Thomas Cardon, along with colleague Rosemary Ryan, will be retiring from after more than 30 years teaching in the Culinary Arts program at Somerville High School. — Photo by Claudia Ferro

By Douglas Yu

Two teachers are going to retire from the culinary arts department of Somerville High School this summer. And for over 30 years, the students here have meant everything to them.

Thomas Cardon, chef instructor and the lead teacher in the department, is the trailblazer for the culinary program at SHS, which he started 33 years ago.

Cardon said that cooking is something that he fell into when he went to high school in Georgetown. Even though he studied liberal art in college, history and other academic classes had not paved the way to a career.

“I always wanted to become a chef,” Cardon, who hails from Utah, said. “After I studied cooking in high school, I decided to move back to New England and started working in a restaurant.”

Cardon ended up working at a seafood restaurant in Salisbury. From there, he learned important cooking techniques.

“Seafood was not necessarily my focus at that time, but we are close to the ocean, and seafood is very popular,” he said.

Transforming the basic cooking techniques into a more aesthetic aspect of general cuisine is like moving up the ladder for Cardon.

“I was a 23-year-old chef when I started working at a restaurant, and I had to learn all the techniques little by little,” he said.

Thirty-three years ago, there was a kitchen and a cafeteria that had not been used for a while in the Somerville Community School. The then-food director, Henry Biagi, was passionate about using the space to start a culinary arts program. That was how Cardon found the opportunity to jumpstart a new career in Somerville. After working there for five years, the vocational director at the school had a meeting with the staff of the program and suggested moving the program to SHS.

“It’s cool to design my own program in the high school; I designed the whole thing,” Cardon said, pointing at the kitchen and the dining area. “It is a real restaurant,” he said.

The restaurant, which is located inside the high school, is called Highlander Café. In fact, students are not allowed to dine in this place, since it is open to the public only. However, they are often found decorating food, practicing cooking and serving the customers.

Ryan with a group of appreciative students. —Photo by Claudia Ferro

“We have a regular serving line, and the students put the food out when customers come,” Cardon said. “The courses in our department are electives, and we have tests at the end of the semester for the students.”

Students are also tested on their knowledge of cooking every now and then, such as food temperature, sanitation, nutrition and food poisoning, according to Cardon.

The artistic aspect of Cardon’s cooking is what he always struggles with.

“If you look at a plate, then you want to try different colors and textures of materials to prepare for a dish to make it look like a picture,” he said of the challenge in his program.

When it comes to Cardon’s expectation toward his students, he said that he always pushes his students to the next level.

“One of my sayings is ‘We want you to step up’,” he said.

Danny Sams is one of the students of whom Cardon is very proud, and Cardon personally witnessed his growth from the program into a professional career.

“[Danny Sams] just took the bakery class a few years ago, and he went to work at the Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston,” Cardon said. “He became the executive pastry chef there in only three years. I’ve seen a student working from the bottom to an extraordinary pastry maker.”

Students in the program not only have a chance to learn to cook, but also learn to serve customers and to practice restaurant management. Rosemary Ryan, the dining room manager, has been teaching those skills at the program for over 30 years.

“I studied hotel and restaurant management at Bunker Hill Community College,” Ryan said. “And the kids here are the biggest things I got from my last 30-year career. Every single kid I taught makes a big impression on me.”

Ryan teaches students in the program, as she described, “what you would do in outside restaurants.”

“We tell the students that we have customers come right off the street, and you need to start serving the tables,” she said.

Ryan talked about how students learn practical experience.

“I treat my students as my real kids,” she said.

Cardon and Ryan are retiring in June this year, both saying that they are going to miss Highlander Café, the culinary arts program and, most importantly, all the students they taught.