For the second year, third-graders in Randy Law's class decided to forgo a candy-coated harvest party.

Instead, the group from Cascades School voted to take a tour of Bing's Kitchen and enjoy a Chinese lunch, courtesy of Bing's.

This year, Bing's owner Kwong Mah invited parents to join their students.

The children lined up single file behind Betty Mah, Kwong's wife, and snaked through the dining room to head into the prep room.

Waiting was Kwong and a cutting board with a variety of vegetables and a large cleaver.

Wang adeptly demonstrated slicing the onion, bell pepper, celery and mushrooms.

"Wow, that's fast!" one student exclaimed as he watched Wang at work.

He told the students it would take a long time to chop all the vegetables needed for his restaurant, so he had a machine to help him.

Wang assembled the machine for the children to see, warning them of the very sharp knife and pointing out the safety lock features.

The celery and onion ran through the blade and came out finely chopped in an instant.

While the machine ran, Wang told the children the importance of going to school and learning things.

"You can learn to do things by yourself," Wang said.

He said he checked out a book from the library when he was 6 years old and learned to make his first crystal radio.

After the vegetables came the shrimp.

Students gathered around Wang at the sink as he explained how to properly clean and de-vein the small crustaceans.

"How come the shrimp don't have heads?" a boy asked.

Wang laughed.

"They cut it off because we don't eat it," Law explained.

While at the sink with the shrimp, Wang asked the students, "What is the first thing your mother asks you at the dinner table?"

A few incorrect answers came back before Wang said, "Wash your hands!"

He explained the reason behind hand-washing: Bacteria can get from the hands to the food to the mouth and cause sickness.

"Another thing I want you to learn is what's the safest temperature to keep food safe?" Wang asked.

"Cold," a student replied.

Wang told students food should be kept at 41 degrees to be safe.

When he told them food needed to be heated up to 160 degrees and kept hot at 140 degrees to be safe, students were surprised food needed to be hotter than 100 degrees.

Wang stressed working safely as he took the children around the kitchen.

He talked about customer satisfaction.

"We are a service business," Wang said. "We have to do our best to please the customer."

He likened it to the children's education.

"When you go to school, you have to satisfy your teacher, parents and yourself," he said. "Your teacher is your best friend besides your parents."

After the tour, Wang showed the children how to eat with chopsticks.

He served sesame seed chicken, lo mein, fried rice and fried shrimp to the children and nine parents.