Even when the guns are barking, students of Denham Town High School keep on cooking, hauling home medals from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's (JCDC) Festival of Food competition and chalking up passes in Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams.

One year, as bullets whizzed about near the school, 17 students held their nerve long enough to focus on their food and nutrition, home economics management and clothing exams.

That was in 1996, recalls Novette Rose, head of the home economics department. All 17 passed.

Located in one of downtown Kingston's tough inner cities, Denham Town High doesn't normally make the list when educators and commentators are tallying high-school successes.

Poverty-stricken

The school's location in a poverty-stricken neighbourhood scarred by violent crime has smeared its image and reinforced stereotypes, says principal Audrey Williams. But she says her 1,453 students have little time to stew in the negativity. Those in the home economics department are too busy hammering out tantalising recipes like mackerel pizza with cassava as the base, turn cassava and gungo-stuffed pigeon with paprika sauce.

Since 1994, Denham Town High has established its supremacy in the kitchen, winning so many prizes in the JCDC culinary competition that they've stopped counting, says Rose. This year alone, the students walked away with seven trophies, seven gold medals, seven silver, one bronze and a certificate, as well as the titles of most outstanding and most innovative school.

Gold-medal dishes

In fact, Denham Town High has done so well that in 2004 it sat out the culinary competition, taking a breather from creating gold-medal dishes like boiled cow's tongue with turned vegetables.

Pamella Powell, head of the JCDC's culinary programme, says Denham Town High is always among the crème de la crème of the more than 100 entrants.

"They have been consistent over the years and this is largely due to the effort of the teachers in ensuring a high standard. They also attend the culinary arts workshops which is critical to the competition," Powell explains.

The school also reaps kudos from the judges because of creative, offbeat dishes, notes Powell.

"For the students, winning medals and trophies is motivating," says Rose. "It gives them a sense of achievement. For the teachers, it tells us that we've helped and we've touched their lives. It also shows the students that hard work pays off.

Perseverance

"We always tell them they can do whatever they set out to do. The only barrier is yourself," adds Rose, who often motivates students by her life story of perseverance despite becoming pregnant at 16.

After dropping out of Titchfield High School in Port Antonio, Portland, she enrolled in the Vocational Training Division of HEART Trust in Kingston and later graduated from the hospitality food service supervisory and management programme at the University of Technology (UTech) as the most outstanding student.

Andrew McLeish, who graduated from Denham Town High 10 years ago, sings the praises of his former teachers.

"I loved all my teachers, but the three I really appreciated were Mrs Rose, Mrs (Faith) Martin and Mrs (Dawn) Hamilton. They pushed me to achieve what I have now. They said, 'Listen, you can achieve what you want in life, all you have to do is hold your head high'."

By day, McLeish, 28, works as the lab assistant and chef at Denham Town High.

Head chef

Weekends and evenings find him at the City View Hotel in Smokey Vale, St Andrew, where he's head chef. He also runs a catering service. In his spare time, he takes courses to upgrade his skills and works with the Jamaica American Friendship Association, which raises money for children's homes and sponsors needy students attending post-secondary institutions.

Cooking, he says, has been his passion since age 12 when he watched his mother in the kitchen and then his aunt in Southside, St Elizabeth, who used to do 'spoon stan' up' (soup swamped with gungo peas), puddings with the custard on top, bammies and cassava dumplings.

"It really inspired me," adds McLeish, who grew up in a single-mother home in Olympic Gardens, a rough community in west central St Andrew.

"I'm from the inner city, but my mother taught us well, and I can say that it doesn't matter the community you're coming from. Always remember to fly like an eagle. When you have an eagle spirit, you will always soar high. When you have an inner-city mind, you'll believe nothing good can come out of you."

McLeish is one of the many success stories cooked up in the food lab at Denham Town High. Over the years, students have progressed to jobs in local and overseas hotels. One even attended the renowned Johnson and Wales culinary school in Florida and is now working at the prestigious Le Meridien hotel in New York City. Others have started catering and baking businesses, says Rose, who has been at the school since 1992.

There are times, she adds, when violence flares, tempting teachers to throw in the towel and leave for good. But their passion to produce top-class students and save a generation is stronger.

"(Sometimes) it comes to mind to leave, but then we ask ourselves, if we're not going to do it, who will?

"Some teachers will come and last only a day but I choose to stay because I have a job to do and we have good students who are willing to work and excel," Rose explains.

Faith Martin, who has a degree in home economics from the University of Technology, says people were shocked when she decided to teach at a non-traditional inner-city school in 1995.

