Ms. Gina Chianese teaches food safety and sanitation.

Students open the supply cabinets and gather their materials. They set out all the ingredients on the counter and wait for instruction so they can begin to make their masterpieces. Ms. Gina Chianese shows them what to do and they begin their process of making their creations. Ms. Chianese works as a Family and Consumer Science Teacher and her job involves mainly planning and organizing lessons related to nutrition and culinary skills.

“I had a passion to become a teacher, ” Ms. Chianese said.

She says that something about making food just makes students happy. The students have groups they cook with to help the cooking process go faster and help build teamwork skills. Chianese was a natural at cooking and enjoys that aspect of her job.

“I was always good at teaching people how to cook,” Ms. Chianese said.

As a young child, Ms. Chianese grew up in Burleson, Texas. Her parents were from Zimbabwe and South Africa. She has gone over there to visit with family before and she always has a good time.

“Burleson used to be a smaller town when I was a kid,” Ms. Chianese said. “My, how it is huge.”

Ms. Chianese feels most passionate about cooking, traveling, taking mini vacations around Texas, and above all, her family. She would love to have kids one day and go traveling to countries like Italy, Greece, England, Spain, and the continent of Australia.

“My mother has had an influence in not only my personal life but in my professional life as well,” Ms. Chianese said.

She wishes to prepare students for their future in terms of cooking for themselves, so they can learn how to make different recipes. Her students favorite foods to make in her class consist of hamburger sliders, pies, muffins, and pizza bites.

“I love to begin cooking labs with students,” Ms. Chianese said. “I’m looking forward to seeing students gaining important life skills and have tons of fun making food.”