The Unsung Heroism of Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake. Unassuming, humble, reliable, uniform, lovable chocolate cake. It may not inspire ooh’s and ahh’s on the display case, but in the end, it often triumphs over its more pretentious peers.
Rachel Rietz, unsung hero of Culinary Arts for the year 2004, has baked many a chocolate cake, and has begun to assume their characteristics, much like dog-owners whose discrepancies with their canines gradually decline over the years.
Rachel is a soft-spoken, self-described “shy and quiet” girl, without the frivolities of cookie crumbles or peanut-butter mousse. She is fluffy and sugared, with a dash of excitement, cinnamon perhaps.
Rachel’s eyes gather in giggling glee when asked to describe herself. She adds ‘fun’ to her list of self-descriptive adjectives. Rachel seems happy and comfortable with herself; she isn’t the ostentatious Amoretto Cheese Cake or the defensive, easily shaken Angel Food Cake. She is just pleasant and unpretentious.
Rachel has had a love for cooking since she was little. After attending Ridgeley Middle School, she decided to come to Carver to learn more about the culinary arts. “I’ve learned patience at Carver,” Rachel declares. “I’ve learned to be open to new ideas. If I hadn’t come to Carver, I would have gone to my home school; I wouldn’t have learned to be accepting.”
Her Culinary teacher, Chef J. adds that she has been raised well, and she is “responsible, reliable and studious.”
“It takes a lot to run the café,” Chef J. explains. “It’s exhausting. When Rachel comes down to me saying, ‘Chef J., what do we need?’ it’s like a godsend.” Apparently, Rachel has been volunteering to shop for the food needed in Carver’s Café for the past two years. “I do a lot for the class,” she admits. Rachel is a Teacher’s Aid this year and spends a lot of her free time running errands for the class.
Much like the under-appreciated plain chocolate cake, Rachel doesn’t grab your attention and make her attributes known. “I’m not sure her fellow Culinary Arts students are aware how much she helps out,” says Chef J., who wanted to honor her with the title ‘Unsung Hero’. “She has helped me out a lot so that I can utilize my planning period as a planning period, not a shopping period. It’s been really beneficial.”
Rachel says one of her favorite culinary experiences has been baking cakes. Chocolate, if you must know. And just like her esteemed chocolate cake, Chef J. explains that Rachel is a staple of the banquet that is her class. “In the seafood unit, [her class] had to do one page typed about a fish or shellfish. Rachel turned in about eight pages, with pictures. She just dove; she got on a roll and kept adding.” Rachel’s eyes get wide with self-conscious delight remembering this anecdote. “It was just a lobster…” she giggles. “It was mostly pictures.”
Next year, Rachel is planning to attend nursing school at Essex. She says Carver will play a big part of her future success, emphasizing that she’s learned “patience and openness.”
Chef J. is convinced Rachel will be successful “because she’s consistently done her work and that’s just her upbringing with her parents.”
Rachel Reitz, class of 2004, has been beneficial to her class, her teacher, the café, and Carver as a whole. Rachel may not be the most talked-about Culinary student, but chocolate cake is certainly not the most talked-about dessert. And what would we do, where would we be, without our beautifully basic fallback, the chocolate cake?