Auburn Middle School has several after-school programs, all designed to encourage good study habits, exercise and peer interaction. Students can choose to go one, two or three days a week, but must attend the study hour prior to participating in any activities. Due to limited space, those who sign up for activities are encouraged to attend each week to avoid losing their spot. On Wednesday, April 29, the students in Sous Chef, taught by school resource officer Tom Poulin, held its last class of the session. It was a big event, as each student invited two people each and they prepared a five course meal with recipes that they voted on each week.

"This is a big day. The kids get really, really jazzed over being able to show off," said Luci Merin, director of the CLC program.

The cooking room was divided into four stations; each student or group of students was responsible for a course. At the first station, Bianca L'italien, an eighth-grader, was busy getting the marinara sauce for the pasta and chicken parmesan started.

Poulin assisted L'italien with the immersible blender/chopper as they added vegetables to the sauce. Garlic and olive oil were mixed in along with salt and pepper, before they moved the heavy duty pot to the stove.

Bianca's favorite dish made during this past session was their spin on chocolate cream pie, a sinful layering of pudding and cake in a crust and topped with homemade whipped cream.

Poulin is a chef himself and enjoys cooking and working with the students, teaching them a skill they can use throughout their lives. He graduated from the Culinary Institute in 1974 and opened Bagels and Things before selling it in 1985, prior to joining the Auburn Police Department.

Safe Haven of Androscoggin County gave Poulin a grant for the sous chef program. Poulin used the $4,000 to purchase a fryer, professional pots and pans, and an immersible blender, among other things, as well as the food ingredients. The grant made the program possible; Poulin and the kids make the program a huge success.

"The kids watch the food network, and they see all this stuff. They've never gotten to use this stuff before," said Poulin. "I got these pots at an auction from Quiznos when they went out of business with the grant money. These are not just ordinary pots."

The soup pots had extra heavy bottoms so the can be left on the stove without fear of burning what they hold.

At another station, eighth-grader Brenda Jimenez, seventh-grader Rachel Libbey and eighth-grader Sofia Qambi made pasta from scratch.

"We're going to be making mini cheese ravioli with Alfredo sauce," said Libbey.

Seventh-grader Shayna Spears was concentrating on the decadent dessert - chocolate cream pie. After flouring each cake pan, she carefully poured out equal amounts of the blended chocolate cake ingredients, before putting the cake into the preheated oven to bake.

Once the marinara sauce was finished, Poulin cut up chicken breasts and L'italien flattened them with a meat mallet, preparing them to be breaded and fried. Still waiting nearby was a tray of vegetables that would also be breaded and fried for tempura veggies.

The aroma of the cakes and sauce filled the room, and the energy in the room became a bit more intense as the minutes ticked away and the students realized they still had much to do.

"Work more, talk less," said Poulin, who directed the students to pay attention to time. Handling the busy atmosphere, Poulin was certainly in his element.

Arielle Moreau, an eighth-grader, was hard at work mixing bread dough. Moreau added cranberries to the first batch when Poulin came to check her progress.

"You remember how to make the bread? You need 10 ounces of water that's …" quizzed Poulin.

"Water that's warm to the touch," answered Moreau.

Moreau has taken the sous chef program since the beginning of the year. She loves to cook and thinks it's fun.

"Arielle's going to do this one more time. She knows what to do," said Poulin as he moved on to check on the pasta.

After mixing and rolling out the dough, Libbey cut it into sections, and Qambi prepped each section to go through the pasta press, while Jimenez got the next batch under way. Poulin showed the girls the correct way to use the press, refreshing what they'd learned the last time they made pasta. After being pressed, the pasta was cut and hung to dry on the improvised dryer.

Beth Scherpf, teacher of health and family consumer science and food and nutrition, assists with the program and finds that the students who are involved in sous chef are a great asset in her daily classes.

"It's helpful because they know their routine and their way around the kitchen., and I think they are much better working as a team," said Scherpf.

Sous chef sessions have been available since the beginning of the year and have had repeat signups from some of the students. The Community Learning Center has also offered rock wall climbing, weight lifting, swimming at the YWCA and knitting to name a few. All funding for the Get Active program is through grants from the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with the Auburn School Department.