State-Journal.com - Frankfort Faces:Sommai Shuy

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Photo By State Journal/Hilly Schiffer Sommai Shuy, who has been a cook in Bridgeport Elementary’s cafeteria for 29 years, adds silverware as children filter through the lunch line.

When Sommai Shuy moved to the U.S. from Thailand in 1970, she didn’t speak English beyond a basic “yes” or “no.”

So when her sons, now in their 30s, enrolled at Bridgeport Elementary in Frankfort, she volunteered in their kindergarten and first-grade classrooms so she could learn the language as they did.

“I’d go to school with them and just sit in the class with them,” she said. “I just started from ABC.”

But a few years later, she moved from the classroom to the lunchroom, embarking on a 29-career cooking, serving and baking her famous yeast rolls in the Bridgeport cafeteria.

“The lady in the cafeteria said, ‘You come in here all day every day anyway – why don’t you just go ahead and make money out of it?’” she said, sitting at a lunch table before the big 11 a.m. rush.

“I love to cook. I love to see people enjoy my cooking.”

Mai is set to retire when the school year ends in June. She arrives at the cafeteria at 6:45 each morning to start cooking breakfast, moves on to lunch by mid-morning - and she still manages to cook dinner every night.

“You’ve got to be fast, you’ve got to be really fast,” she said. “I can do it, I think because I’ve been doing it for many years.”

But when she started working in the Bridgeport kitchen, she didn’t know how to cook.

The women there taught her that, and helped her learn English too. She also took classes at Thorn Hill Academy.

“When I didn’t speak English, they helped me out,” she said. “I’m lucky there. That was a long time ago.”

Over the years, Mai became famous in the Bridgeport community for her yeast rolls.

“They really liked it,” she said. “That’s what they said anyway.”

Parents and central office staff members used to come to the school to eat them, she said.

“I made them all the time, sometimes twice a week,” she said. “But right now they’ve cut down on all that stuff.”

Things come pre-cooked now, she said. Items just have to be put in a pan, not like when she used to make home-cooked meals for kids. Work was harder back then, she said.

“We’d have to cut up whole chickens and bake,” she said. “Now it just comes frozen, and you just drop it on the pan and go.”

Mai says she had a special recipe for those notable rolls, but that’s not the key to successful baking. She suggests getting everything together ahead of time, and not making trips back and forth to the cabinets.

“You just put the recipe in front of your face, get everything together and go,” she said. “That’s the trick. Any job, if you’ve been doing it so long, you know the trick.”

Cafeteria Manager Brenda Richardson has worked in the kitchen with Mai since 1984. In fact, most of the women of the lunchroom have worked together for 10 or more years.

“Usually when people leave, we try to keep in touch,” she said. “But she’s going to be busy with her granddaughter.”

Mai’s oldest son, Jason, will become a father May 30. Starting in August, Mai will babysit her first granddaughter every day. That’s why she decided it was time to hang up her apron.

“I think I’m going to miss it, but I’m going to enjoy retirement,” she said. “I think I’m going to like staying home, but it’s going to be hard for a while, getting used to not getting up early.”

Until her granddaughter starts staying with her, Mai has the summer off. She’ll raise a garden, can fruits and vegetables, and cook every night for her husband, son and daughter-in-law.

Her specialty at home is soup, which her husband, Kenneth, a retired Veterans Affairs worker, loves. She also emulates Food Network star Rachael Ray and her trademark “30-minute meals.”

“I’ve got all her recipes, and I do all her cooking at home,” she said. “Thirty-minute meals, you can’t beat that.”

Mai plans each dinner a day in advance, printing recipes she finds online. She also cooks Thai food at home.

“I’m just going to miss seeing the people I work with,” she said, and then laughed, “I’m going to miss seeing the kids - they’re kind of noisy, but I’m going to miss them.”

The kids cheer when they find out the cafeteria staff has made their favorite meal, she said.

“I love to see kids and people enjoy what I do,” she said. “I really take pride in what I do.”

“Frankfort Faces” is a series that highlights people from within the Frankfort and Franklin County community. Each feature follows one of the city’s most unique personalities and includes a story, photos and video, which can be found by clicking the TV icon attached to the story online at state-journal.com.