Recipes from Cleburne High School’s Café Guêpe and including several of legendary teacher and cook Sandra Gilliland are featured in a new cookbook benefiting the high school’s culinary arts program.

“Cleburne Culinary Arts,” containing the most-requested from the high school’s Café Guêpe, French for “Jacket Café,” is available for $20. Proceeds from the sale of the cookbooks will be used to purchase equipment for the CHS culinary arts program.

“The sale of the cookbooks will be used to enhance our program and help us purchase equipment for our kitchen and preparation area,” said culinary arts teacher Ann Lowrie. “We’d like to have round tables in our serving area, to make it feel more like a restaurant setting.”

“We’re hoping we can also add a steamer and maybe a commercial refrigerator,” Lowrie said. “Our goal is to expose our students to the same conditions and atmosphere of a “real” restaurant and the same type of equipment they will be using in commercial kitchens.”

Now in its second year of operation, the culinary arts program’s Café Guêpe provides first and second year students with hands-on restaurant and catering experience as students prepare and serve luncheons for the CHS faculty and district events.

“Students in our first and second period classes do the prep work and our second year students prepare and serve the meal,” Lowrie said. “The feedback we have received from our staff has been phenomenal and very beneficial to our students and program.”

The Cleburne Culinary Arts Cookbook is dedicated to Gilliland, who taught commercial food service at CHS for more than 30 years, and introduced the culinary arts program into the career and technology curriculum in 2003-04.

“Mrs. Gilliland created a legacy before she retired,” Lowrie said. “We know a lot of people will want this cookbook knowing that it includes her recipes. We will always be very appreciative of her dedication to CHS and the culinary arts program.”

The cookbook includes recipes for appetizers, soups and salads, vegetables and side dishes, main dishes, breads and rolls, desserts, cookies and candy and a bit of “this and that.”

“There are some prize-winning recipes and several that meet Weight Watchers guidelines,” Lowrie said. “It is a very nice book, and we designed it in three-ring binder form because we plan to come out with more recipes next year, which can be added to the book, rather than having to purchase a new book each time.”

To purchase a cookbook, contact Lowrie at 817-202-1209 or by e-mail at ann.lowrie@cleburne.k12.tx.us. Books may also be purchased at the CISD Central Offices, 505 N. Ridgeway, Suite 100.