FARMINGTON — Young chefs in training in Sean Minear’s culinary arts class on Monday were flying through their kitchen classroom at the Foster Technology Center Annex, whipping up eggs Benedict, Monte Cristos sandwiches, steamed broccoli, hash browns, pancakes, blueberry muffins and sweet Thai coffee.

In 90 minutes, it was all on the table, and the novice cooks were standing by their chairs.

This is the third week of class, and most of them had never heard of hollandaise sauce or knew it went over eggs Benedict. Or that Monte Cristos were yummy, batter-dipped sandwiches filled with ham and cheese and then fried.

“I’ve done this lab with my classes for years, and this is the first time all the food was done and on the table in time,” Minear said during his critique as he sat around the table with his nine students.

He calls the lab, “Survivor: The Kitchen Experience.”

An open house with refreshments prepared by Minear’s classes will be held tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Annex at 374 High St. in Farmington.

Visitors are invited to meet the teachers and tour the 10 departments that have set up quarters in newly renovated space at the rear of the former Franklin Shoe factory. The temporary relocation is part of the two-year, $65 million expansion and renovation project of Foster Tech and Mt. Blue High School on Whittier Road.

“My goal is to have the students learn to work together,” Minear said as his students whizzed around him in the compact commercial kitchen and class space.

“We have kids here from three different schools. They don’t know each other, and I want them to start talking to each other. This is a taste of what the real world work experience would be like — a new kitchen, new people, new projects. It is outside of their comfort zone,” he said.

“This lab is a great way to get them to use our resources and learn about cooperation.”

At the start of the class, he handed out the menu and gave the students 90 minutes to whip it all up.

Minear’s post-prep criticism, delivered while they ate together, was gentle.

Too much ground pepper in the hollandaise sauce overpowered the lemon juice. Pancakes were cold because they were made too early. Blueberry muffins were blue because the batter was overmixed.

And recipes should be based on yield and available ingredients — not because they were the first found.

He had compliments on their cooperation and organization, their speedy research for recipes, their collaborative prep work, the food made from scratch and their speed.

“I don’t care how the food comes out. My goal is that it got you talking to each other,” he said. “It is process vs. product.”

The students were also amazed at their own accomplishments.

“The food came out great,” Elena Loring said.

Loring was digging into the hollandaise sauce she had prepared on her first try ever, using the recipe and ingredients “mise en place” — culinary talk for “prepped” — by her peers.

“We really learned how to develop our team work,” Jared White said.

Other students in the class are Tia Holt, Marina West, Gabby Fellman, Tiara Trinkler, Tabby Huntoon, Krysta Luther and Katelyn Holbrook.

Open house tonight at school’s annex on High Street

Open house from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Foster Technology Center Annex at 374 High St. in Farmington in the former Franklin Shoe factory. Ten programs have been temporarily relocated here and new classrooms built due to the renovation and expansion at Mt. Blue High School and Foster Tech.