Hard work

"These students are like children everywhere and they remind us of ourselves when we were their age," she says. "Plus, they appreciate our effort and reward us with hard work."

For Dominic Hunter, 18, who graduated in July, there was nothing hard about home economics because of the superb guidance from teachers there.

His happiest day came in April 2007 when he won a gold

medal for his escoveitch chicken, and silver for his yam mousse, at the 2007 JCDC Festival of Food competition.

"It exposed me to a lot of people who got to see that people like us from Denham Town can produce good things. A lot of people underestimate us," notes Hunter, who lives in the gritty community of Wilton Gardens, better known as Rema.

Badly wounded

His low point happened several months later, when his father was shot and badly wounded on New Year's Day 2008.

Yet, throughout that heartache, "Dominic kept on coming to school. He never stopped," says Williams, the principal.

"For some students, school is their sanctuary (from the harshness of the outside world)," she adds.

Hunter, who first tried his hand at tin mackerel and white rice at home and is often called on by his neighbours to cook chicken, dreams of one day becoming an executive chef. For now, he works as a houseman at the Hilton hotel in New Kingston where he first went on school work experience in March. He did so well that he was hired permanently in August.

"I never thought I would work in a place like that," says the quiet teen, who is eager to leave his mark on the industry. "My mother was so glad and I felt proud and happy that first day when I put on my uniform.

"I can't wait to see morning come so that I can go to work."

He draws inspiration, he says, from Andrew McLeish, who often hires him to work at weddings and other functions at which he caters. "He (McLeish) is always encouraging us and I watch the way he does things. I admire his quick hand movements when he's chopping the vegetables."

Unrivalled success

The headmistress says Denham Town High is proof that departing from the main diet of scholarship - English, maths and science - can earn students unrivalled success.

Maureen Dwyer, education officer from the Ministry of Education's Region One, agrees. "It's a shame people don't think of excellence there. They have danced and expressed themselves through culture.

"Excellence expresses itself in many ways but we've confined it to just academics. We need a broader definition of how we determine excellence."

The children are talented, insists Williams, who points to wins in speech competitions and the recent school-leaving ceremony which was managed by the students.

Plus, their resourcefulness is astounding, she adds.

"If my kids are out with someone and the car breaks down, they can sort it out and get it going. Students in the machine shop (for a modest stipend) help us to fix and recycle old and broken chairs and desks.

"One boy, after school, does a royal business in fry fry. He fries chicken, breadfruit, dumplings and so on, and sells it to the community."

The achievements of these students "show that with the right guidance all things are possible, whether you are coming from humble or elevated origins," says business and life coach Christine Morris, who conducts a workshop called 'Getting the Best out of our Children'.

"It's about encouraging your children to have faith in their choices and for the adults in their lives to believe in them and champion their efforts in whatever area they choose," she says.

Run like the wind

Grade 10 student Keshawn Champagnie, who loves being in the kitchen and bakes every chance he gets, had a point to prove to his mother, Keisha Williams, earlier this year.

While she wants him to run like the wind, Champagnie prefers to have his gold medal performances in the kitchen. In April, the 15-year-old struck gold with his Ducks on a Pond cake at the 2008 Festival of Food competition.

His mother told him to stick to running. However, with a certificate from last year's competition for his leisure loaf (a concoction of bread with bacon and peas), he was burning to go for gold the second time around.

"I just want to bake. I want to make pastries. I bake almost every day although my grandmother cuss about the gas," says Champagnie, whose $1,000 baking ventures are funded by remittances from his mom in New York.

Kitchen duties come naturally, he says. Fired up by his aunt, Camille Grant, who has stoked his interest in cooking, his first solo attempt was a chocolate cake with icing. Since then he has moved on to pineapple upside-down cake (his favourite) and cherry and chocolate cakes.

Education Officer Maureen Dwyer says she's not surprised to find excellence at Denham Town High. "The school has an encouraging environment and the principal has a way of pulling the school community together and encouraging students.

"We need to celebrate the achievements of these children. We don't want to associate them with just their environment. They are children of Jamaica and once a Jamaican child excels, it's cause to celebrate," she adds.

Grace Cameron is editor-in-chief of JamaicanEats magazine.

Althea McFarlane-Allen has been teaching in the Home and Economics Department since 1995.

Dawn Hamilton has been helping students cook up creative recipes since 1994. - Photos by Carlington Wilmot

Novette Rose, head of the Home Economics Department, leans on Faith Martin, a teacher in the department.