C’est délicieux! St. Mary CSS hosts bakery contest to celebrate French culture

Dec. 6, 2024

On Friday, the drama room at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Cobourg was transformed into a French café complete with coffee, music and sweet and savoury baked treats.

Every year, the French department at St. Mary CSS puts on an event that celebrates French culture.

This year, it was a bakery contest where four teams of culinary students served up treats such as macarons to French Immersion and core French students.

“This event is a tradition at St. Mary. We call it ‘Les Francofolies’ – a celebration of the French language in our school,” said Marco Gagné, French teacher. “We want to do a nice event for our students where we communicate in French and embrace French culture.”

The event was a collaboration between the French department, arts and Hospitality and Tourism and Construction Specialist High Skills Major programs.

“Chef’s class prepared the food and presented it and the wood tech class made the plaques and the frames (for the bakery storefronts) and art students who made food art,” added Gagné,

The students then voted on their favourite treats.

“I think it’s really cool to involve other departments. It’s nice that the French department gets to bring the whole school together,” said Mikka Redrico, Grade 11 French Immersion student. “It’s important to showcase French culture, which is a big part of Canada. We get to share that with others and our French Canadian culture.” 

“It’s really fun and nice to experience French culture that’s somewhere that’s not particularly French speaking,” said Noah Raymond, Grade 11 French Immersion student.  “My parents are both French so it’s nice to see familiar things and eat familiar foods.”