Ms. Barnett is a staple at Harriton. She teaches with wisdom and patience how to cook everything from pizza to baked alaska. Basic Foods and Foreign Foods are some of the most popular and fun classes offered here, and it is hard to imagine these halls without the smells of her recipes. But times change, and in the second semester of next year it will come time for her to leave us. Ms. Barnett’s impending retirement leaves us, the askers of questions, with but one: Who is fit to fill her apron? Not even Ms. Barnet, as eloquent she may be, could find us a satisfying answer. Finding a teacher with as much passion, for teaching as well as for the subject matter, is no easy task. We hope the administration is up to it.

HB: What is your favorite dish to cook and why?

DB:That is a difficult question, however, I think that it is homemade Marinara sauce. It is a very simple preparation but with it brings rich and complex memories of my first job as a women’s apparel buyer and eating in the little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, my post grad work at the Cordon Bleu in Florence, Italy and ofSunday afternoons when my children were still at home. We had a Sunday tradition that every Sunday my children were allowed to invite as many friends as they wanted for a 6:00 p.m. dinner as long as I had the head count by 1:00. I love feeding people and very much miss those Sundays filled with family and kids.

HB: What is your dream vacation?

DB: As much as I love Italy (although I am not Italian) it would have to be Margate, New Jersey. For thirty-one years I have moved there with my children the day school was dismissed and did not return to the suburbs until Labor Day. My children are beach babies and learned to sail. My husband was raised in Margate and we still sail and have large family and friend Sunday dinners.

HB: Tell us about your retiring next year. What are you going to do?

DB: I am looking forward to the “ third chapter” of my life. I will begin by traveling to Israel on a culinary chef’s trip with our own James Beard award nominee Alon Shaya of Domenica, New Orleans. Alon has asked me to help him with more charity events in New Orleans so I know that I will be spending time in the Big Easy. I have a new grandson and will be traveling to Boston to spend time with my daughter and her family. I have been a Saturday volunteer at the Neighborhood League for fourteen years. They have asked me to work more weekdays and to become a board member. I am also hoping to exercise on a more regular basis. My husband is planning a “ retirement” trip for us to Antarctica. I know that I will be busy despite the fact that leaving the students and staff will be a bittersweet experience.

HB: Who has the biggest influence on how you teach?

DB:  Actually there were two people. My grandfather who taught industrial arts at Muhlenberg High School with  rigor, rules and respect for students and my Home Economics teacher at Hershey High School who taught with care, concern, and kindness. I learned a lot from both of these influences, and now try and manage my students by being strict, but also kind.

HB: What is one random funny thing you remember from your childhood?

DB:  My brother and I had to take turns washing the dishes. One person had to wash and one had to dry on alternate nights. Because neither one of us wanted to be alone, the washer would always pour water over the dishes in the drying rack, so that whenever the dryer showed up they would always have more to dry. We soon began to realize that it was better to stay in the kitchen together.

HB: How do you wish to impact your students?

DB: I want my students to remember that cooking is a gift of love. Anyone can buy you dinner, but to make it is a gift, not only to yourself, but to all of those who you feed. The study of foods is a lifelong experience, no matter how much you travel or how old you are, you will never be able to taste all the different dishes that are available in the world. I hope that my students will remember that it’s been my pleasure to “feed” their minds and their bodies, and that they will continue to use the skills that they’ve learned, think of me as they do, and pursue it with passion.

HB: Personal statement.

DB: Remember to sing when you’re chopping onions so you do not cry, and please be certain that neither your kitchen nor your life is one “mell of a hess.”