If you’re teaching your high schoolers how to cook professionally, it’s essential you have the right course material to train them. With strong lesson plans and activities, your students will thrive in the kitchen. With the wrong ones, they may find themselves floundering.
So what are the best high school culinary arts lesson plans? Where can you find them, and what do they cost?
In this article, you’ll discover some of the best culinary arts lesson plans for high school:
- Culinary Arts Bundle from Twins and Teaching
- Foods Course Bundle from Goodbye Home Ec Hello FCS
- Culinary Arts Lesson Plans from Texas CTE
- Teaching Resources from the Culinary Institute of America
By the end of this article, you’ll have a thorough understanding of these diverse lesson plans, so you can make the right choice for your culinary classroom.
1. Culinary Arts Bundle from Twins and Teaching
Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is an online marketplace where educators can buy, sell, and share resources.. One of the vendors on TpT is Twins and Teaching, which focuses exclusively on providing quality materials for culinary arts and FCS teachers.
Twins and Teaching offers an excellent resource on their TpT page called CTE Culinary Arts Lesson Plans Bundle. This bundle consists of hundreds of pages of content covering topics like:
- Kitchen Safety
- Knife Skills
- Kitchen Equipment
- Parts of a Recipe
- Culinary Careers
- History of Food
- Breading and Battering
- Salads and Dressings
- Kitchen Math
- Global Foods
- Seasonal and Holiday Culinary Arts
- Meats and Protein
These topics are covered in lesson plans, activities, projects, discussion questions, and more—each of which can be purchased independently of the bundle. In addition, this is a growing bundle, meaning that any future improvements or additions are added free of charge.
However, an important point to keep in mind is that, due to the different course standards between states, this bundle lacks traditional assessments. Depending on the nature of your course, you may have to create your own assessments.
Who Is This Resource Intended For, and How Much Does It Cost?
The Culinary Arts Bundle would be a good fit for teachers looking for a comprehensive collection of high school culinary arts lesson plans. The materials in this resource are flexible and engaging, and can be fitted for either a semester-long or year-long course.
However, this bundle may not be a good fit for teachers looking only for supplemental lesson plans for class. This is essentially a complete curriculum, and if you only need a lesson plan or two to shore up your existing materials, you’d be better off looking elsewhere.
The list price for this resource is $403.50. However, frequent discounts for this product reduce its price by 30% or more. You could also purchase individual lessons from the bundle, which each cost $3-4 on average.
2. Foods Course Bundle from Goodbye Home Ec Hello FCS
Another well-known vendor on Teachers Pay Teachers is Goodbye Home Ec Hello FCS, which provides resources entirely for culinary arts and FCS teachers.
One of the products this vendor offers is called the Culinary Arts / Food Course Bundle, which contains 700 pages of content covering topics that include:
- Measuring in the Kitchen
- Why We Eat
- Food Safety & Sanitation
- Foodborne Illness
- Foods Around the World
- Salads & Dressings
- Yeast Breads
- Kitchen Staples
- Types of Knives
- Stocks & Sauces
- Vegetables
These materials include lesson plans, PowerPoints, activities, video worksheets, tests, and more. Similar to other bundles mentioned in this article, these resources can largely be purchased independently of the bundle itself.
This is also a growing bundle, which is consistently updated with new lesson plans and activities. This makes it an excellent long-term culinary arts investment, as mistakes in the lesson plans are corrected and new material is added.
Who Is This Resource Intended For, and How Much Does It Cost?
The Culinary Arts / Food Course Bundle is a strong choice for high school teachers in need of a well-rounded, in-depth curriculum for a year-long course. These lesson plans and resources include everything you could need for your course, including assessments.
Like the previous bundle, this resource likely wouldn’t fit well if you’re only looking for supplemental class materials. This product is meant to serve as a standalone resource for a culinary arts class, and purchasing the whole bundle when you only need a few lesson plans might be counterintuitive.
The list price for this bundle is $360.75 on TpT. However, if you just need individual activities or lesson plans from the bundle, they can generally be purchased for $1-3.
3. Culinary Arts Lesson Plans from Texas CTE
Texas CTE is a website dedicated to providing free supplemental teaching materials to CTE instructors based in Texas. It is powered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and offers free resources that specifically align with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
One of the pathways Texas CTE offers is called Culinary Arts, which consists of dozens of lesson plans divided across 12 units:
- History of Culinary Arts
- Food Safety and Sanitation
- Workplace Safety
- Applied Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Science Skills for Food Service
- Commercial Kitchen Equipment
- Food Preparation Techniques
- Food Service
- Food Service Management Skills
- Technology in Food Service
- Employability Skills
- Leadership Development
- Food Service Career Development
These units contain lesson plans, activities, and PowerPoint presentations, among other resources. Each lesson varies significantly in length, with some taking up single 45-minute class periods, while others can take up to four 45-minute classes to complete.
Who Is This Resource Intended For, and How Much Does It Cost?
Texas CTE’s materials would be a good fit for teachers looking for supplemental high school culinary arts lesson plans. Their quality and variety make them a strong choice for teachers who need a few free, in-depth lesson plans to expand upon areas their curriculum doesn’t already touch.
However, for teachers who need a singular curriculum resource to teach their courses, these lesson plans likely wouldn’t be the right pick. Though they’re well-made, they’re also older than several other resources on this list, and may not possess enough content to cover a semester- or year-long course.
In addition, teachers outside of Texas will need to ensure these materials align with their course standards. These lessons were designed to meet Texas standards, and may not fit for courses in other states.
4. Teaching Resources from the Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a culinary school that has trained some of the most prominent chefs in the country. To support their mission of raising the next generation of professional chefs, the CIA offers free lesson plans and resources for teachers to use in their culinary arts classrooms.
These CIA Teaching Resources cover an array of topics, including:
- Basics of Bread
- Introducing Charcuterie to Your Classroom
- Grilling and Broiling
- Stir-Fry
- Developing Health Recipes and Menus
- Enhancing Food Presentation
- Kitchen Calculations
- Examining Sauces
- The Smoking Process
These materials consist of lesson plans, video demonstrations, and food ID handouts. While some of these materials are brief, the lesson plans are extensive and detailed, containing in-depth cooking instructions and reasoning for the techniques they offer.
In addition, the CIA also offers a YouTube channel with hundreds of helpful cooking demonstrations, interviews with professional chefs, and recipe videos. This channel is a goldmine for teachers looking to showcase quality cooking techniques to students.
Who Is This Resource Intended For, and How Much Does It Cost?
The CIA’s Teaching Resources are a good choice for teachers looking for supplemental lesson plans and reliable cooking demonstrations. These resources are free and come with no strings attached, so if you need a quick lesson for class, they’re a great place to start.
However, if you need a complete curriculum for your culinary arts class, these materials likely wouldn’t be the right fit on their own. The content within these resources might allow you to cover a few units in class, but probably not a semester- or year-long course.
Need More High School Culinary Arts Lesson Plans?
In this article, you’ve discovered some of the best culinary arts lesson plans for high school. These resources are a fine mix between complete courses and supplemental materials you can use to reinforce your existing curriculum.
However, if none of these options seem like they would fit your class, then take a look at iCEV’s Culinary Arts curriculum!
The iCEV Culinary Arts course is a comprehensive, year-long curriculum you can quickly implement in your classroom. It comes with dozens of lesson plans and hundreds of activities, videos, and more, designed to make your students experts in the kitchen:
