On Thursday, Dec. 18, from 5-7 p.m., the State High Culinary Department kicked off its yearly senior dinners with a retro-style Winter Wonderland Feast.
Nestled in a cordoned-off section of the cafeteria, this hidden culinary oasis acted as a makeshift restaurant. Immediately after entering the section, attendees were instantly transported to the feeling of being in the 50’s or 60’s. The night was a winter of paper snowflakes, red tablecloths that draped over the tables, and food that seemed indiscernible from any made by professionals. Culinary students acted as waiters, cooks, dishwashers, hosts and more.
Each year, the Culinary Department hosts annual dinners, where the seniors of the program get to plan a meal and then utilize their fellow classmates to put it on. They reach out to the community, as well as family and friends, to attend them. That means that they construct a menu, prepare the meals, the themes, and the setting for it to be a restaurant-replica.
According to senior Anthony Shue, all “fours,” meaning fourth-year culinary students, in the program get a senior dinner. These dinners act as a sort of swan song for the seniors and a culmination of the skills they’ve acquired over the four years in the class. While most Year fours are seniors, they do have occasional juniors as well.
Shue acted as the host of the night; his senior dinner is on Feb. 12 in conjunction with fellow senior Jacob Rizzo, and is Italian-inspired.
The culinary program is taught by Chef Zach Lorber, who was named the 2025 Pennsylvania ProStart Educator of Excellence last year. Throughout the night, he emanated an aura of calmness and treated every guest with kindness and patience. His students treat him with fond respect, and any observer could tell that this is a man who is deeply respected and beloved by his community.
This dinner was the first of the annual bunch. The vision behind the night’s meal was senior Ray Edwards, and he was bolstered by the partnership of two juniors and fellow year fours, Ryan Haris and Yona Lewis.
Edwards said his dinner had a, “Vintage and retro inspiration, because that’s a really big thing that I’m into. Like the clothes that I’m wearing, these are from the 70’s. This is thrifted.”
Not only did Edwards spearhead the planning of the menu for the entire night, but he also curated the playlist with songs from the 1950’s and 60’s to play in the background, dressed the part, and went around talking to people and making sure everything was in order.
“[We had] three main courses, and then we had to do a lot of guess work for the sides to see who [was going to eat what]. And since we’re in Pennsylvania, a lot of people are going to eat the rolls and potato-like dishes.”
To give a wide variety of food to eat, Edwards included vegetarian options, a drink bar, a dessert menu, multiple entrees, charcuterie, and even a buffet line.
“Some seniors skipped all of their classes to be in culinary to prepare for this,” senior Katie Maczure (fourth-year culinary student) said.
The students care a lot about these projects, and one could tell that a lot of time and care were put into the night. Maczura’s French-themed senior dinner will be on March 26, hosted alongside fellow senior Lily Kennedy-Philips.
It was surprising that most of the students didn’t know each other, but still managed to go through the night with barely a hitch. They functioned like a true restaurant staff, where older kids would help manage the younger ones who were learning about being waiters and the necessary work to care for guests and keep the kitchen operation.
For the night, they set up an “outdoor” seating area where guests were checked in and seated at tables of varying sizes. Then there was another room that flanked the kitchen. Throughout the area, paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling, and wreaths bedecked the walls to create a wintry atmosphere.
In the heart of the gastronomic machine of the night was the kitchen. A stainless steel maze of knives, sauces, spices, and a system that tightly refined that threat of chaos. There was a rapid-paced intensity that all of the workers shared—working as pieces of a whole to deliver a meal to those who had come. There were numerous stations that were responsible for various tasks: the meat, the salmon, the salad, the dessert, etc. A head chef ran the kitchen on the inside, reading out the slips of orders to the students.
When the 6 p.m. crowd of people started flooding in, the noise level rose to match the influx of orders, which resulted in an expedient bussing of tables, but the crew remained on top of it in order to make sure everyone would eventually be seated and served.
Overall, it seems that the culinary program is thriving with its leadership and highly skilled community. The future of the students seems promising, with Edwards going to Penn State for Hospitality Management, and the next few dinners will help showcase all of the other seniors as well.
The food was exquisite, the atmosphere immersive, the music transportational, but the highlight of the culinary department lies in its people. Stemming from Chef Lorber, he has curated a community where there is necessary discipline of the craft, respect for one another and those that they serve, and caring people who are ready and willing to take care of others. For anyone who would want to attend a culinary dinner, they wouldn’t find themselves in better hands.
The next senior dinner for the program will be the Japanese Lunch Club on Jan. 14, hosted by Nate Diehl, Ian Updegrove and Sean Telfer.
