Mr. Brain Cramer is one of six new teachers on campus. He recently moved to Rocklin after living 15 years in the Los Angeles area.

“I moved the day school started. [It’s been a] very difficult process, extremely stressful, but I’m glad I’m here,” Cramer said.

Cramer was hired last spring to fill the culinary vacancy left by Mrs. Carissa McCrory, who retired at the end of 2022 school year.

“One of the major draws to this school is that they participate in some of the competitive culinary competitions — the school I came from also did. Being a part of that and giving students those types of opportunities was a major part of me to move back to northern California and be here at Whitney.”

While earning his culinary arts degree in the Central Valley, Cramer was suggested to start teaching from a former instructor. Being a culinary teacher wasn’t what he always had in mind for a career path. When one of his instructors recommended to try it, being a teacher stuck with him. He’s now been teaching for five years, with the relationship between his students keeping him a teacher for many years to come.

Cramer has different plans to teach this school year such as how to cut a chicken into different parts for the best taste possible. He especially looks forward to teaching advanced students and helping them grow.

“You get to start with a whole chicken in front of you and break it down into a chicken breast, a thigh and a leg and learn how each of those parts of the chicken is prepared and the method so that you get the best quality product out of each piece. They all require different times, temperatures and sauces that really make them delicious.”

With different instructors through their culinary education, advanced students have had different experiences with learning and executing their culinary skills/understanding. Cramer looks forward to growing a relationship in the classroom with advanced students because of this.

“[I’m most excited for] being in a space with new students and building those relationships with a group of students who had different instructors. Building [a] relationship of respect and trust with them and getting to go through that process with them and myself, together [is very exciting],” he said.

One of Cramer’s students Shania Prasad shares her experience in class. It is still pretty early in the school year and culinary students have just started getting to know their new teacher. Things were different because the previous culinary teacher had different methods of teaching.

“[McRory’s] recipes were the same every year and her teachings were based more off videos. I think [Cramer’s] a nice and experienced chef. So far we haven’t really dove into cooking anything but we’ve talked about being in a restaurant setting and how professional we have to be,” Prasad said.

Due to his experience with teaching culinary, he has had some past experience with kitchens as well.

“[The kitchen] is an exciting challenge for me. The kitchen that I’m coming from is three times the size of the one I’m using now so it was a huge lab space, figuring out and adapting to learn how to use a smaller kitchen is definitely gonna be a challenge but definitely one I’m excited to face,” Cramer said.

Cramer looks forward to being at a new school with new students with opportunities to build long lasting relationships.

“[I’m most excited for] being in a space with new students and building those relationships with a group of students who had different instructors. Building [a] relationship of respect and trust with them and getting to go through that process with them and myself, together [is very exciting]”

by ALLIE BOSANO, KODA CEDOR, GIANNA GERADILA, ARIANA MALATA, REESE MORACCO, AYLA SU, & LILI VIDANA