Girlish laughter and the smell of fresh ingredients rose from the cafeteria of the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua last week. Inside, seven female inmates were cooking up a storm, preparing for the final test of a semester-long cooking course taught by instructors from Kapi'olani Community College.

"We always expect people to be different with us when they come in here, but (in this course) we're just treated like a regular college class," said Tawny Okemura.

On Tuesday, Okemura, 39, donned a spotless white chef's hat and coat and prepared to chop several pounds of vegetables for the final banquet, scheduled for today.

She and the six other women in the "Fundamentals of Cooking" course will use the flavoring techniques and knife skills they learned over the past 14 weeks to prepare, plate and serve apple bacon spinach salad and stuffed chicken breast florentine to 32 correctional officers and other guests.

Okemura has given herself four years to open a family restaurant, possibly Italian-themed, in her native Hilo after she is released in September.

"It's something I can do with my family and my girls," she said. "I never would have thought I had these skills."

"This is a second career for them, a second opportunity," said Chef Yolan Garrett Chan, a Kapi'olani Community College instructor who teaches "Fundamentals of Cooking."

Chan is a former executive chef for Continental Airlines who counts his mentoring of famed Hawai'i chef Alan Wong among the high points in his career. Prior to joining the KCC staff, Chan had taught students at Gros Bonnet Culinary Academy. But this semester was a completely different experience.

"Every day is a challenge," he said. "When you have never worked with an inmate, you don't know. There are a lot of things you can do on the outside that you can't do here."

The correctional facility's kitchen, for example, is geared toward mass food production and not fine dining. For safety reasons, knives are attached by metal cords to the main table. Instructors are also cautioned about how much physical contact they have with the inmates when demonstrating techniques.

Instructors from KCC offer two classes, "Fundamentals of Cooking" and "Sanitation and Safety," in which about a dozen inmates have enrolled this spring. Each class meets three times a week, includes final written and skills exams, and is equal to five credits, which can count toward an associate's degree should the women wish to pursue further education at any community college in Hawai'i.

This is not the first culinary class offered in O'ahu prisons. A cooking class for male inmates offered at Waiawa Correctional Facility is taught through Leeward Community College and gives men the basic skills they need to enter the food industry.

But the goal of the KCC class is not only to teach women basic techniques, it is to inspire them to pursue new careers, said Maureen Tito, Corrections Education Program Manager for the Department of Public Safety.

"What we really wanted to do was train chefs and get women more interested in going a step beyond a regular line cook," she said.

The original pilot program, consisting of two classes this spring and two classes this fall, was funded by a state legislative initiative in 2007.

The spring class was so popular that the Department of Public Safety also came up with the money to fund an eight-week summer course. Sixteen women have already signed up for that class and more than 20 are on the list for the fall.

Tito said she plans to put in another request for funding in 2009.

"For women in general, a college education is really critical," she said. "I really feel that for these women it's even more critical."

For many, like Michel'le Canon, 37, "Fundamentals of Cooking" was also a course in rekindling self-respect.

"He (Chan) taught me how to believe in myself," said Canon, who says she will apply to KCC after she is released this fall.

"We're all good people, we just made some wrong choices," she said. "If you believe in yourself, anything is possible. Believe in yourself and you can go a long way."