The International Cuisine class at Santa Fe Community College will hold its final exam Thursday. With the drama of a celebrity chef challenge, teacher Michelle Roetzer will give each team of three to four students a black box with a list of surprise ingredients from one of the countries they've studied this year. Their challenge: to create a delicious and imaginative meal — including a soup, an entrée and a dessert — in three hours.

The action will be broadcast by Joanne the Lunch Lady, live on KBAC 98.1, Radio Free Santa Fe, from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday.

This is the fourth year Roetzer has taught the class, and she says this group of 12 is the most talented she's seen. Largely composed of people who are headed to, or already working in, the food industry, the class gives students a chance to slow down, take their time, and feel safe making mistakes while they learn new skills.

Roetzer points to students enrolled in the class already working in Santa Fe area kitchens: Tony Mora at Backroad Pizza, Michael Waggoner at Walter Burke Catering, Aurora Fernandez at Adobo Catering, Luis Marquez at Bishop's Lodge, Willie Williams, manager of Furr's Cafeteria, and Julian Lujan at O Eating House in Pojoaque.

Sixteen-year-old Fernandez says of her teacher, "(Michelle) is just amazing — she's a great instructor. She took me under her wing, and she's pushed me. She helped me out of my timidness and made me realize that I could do whatever I wanted to do — that it's not society's limitations, but the ones I put on myself that I need to deal with."

Roetzer's own life also has been formed by intense learning and work. "I had a Ph.D. from the school of hard knocks, two years of culinary-arts school, and I'm working on my bachelor's degree in political science at the College of Santa Fe," she says.

She started cooking professionally at 14, and worked her way up through the ranks — mostly in Northern Italian restaurants. Because she is originally from El Paso, though, spending many summers with grandmother there, she considers Southwestern cooking her native cuisine.

Roetzer moved to Santa Fe in 2003; after a stint with Adobo Catering, she began teaching in SFCC's culinary-arts program. In addition to classes in international cuisine and Southwestern cooking, she also teaches hospitality and restaurant-management classes. In the little time she has left, Roetzer teaches cooking classes to visitors and home cooks at the Santa Fe School of Cooking.

She notes that the combination of life choices she has made — culinary arts and political science — may strike some as odd, but when she thinks about the future, she says, the relationship between policy and food is clear. "The war we're fighting for oil right now," she says, "is nothing compared to what we're going to fight for food and water in the future." She also believes that biotechnology has set us on a dangerous path. She would like to "put her money where her mouth is," Roetzer says, and have the background to have some influence on food policy.

Start with the Soil, an organic-gardening guide by Grace Gershuny, made Roetzer start thinking about our relationship with the soil that grows our food. Now a student comes to all the culinary arts classes to pick up waste produce. They compost 80 gallons a week, Roetzer says, turning it into rich soil amendment.

Roetzer is passionately involved with her students — and each of them has surpassed her expectations, she says. The core group in the International Cuisine class has been together for about a year and during that time, she says, they have become attached to each other. They have celebrated a birth and grieved a death within their group. It's been a transformative semester for everyone involved, Roetzer says.

As for the competition — part of it is about bragging rights. But it's mostly a way to put some completion on an exciting and challenging learning experience, Roetzer says. The winning team receives black chefs' coats courtesy of Mission Linens; those in second place get chefs' knives from Nobel Sysco; and the third-place team takes home microplanes from the Santa Fe School of Cooking.

Judges for this year's Iron Chef-like competition include chefs Rocky Durham and Noe Cano from the Santa Fe School of Cooking and Peter Dent and Alain-Paul Jourand of Adobe Catering, along with instructors from SFCC's Culinary Arts program.

Last year, 100 spectators showed up to watch the cooks in action — the competition is free and open to the public — and to sample the dishes at the end of the competition, Roetzer says. She'd like many more to come this year to cheer on her talented and deserving students.




WHAT: The Black Box Challenge. Students completing the International Cuisine class in the Culinary Arts program at Santa Fe Community College are given a black box of secret ingredients, then have three hours to create a delicious meal. Spectators are encouraged to attend, cheer on the teams and sample the foods they prepare at the end of the challenge.

WHEN: 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Culinary Arts Lab, Room 409, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 S. Richards Ave., Santa Fe

FOR DIRECTIONS OR MORE INFORMATION: Log onto www.sfccnm.edu or call 428-1435.