When walking through the halls of Robinson, students can always count on the culinary classroom to make the school smell great. One of this year’s new additions to the faculty is the culinary instructor, Chef Tyrell Palmer.

Prior to teaching at Robinson, Palmer worked as a chef at the University of Tampa and owned his own catering company. Palmer decided to pursue teaching culinary as a way to give back to the community.

“Teaching kids the proper way how to cook and giving them the good skills to help their parents at home as well is something that I’ve always wanted to do,” Palmer said.

Palmer plans on making changes to the Robinson culinary progam in multiple areas. Curriculum-wise, Palmer plans to cover a number of cuisines from around the globe.

“Their first assignment is actually the Asian cuisine; so they’re gonna be doing egg rolls, lo mein, stir fry and rice and all that,” Palmer said.

Palmer plans to put his own spin on the culinary program and implement some new ideas that will give students a fresh perspective on what it takes to cook.

“I’m changing everything about the program, we’re starting from the bottom and going up, we’re putting in a whole new vegetable field out in the back,” Palmer said.

Overall, his changes to the program will teach students the importance of cooking, and what learning to cook can make you capable of. With Chef Palmer as their teacher, students will not just learn about a variety of cuisines, they will learn about what it takes to run a business in culinary.

“I’m also looking to teach people the front of the house and back of the house techniques where people can apply to be general managers or apply to be chefs,” Palmer said.

Palmer is using his position to show students the whole picture of cooking, and will help them broaden their knowledge of what is possible with culinary.

“Cooking is everything, it’s the start of someone’s day, it determines on if someone’s happy or angry, I just like cooking to make people happy,” Palmer said.