Magazine features cooking students

The aroma emanating from the Harlem High School ProStart kitchen recently whet the appetite of a national magazine.

The cooking students are featured in the December issue of Southern Living magazine's Georgia Living section, which is a segment printed solely for Georgia copies.

"It's awesome," said Barbara Howard, the family and consumer sciences teacher at Harlem High. "It's absolutely fabulous and the students are beside themselves. The whole school is."

The article highlights the school's ProStart culinary program; mentions the school's restaurant, Bone Appetite; and discusses its catering service, Foods to Go.

The magazine hit news stands Monday and the exposure already has yielded results for the school.

"We've already gotten people calling us to make reservations," Howard said.

Only open one day a month for about two hours, Howard said, Bone Appetite, which was named as a wink to the school's bulldog mascot, serves about 60 to 75 diners when in operation. She predicts even greater success for the project.

"It has the potential to be way up there," she said.

More than bringing in new customers, and added revenue, Howard hopes the article might intrigue the surrounding restaurant community.

"I would really, really like to get more industry people involved in the program," she said. "Get some professional chefs or hospitality professionals to give some guest lectures, give some demonstrations and even support us financially."

Now that Southern Living has written on the program, another magazine has shown interest, Howard said.

Restaurant News, a national trade publication, has committed to spotlighting Harlem High as well.

Howard said she doesn't know when the Restaurant News article will be published.

Despite the accolades and extra attention, the article and impending article only reinforce what Howard said she already knew.

"I personally thought the ProStart professional foods program was a great program prior to this," she said. "This is giving a lot of students focus and a clue as to what they want to do after school."