Instead, it’s the Bears Bistro at lunchtime every Thursday at Bradley Central High School, when students in the high school’s culinary arts program get a fast and furious taste of what the food service business is all about.

It’s a popular choice for students in a high school that offers a wide array of career and technical paths from auto to welding, chef Richmond Flowers said.

“I don’t know who was involved in designing our school. But I can tell you a couple of things they thought a lot of — vocational education and athletics,” Mr. Flowers said as students hurried to meet the scheduled lunch time.

Except for an old baker’s oven, equipment has been replaced over the years, he said, “but the design is top-notch.”

Senior Joseph Owenby is one of the students hustling out food Thursday.

“I love to cook, and I hope to make a career out of it,” Mr. Owenby said.

“A typical day is really demanding. Get me this. Get me that. A little more of this. A little more of that,” he said. And it’s all mixed in with a big measure of academics.

He and a friend, James Maney, recently went to Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., to check out the culinary school they plan to attend after graduation.

Mr. Maney said he came to the culinary arts program by accident.

“I had a class next door and looked in here and liked what they were doing,” he said. “Not many people can say they love their job.”

After school, he works in the kitchen at Chattanooga’s Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

“It’s busier there, but we do the same procedures here,” he said.

He will be competing later this year in the Best Teen Chef high school competition organized by The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes, a national program.

“You create a recipe and if you are selected, you go to their campuses to compete,” he said. Those winners go on to a national competition in Las Vegas.

Two months from now he also will be in a state high school chef’s competition.

“They give you a set of recipes, and you have a time limit,” he said.

Outside the kitchen bustle Thursday, Victoria Fortenberry, Samantha Cummings and Jana Wooten set up the bistro dining room.

Miss Fortenberry said that if she goes to culinary school she wants to study business management, too.

“I figure if I work hard at one aspect at a time, I can move on and have one heck of a diner,” she said.

The culinary arts program is divided into three levels, Chef Flowers explained.

The first level is a basic introduction. Then comes the hard level, where students learn all areas of food preparation and serving. The third level is more of a management class.

“It’s a 100 percent student business,” Mr. Flowers said. Students get a chance to work in and run one of the four divisions, the Bear Bistro, Bistro Biscuits, Bistro Bakery and catering.

The small bistro dining room fills up quickly at lunch with people from the community. On Thursday police officers, educators and parents paid $5 to pick from a menu that included several entrees, soup, salad and dessert.

During the school year, representatives from some of the nation’s major culinary schools visit the Bradley Central program, Mr. Flowerw said.

But he said he watches his students’ academic performance.

“If I pull your report card and you are not achieving what I think you can achieve, we are going to talk about it,” he said.

Principal Johnny McDaniel and Mr. Flowers are planning to incorporate a math class into the culinary program next year, creating a kind of academy for the students.

“High school students always ask, ‘When will I ever use this?’ Well, we use algebra every day. They may not know it as that,” he said.

And if the math goes well, English could be added as an academy subject the following year, he said.