{"id":14883,"date":"2025-08-20T08:22:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=14883"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:05:39","slug":"staff-spotlight-lars-mitsuda-culinary-arts-teacher-moanalua-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/staff-spotlight-lars-mitsuda-culinary-arts-teacher-moanalua-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Spotlight: Lars Mitsuda, culinary arts teacher (Moanalua High)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Moanalua<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lars Mitsuda<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ti\u00eau \u0111\u1ec1: <\/strong>Culinary arts teacher
\u0110\u1ecba \u0111i\u1ec3m l\u00e0m vi\u1ec7c: <\/strong>Tr\u01b0\u1eddng trung h\u1ecdc Moanalua
S\u1ed1 n\u0103m trong HIDOE: <\/strong>15 years
S\u1ed1 n\u0103m gi\u1eef ch\u1ee9c v\u1ee5:<\/strong> 10 n\u0103m<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: H\u00e3y m\u00f4 t\u1ea3 ng\u1eafn g\u1ecdn con \u0111\u01b0\u1eddng s\u1ef1 nghi\u1ec7p c\u1ee7a b\u1ea1n.<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T:<\/strong> I always wanted to be a teacher. I always knew that I loved education. I have a culinary arts degree, bachelor\u2019s degree in business and a master\u2019s in secondary education. I taught English at \u2018Ilima Intermediate for five years and later transferred to Moanalua High School. I started teaching business and English. Eventually, the culinary teaching position opened up. Prior to teaching, I\u2019ve worked various back-of-house roles in restaurants in Washington State and Hawai\u02bbi. I\u2019m lucky to get the opportunity to teach culinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: Nhi\u1ec7m v\u1ee5 ch\u00ednh c\u1ee7a b\u1ea1n l\u00e0 g\u00ec?<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T: <\/strong>I teach all grade levels at Moanalua High School\u2014fundamentals all the way up to advanced culinary arts. I work as a team with co-teachers Justine Perkins and Laura Harada. We run a certified kitchen on campus and prepare food for numerous events. We also participate in a lot of community events such as the Okinawan Festival, The Best of Hawai\u02bbi’s Best Kitchens, and the Aloun Farms gala and competition, all of which I help to organize. We also host a brunch on campus where we invite culinary colleges, industry professionals and Moanalua culinary alumni to network and learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: Ph\u1ea7n y\u00eau th\u00edch nh\u1ea5t trong c\u00f4ng vi\u1ec7c n\u00e0y l\u00e0 g\u00ec?<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T:<\/strong> I love seeing my students reach their culinary goals and having them come back and teach me something. I have alumni who are working at many James Beard-nominated restaurants such as The Pig and the Lady, MW, Bread Shop, Bar Maze, F\u00eate\u2013I\u2019m very proud of that! It feels like a huge accomplishment that we\u2019re producing talent. I have the former students come back to give a lesson to my current students. I also get to shadow them at their restaurants and they share with me the things they\u2019re learning and it keeps me current. I then bring it back to the class, so it\u2019s full circle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: Ph\u1ea7n kh\u00f3 kh\u0103n nh\u1ea5t trong c\u00f4ng vi\u1ec7c c\u1ee7a b\u1ea1n l\u00e0 g\u00ec?<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T:<\/strong> We have a limited facility, but what we do with it is amazing. Also making students understand that the culinary industry takes a lot of dedication and it\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s not you \u201cjust eat food all day.\u201d The industry requires sacrifice and a growth mindset. It\u2019s a lot of hard work, but to watch them thrive is amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: Vai tr\u00f2 c\u1ee7a b\u1ea1n h\u1ed7 tr\u1ee3 s\u1ef1 th\u00e0nh c\u00f4ng c\u1ee7a sinh vi\u00ean nh\u01b0 th\u1ebf n\u00e0o?<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T:<\/strong> We support students to achieve their goals in the culinary arts and have tried to focus on supporting Hawai\u2018i regional cuisine to support our island community. Whether students wish to simply enhance their cooking skills or they wish to continue their culinary skills professionally, our program offers lessons in fundamental baking, cooking and overall kitchen operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: B\u1ea1n c\u00f3 l\u1eddi khuy\u00ean n\u00e0o cho nh\u1eefng ng\u01b0\u1eddi \u0111ang c\u00e2n nh\u1eafc v\u1ecb tr\u00ed n\u00e0y kh\u00f4ng?<\/strong>
M\u1ed8T: <\/strong> If you would like to teach culinary arts I would recommend finding a mentor that will support your goals and vision. If you have a willingness to learn and grow, everything will come into place. You don’t have to be a masterful chef to be a good teacher. Having culinary skills helps, but if you\u2019re willing to learn, then you\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Fun fact<\/strong>?
M\u1ed8T:<\/strong> I have had the opportunity to work for some high-end restaurants and have done stages (job shadowing) in New York City, San Francisco and restaurants all around O\u02bbahu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you a Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education employee and want to share about how your role supports student success? Please fill out <\/em>h\u00ecnh th\u1ee9c n\u00e0y<\/em><\/a> <\/em>for a chance to be featured as a future staff spotlight.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lars Mitsuda Title: Culinary arts teacherJob site: Moanalua High SchoolYears in the HIDOE: 15 yearsYears in the position: 10 years Q: Briefly describe your career path.A: I always wanted to be a teacher. I always knew that I loved education. I have a culinary arts degree, bachelor\u2019s degree in business and a master\u2019s in secondary […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"10412,9953,10994,15932,10154,16644","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hoohaaheo","category-staff-spotlight"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":22,"label":"Ho\u2018oha\u2018aheo"},{"value":58,"label":"Staff Spotlight"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kim Yuen","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/author\/kimberly-yuenk12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":22,"name":"Ho\u2018oha\u2018aheo","slug":"hoohaaheo","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":22,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":69,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":22,"category_count":69,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Ho\u2018oha\u2018aheo","category_nicename":"hoohaaheo","category_parent":0},{"term_id":58,"name":"Staff Spotlight","slug":"staff-spotlight","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":58,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":22,"count":28,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":58,"category_count":28,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Staff Spotlight","category_nicename":"staff-spotlight","category_parent":22}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 15:04:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}