group being the most vocal).
• Setting up more intentional structures for students to collaborate in a way that disrupts current social power dynamics remains a major area of inquiry for us.

EGG DEMONSTRATION 

• The first couple of times we taught this lesson, we didn’t demonstrate how to cook an egg in the Chef Meeting. Instead, we demonstrated how to cook an egg just in small groups during the cooking time (or had a student demonstrate).
• We found that including an egg demonstration in the Chef Meeting helped to streamline the lesson because students more reliably retained key points (preheating the pan, adding fat to the pan before the eggs), and showed students how quickly an egg could cook (which also dramatically cut down on the number of rubbery, overcooked eggs).

VULNERABILITY AND FEAR OF FAILURE

• We observed that not knowing how to cook an egg could make some students feel vulnerable or embarrassed. For others, cooking their own egg represented a large responsibility that made them nervous. Often, students expressed this hesitation by saying that they didn’t want an egg or that they didn’t like eggs.
•  Most times, offering the student direct support in cooking their egg – and explaining they didn’t have to eat it if they didn’t want to – changed their minds and made them eager to try cooking an egg.
• We also found that the Chef Meeting egg-cooking demo helped to allay many students’ fears. We also often identified one or two students who had experience cooking eggs and asked them to go first so others could observe.

OTHER NOTES

• Cracking an egg: Students had a much higher success rate cooking their eggs after we started overtly demonstrating how to crack an egg in the Chef Meeting (both on the table and pulling the shells apart).
• Timing: This lesson required every one of the 85 minutes we had to teach it. Instead of meeting around the middle table for the Chef Meeting as we normally do, we had students go straight to their table groups in order to streamline and buy some time.
• Pride in mastery: Students who had experience cooking eggs were often very proud to showcase their skills. Challenging these students to explain their steps while other students observed was often a fulfilling experience for them and a good way for less experienced egg cookers to gain confidence.
• Nonstick pans: We used nonstick pans to cook the eggs for ease of turnaround and greater success rate. We also found that flipping an egg in the nonstick pan could be a fun and thrilling group moment.
• Setting up the egg stations: We preset pans, oil, butter, salt, pepper, eggs, compost bucket for egg shells, spatulas, bowl, and fork for scrambled eggs at each cooking station.
• Potatoes: Parboiling the potatoes makes the home fries cook more quickly. Encouraging students to let the potatoes sit on the griddle undisturbed, only stirring occasionally, allows the potatoes to brown and gives students a good opportunity to clean up.
• Ketchup: It was more fun and delicious to use herbs, garlic, vinegars, and hot sauces to customize the ketchup than it was to use dry spices.
• Hot sauce diversity: We made multiple hot sauces available to our students during this lesson (Crystal, Tapatío, Cholula, Sriracha). Students often identified very strongly with one or two hot sauces and were very happy to see their own hot sauce because it was an opportunity for them to see their culture represented in space.