Teacher Spotlight: Suzanne Long, culinary arts at Deer Park High School 

This month Newsday will begin highlighting the passionate, engaging and innovative educators of Long Island in a new Teacher Spotlight feature. Nominate those who create curriculums that advance learning, leave lasting impacts on students for years to come or have received state or national recognition by sending details to LILife@Newsday.com.

When Suzanne Long began teaching family and consumer science at Deer Park High School in 2022, there was just one culinary arts class with about 20 students. Today the school offers three sections, accommodating about 60 students interested in learning kitchen skills like proper knife handling or making stock.

“We’ve been able to grow that and triple the amount of classes in the past three years,” said Long, 36, of Sea Cliff. “It’s been really cool.”

Student interest has exploded in the culinary programs since Long, a trained chef, arrived, with classes filling up quickly, said Principal Charlie Cobb.

“I attribute that primarily to her experiences and all the things she brings to the classroom every day,” Cobb said.

Long worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver and various restaurants in Colorado, and had been a private chef in New York before she became a teacher.

“Eventually it [cooking professionally] wasn’t fulfilling enough,” she said. “I wanted to do something more to help people, so I decided that I would go back to school and try to teach.”

Deer Park’s culinary course is broken up into two semesters. In Culinary Arts 1, students learn kitchen safety and etiquette, basic knife skills and the concept of mise en place — having everything you’ll need at the ready. In Culinary Arts 2, they learn how to make sauces and completed dishes.

She also teaches cultural foods at Robert Frost Middle School in Deer Park, where the students learn about regional cuisine through cooking.

Vanessa Langdon, director of the district’s Social Studies and Family and Consumer Science departments, is impressed with how Long inspires her students to engage in community outreach, such as cooking with middle school students with special needs.

“She teaches the students not only the skills, but she allows them the opportunity to explore those skills as well,” Langdon said.

Each spring, Long takes her Culinary Arts 2 students to visit Suffolk County Community College’s Culinary Arts Program in Riverhead. Former student Peter Dowd is now in his second semester in the school’s baking and pastry program.

“In my opinion, I could never work an office job,” said Dowd, who plans to go to the Culinary Institute of America and hopes to own his own bakery. “Cooking and running around the classroom and trying to put together recipes under Ms. Long, I found that it was really fun. I really enjoyed it, which made me look more into going into a culinary job.”

Imparting life skills is its own reward for Long.

“Everyone has to eat, so we might as well eat good, home-cooked, nutritious food,” she said.