UAA culinary classes cater a celebration, inspire and elevate

There were two great successes that happened on March 31 at the Alumni of Distinction Banquet held at the Cuddy Center. One, which I have written about, was the banquet itself. The other was an accomplishment belonging to the culinary arts class.
Most of the time, a really good meal would be considered par for the course at a university event and not written about, but since 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the UAA Culinary Arts program, it gets its own article. Chef Kellie Puff shared with me in an email that this was their second year hosting the event and she added, “We love the partnership as well as the real world experience this offers our catering management students!”
There was an assortment of choices that included an impressive array of gluten free, nut free, and vegan options. A vegan lasagna, salmon, pork, a textured herb rice, spicy Moroccan cauliflower, a couscous salad, and the crowns of the meal – chocolate mousse with fresh fruit, and a strawberry-basil shortcake. I cannot share every single dish that was available, but I did try a few.
With what would have been my first choice of vegan lasagna already having been claimed by event-goers, the person in front of me at the buffet got the last slice of salmon. 

All that was left for me was the pork. I typically avoid pork, but part of the adventure of going out is trying new things. I was glad for my limited choice: the pork tenderloin roulade was tender and juicy, rolled around a stuffing of greens. I am not familiar with culinary terms and looked up roulade. Roulade is a food that is served as a roll.
Something that I want to encourage TNL readers to do when you go out is to pay attention to what you eat and to take at least one gastronomic memory home to try. I may one day make the pork tenderloin roulade, but that is out of my ordinary culinary skills and will be a project. 

The side dishes were good as well. Something easy to eyeball and try at home that I tasted at the Alumni of Distinction event was their Moroccan cauliflower. It appeared to have been cooked and seasoned with a Mediterranean blend, with high notes of turmeric, black pepper and garlic.
To me, the crowning glory of the meal was the dessert menu. There were two selections and I chose one, the strawberry-basil shortcake, and then when most people had left, I snagged the chocolate mousse with fresh fruit. 

The culinary department created tasty juxtapositions. The chocolate mousse was creamy and thick, but also fluffy. The blackberries and raspberries that graced the top had a heady aroma that was enhanced by the chocolate. You could taste it before you ate it. 

My favorite was the strawberry-basil shortcake. The “cake” was almost a cookie– there was a crispness to it, which was almost flaky, but it was still a cake. It was sweet without being overpowering. The strawberries were fresh and had an inviting aroma, but they were not too sweet.
The complexity in arranging a large event — 150 people — like this cannot be overlooked. Students have to learn somewhere and events like the Alumni Distinction Banquet offer valuable real world experience. I asked what the hardest part of this was and assistant professor Riza Brown asked her students. “Breakdown was the most difficult as we didn't understand the flow of where dishes went at first so we had a struggle setting up a cohesive bussing station.”  Another student said, “Keeping up stamina.”
I asked about what made it successful and Brown again pointed to her students, “For an event to be successful, planning and setup are essential, which is difficult since it was most of our students' first time running an event.” 

While I thought that everything went smooth, the image of the duck swimming, looking calm on top but paddling like crazy under the surface seems apt.
My take on this is that Seawolves should go to anything that our culinary arts program is hosting or helping to put on. Obviously we all love to eat and the food is good, but the program is something to be proud of, and deserves our support. 

Culinary arts is like high fashion with the palette of dishes and flavors constantly changing from year to year. The students become designers of food and have to keep up with the changing dynamics of what is available, minding costs and demands from an ever changing public.