Under Pressure: Culinary Seniors Run The Cafe

By: Yuridia Pena 

March 10, 2026

While most students see the cafe as another place to grab lunch, culinary seniors experience it differently. Behind the scenes, seniors are held to high expectations, time limits, and pressure from fellow peers. As for the ones running it, cafe days are more stressful than normal. 

“Time is very limited in the kitchen, you constantly have to limit certain things and manage your time better,” said James Morely Harris 

Managing time effectively is one of the biggest challenges seniors face. Students are expected to create large portions of food within a certain time period with little to no time, often causing the seniors stress. Once 1st lunch ends, students have 30 minutes to prep, cook, and restock the cafe. 

“One time, we were making dough, and we forgot the yeast. This made us feel very stressed because we weren’t able to put that item out for sale that day,” said Catalina Lopez

Mistakes in the kitchen force seniors to adjust fast and rapidly, which they have gotten good at. Oftentimes, some of these mistakes cannot be fixed, and the pressure gets put on the front-of-house cafe employees. 

“Working at the cafe often puts the pressure on us, the employees, because students demand everything fast, and it's just not possible with the amount of orders we receive.” said Yariel Gomez

Although the cafe seems like a simple place where everyone can purchase food for the culinary students, it's much more. Culinary seniors handle real world pressure. What seems like just food to others is a rapid high demand responsibility.