In restaurants all over the world, diners pay top dollar for award-winning dishes crafted from Pacific Northwest fare. On the Oregon coast, students are learning to harvest those same resources to create fine cuisine of their own design. And they’re doing so under the tutelage of some of the area’s most accomplished chefs.
It’s part of a culinary program at the Siletz Valley Schools in Lincoln County that director Patrick Clarke hopes will open students’ eyes to the abundance and opportunity in the place they call home. At the same time, Clarke believes the education combining French cooking methods with local Native American traditions could take students far.
“The ultimate goal is to bolster the work force in the seafood economy in Oregon by introducing students to careers they may not know about or have not known they’d have an interest,” Clarke said. “It is also designed to broaden their horizons within the local area and to introduce them to the wide range of forage foods available to them here from Oregon. So much gets sent around the world from Oregon and if you know what you are looking for, right in our backyard you can pull out a world-class meal.”
The program started in 2023 after the school board asked the community what classes they would like to see taught. Culinary was the most popular answer, Clarke said. He teaches middle and high school students in six classes. Several of those provide the preparation, general housekeeping and cooking assistance for the school’s in-house free food program (the school does not participate in the National School Lunch Program) that feeds all students and staff for breakfast, lunch, snack and special occasions. The Culinary Team and Bountiful Oregon classes are also part of the program.
Zoey Koehler shows off the two black rockfish caught on the culinary program fall deep sea fishing trip out of Depoe Bay.Patrick Clarke/Siletz Valley Schools
Joshua Johnson (left) and Zion Fantroy prepare to filet under the guidance of instructor Patrick Clarke.Photo courtesy Siletz Valley Schools Culinary Program
“I designed a curriculum that focuses on the wild foods that are in Oregon throughout the seasons,” said Clarke. “So, when the kids come to school in August, we’re hunting mushrooms. I’ve taken them deep sea fishing, and we’ve gone clamming, crabbing. … We did elk breakdown. We go out and learn the things that are available in each season. All the seafood generally has a season, but it’s not only fish, but also mushrooms, wild edibles, the harvesting or farming practices, like seaweed farming, oyster farming. I talk to them about the methods on which they are grown or caught or foraged. We get our hands on the products — forage it, fish it.”
Clarke started his culinary career as a food service specialist with the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and later worked at a California winery and operated his own food truck.
The 14 students in the Bountiful Oregon class recently began spending class time at the Oyster Bluff Farm on Yaquina Bay in Newport, where Clarke plans to guide them in seeding their own oyster beds. Siletz Valley School math teacher Brian Arnold owns the farm.
The students also take part in the Oregon Coast Visitor’s Association (OCVA) seafood butchery program taught in five coastal schools. Clarke works with program director Maggie Michaels to obtain the seafood for his classes.
“I call it seafood literacy,” Clarke said. “It’s so much more than just butchery. We are learning about all the different seafood that is available in the state of Oregon or greater Northwest, how to break it down, what it tastes like. We’re learning how to use fish for fertilizer to get full utilization out of it. We’re learning respect for heathy harvesting practices and sustainable farming methods. … We shouldn’t just throw the carcass in the trash. We should do something purposeful with it.”
Students Kyler Adams (from left), Cash Adams and Jayden Metcalfe shuck oysters at the Local Ocean Winter Waters event.Richard Canales/Siletz Valley Schools
Local Ocean kitchen staff demonstrate the proper way to shuck oysters as students work and watch.Richard Canales/Siletz Valley Schools
Last month, the 12-member Culinary Team worked with chef Enrique Sanchez-Rodriguez at Newport’s Local Ocean to create a sold-out 5-course dinner that was part of the Winter Waters dining events.
“I had a blast,” said 11th grade student Zoey Koehler. “We stayed in the kitchen and got to cook with Enrique’s team. We made tuna on a skewer and oysters with panko and spinach and hollandaise sauce. A couple of students worked upstairs doing the front of the house.”
The Culinary Team also caters private events, which has included feeding about 600 members at the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians Nesika Illahee Powwow and an equally large group at a local church event. They also operate a food truck. Last month, they traveled to the Blue Foods Forum in Portland.
“They did bites for our oyster social out of their food truck,” said Michaels. “It was pretty amazing. Patrick is working steadfastly and far above and beyond to ensure his students have some of the highest caliber experiences I’ve seen in a student culinary arts program. Having hands-on experiences with high caliber restauranteurs and chefs is truly exemplary. It’s a delight to get to partner with him and his students.”
Those “high-caliber chefs” also include Jack Strong, executive chef at The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. His team recently paid a visit to the school.
“We learned how everyone works together in the business,” Koehler said. “We cooked pulled pork and braised venison, and we fed them Indian tacos and we all sat down and talked together. I loved it.”
Next month, the student Culinary Team will travel to Portland for the Governor’s Conference on Tourism. “It’s going to be a really big to-do,” Clarke said. “The students are going to do what is essentially a duck and bean cassoulet but we’re doing it Native American style, so I would call it a duck, bean and bacon ragu.” They’ll also serve an albacore ceviche and Indian tacos, which Clarke described as a “food born out of the necessity and commodities,” after tribes were sent to live on reservations. The tacos consist of a flatbread made from a simple dough and are commonly topped with cheese and ground beef.
“Everybody makes them at home,” Clarke said. “Usually, we will be doing them with different foods, as an enhanced or revision to show students what else they can do with them. But as I expressed to all the kids, that’s not really what Native American food is. Native American food is local, seasonal. There’s generally no wheat and no dairy that is involved in Native American cooking. If we really boil it down, then we would also get rid of pigs and cows and, also chickens. We would truly be looking at wild game birds that are found all around the Americas and then most of the hooved animals would be venison and elk, bison and other such animals that were originally located here in the Americas.”
While the Siletz Valley School is not a tribal school, it is heavily influenced by tribal culture, Clarke said. But the culinary program’s curriculum is something of an open book. “I definitely speak on all aspects of cooking, not just Native cooking. We talk about everything,” he said. “We did Japanese food a few weeks ago. We’ve done Italian, Hispanic, all of it because of my training and cooking which is probably best described as a heavy classic French. So, a lot of that falls back on French traditional cooking methods, which essentially makes up the way everybody cooks. As I explained to my students, if you can speak French and understand most of the French terminology and cooking methods, then you can go anywhere around the world.”
— Lori Tobias, for The Oregonian/OregonLive