Students representing nine career and technical education high school culinary programs learned the finer points of fine dining on Oct. 25 at the fall dinner of Les Amis d’Escoffier Society of New York, an organization of gourmands who support culinary education. “A lot of kids, their idea of food is McDonald’s,” said Michael Colon, a chef instructor at John Dewey HS in Brooklyn. The event, at Current at Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, “enlightened them,” said Colon. “It was a beautiful place to have a function, with food to match, and they got to see what fine dining is all about.” Jaycee Fernandez, 17, a senior at Long Island City HS in Queens, said it was her “first time at a high-end event where they do presentations differently.” She said the students watched staff in the hectic kitchen prepare to serve 200, “organizing and plating and working together to fit the standards,” not unlike at school where students “communicate with each other and work together to get the recipes done.” CTE and industry professionals, in turn, got to see the students at work. The dinner, which honored UFT President Michael Mulgrew as the society’s Man of the Year, was put together by Executive Chef Philip DeMaiolo, who along with teachers has created the CTE culinary curriculum. DeMaiolo, the chairman of the New York City Culinary Commission, “wants to make sure young people know what’s needed in the industry and reach certain benchmarks” in their studies, Colon said. Yamila Cortes-Rodriquez, 16, an 11th-grader at Dewey, said students were tasked with explaining what they were serving at food stations, where Jaycee learned “you have to greet people so they are attracted to your station and want to interact with you.” The event “opened our minds to different experiences in the hospitality industry,” Yamila said. “The experience convinced me this is something I want to do later on.” Colon, who sees promise in the budding chef, said, “Working with urban kids, you can change somebody’s life” with experiences like this.