San Dimas High School has an extremely active culinary program. Mr. Brandler, our culinary teacher, not only teaches introduction and advanced culinary classes, he also leads the program that allows San Dimas students to compete in culinary competitions. Recently, the culinary classroom went through a complete renovation. With all of the opportunities students have through the culinary program, however, comes a lot of effort and behind-the-scenes work from the person behind it all: Mr. Brandler.

Mr. Brandler always knew he was interested in being a chef. His culinary story begins with an early childhood memory. “I was like eight years old, I remember being in the car with my mom and she was like, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I said, ‘A chef.’ And it was because I loved food, like I absolutely loved food. It was, like, my favorite thing,” said Mr. Brandler. He started cooking, first as a hobby, and explains that he really fell in love with it. As a self-proclaimed “food nerd,” he said that he would often come home from school and immediately start cooking and experimenting with the ingredients laying around his house.

He began in the restaurant industry when he was only 15 years old, working at an Italian deli. After this, he began bussing tables and serving people at different restaurants. Mr. Brandler has a lot of experience in the restaurant industry, and he has done so many different jobs. “I’ve been a busser, a server, a food runner, a bartender, a banquet server, a banquet captain, assistant manager and manager of a restaurant and catering facility, manager of a restaurant and catering facility, and general manager of a corporation.” He has so much experience.

All of this experience helped him out a lot, when he eventually decided to move into the education field. This, however, was not an easy transition. He slowly transitioned into the field, starting out with a part time job, and eventually got a full time position as San Dimas High School’s culinary teacher.

Mr. Brandler says he loves his job. “I love teaching kids basic cooking skills, and making a difference in hundreds of kids’ lives,” said Mr. Brandler. “But the main reason is that there’s like 5-10 kids a year who are actually going to do this for the rest of their lives.” Mr. Brandler spends time focusing on these kids, taking them to off-campus events, tours, and meet mentors.

However, Mr. Brandler also shared the more difficult side of his job. “I do a lot of shopping on my own free time.” He dedicates a lot of time outside of school shopping for the class, and doing work for his many responsibilities as a teacher.

Additionally, the amount of money he has to work with often varies. “There are fluctuations in funding.” But Mr. Brandler doesn’t see this as a completely bad thing. He shared that he thinks it can be a good thing, because he gets creative with the amounts of money he has and he has learned how to manage it.

Mr. Brandler’s hard work and effort has a tremendous impact on the students in his class. “I took his class freshman year,” said Senior Marlie Walker. “I chose to come back junior year.”

Mr. Brandler’s passion and dedication shines in everything he does, and the San Dimas High School Culinary program is a testament to all of the hard work he’s done throughout the years.