Fresh out of college, and returning from studying abroad, Clara Biletzky recently started her first-year teaching for Robinson’s culinary program. Biletzky teaches Culinary Arts 1 along with Nutrition Wellness and Child Development classes.
She grew up in a small town in Illinois, where she attended Illinois State University, for education. Even before she attended university, Biletzky had an interest in hospitality.
“I managed a restaurant in my hometown for the longest time,” she said. “It was a real fifties-style diner, soft-serve and everything. It had been around f0r like three generations now, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I loved managing, and having a staff full of high school kids, so after that I knew I wanted to do hospitality when I was abroad.”
Studying hospitality abroad reaffirmed Biletzky’s realization that hospitality is a serious career option. Initially, she wasn’t even sure she was going to move back.
“Yeah, I just really loved living in Cyprus, and being right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. I backpacked all over Greece, Spain, London, Italy, Budapest, Hungary; the only thing that really held me back from staying was the lack of stability, and not wanting to be alone,” Biletzky said.
Along with being influenced by a love of hospitality, teaching has always greatly impacted her life.
“Along with going to an education school, my mom is a teacher and my dad is in education. All my friends are elementary and high school teachers, so I’m surrounded by teachers everywhere I go. I feel like high school is the best fit, because I want to make a difference with kids who are a little bit older and kind of want to explore different career paths,” Biletzky said.
She teaches culinary, which focuses on getting educated on the basics of food preparation. It includes learning about the restaurant industry, sanitation, safety and then finally stepping into the Knights Tavern to work with food. She has about 190 students enrolled, and her main goal is to keep them interested in the program.
“I want them to be excited about moving forward in our culinary program because I only teach Culinary 1,” she said. “So I want them excited to move on to the kitchen and get in there with chef and start all those competitions and everything. I need them to get educated on the basics and then excited and enrolled in the next course, which is more kitchen-based than learning-based.”
Biletzky makes a much-needed addition to the culinary program and works well for splitting duties with the main teacher for culinary, Chef Mitchell Smithey.
“I’m excited to have Ms.B here, I look forward to working with her to keep growing the Knight’s Tavern into an awesome program,” Chef Smithey said.
To accomplish her goal of expanding the culinary program, Biletzky believes it’s important for her to stay in town to see where the program goes. She plans on staying at Robinson for the long term.
“I want all students to know that my door is always open, and you can always come in and chat with Miss B,” she said. “I want the main takeaway to be excitement. I want kids to leave culinary one really excited to move over to the kitchen. Really ready, really prepared, really feeling like set up for success. I hope that all my culinary students will move onto culinary two and three and four.”
