LA GRANDE — High school and middle school students in the La Grande School District treated their classmates to a taste of the South Pacific the past week.

La Grande High School and La Grande Middle School students were served Hawaiian tacos during lunches prepared by their classmates under the direction of Chris Murray, the corporate chef of Taher, Inc., the food service firm the La Grande School District contracts with to help provide its meals.

Murray, who is from Minnesota, made his third visit to the La Grande School District as guest chef. Each time he introduces students to dishes they likely were unfamiliar with. Murray, during his last visit in February 2020, helped students prepare Vietnamese entrees.

“We want to expose kids to new food from throughout the world,” Murray said. “You can explore cultures through food.”

The Hawaiian tacos served over the past week featured pork belly, something Murray said he chose to “warm people up in the middle of winter.”

Murray spent hours teaching students about the art of cooking during his visit. He said he strives to boost the culinary skills of students for a practical reason during his sessions in La Grande.

“It is a life skill. If you can cook you can get a job almost anywhere in the world,” he said.

A key to becoming a successful cook is knowing how to cut effectively, he said, which is why Murray always focuses on teaching students knife skills at the start of his instructional sessions.

“One of the reasons we start with knives is that we want to emphasize safety,” Murray said.

The corporate chef, whose job takes him throughout the world, always enjoys his visits to La Grande.

“This is one of my favorite places to come,” he said. “It is beautiful and the people are great.”

LHS junior Mason De Jong credits Murray with being an outstanding teacher.

“He makes it fun and very easy to learn,” he said.

De Jong is a student in one of Rhonda Calhoon’s food and travel class at LHS. The students in these classes prepared and served the Hawaiian tacos for LHS students on Wednesday, March 16.

At La Grande Middle School 33 of its students prepared and served Hawaiian tacos at lunch under Murray’s direction on Thursday, March 17.

Calhoon said that as a corporate chef, Murray travels around the world finding recipes that he later re-creates. She said this was important for students to see, explaining being a chef doesn’t necessarily mean only working in a restaurant.

Heather Torres, who also works for Taher, Inc., and is the director of the school district’s food service program, said Murray “is fun and energetic.”

Torres also said Murray is outstanding at communicating with students.

Calhoon agreed, praising the chef’s ability to explain to students the importance of the concepts he was teaching.

“He did a good job of answering the whys,” she said.

Calhoon said it was a particular delight to have Murray visit her classes because it has been a long time since guests were allowed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This makes it more exciting for the students,” she said.