March 23, 2015 at 4:13 p.m.
What's cookin'? High school students learn about Nicolet's culinary arts program
What's cookin'? High school students learn about Nicolet's culinary arts program
By Kayla Thomason-
One hundred fifty to 200 students from seven high schools and two out-of-district schools from the Wausau area attended the school's 15th annual Culinary Open House Wednesday.
"It compares well with last year," said Kelly Anunson, career coach at Nicolet Area Technical College, adding that she was pleased with the turnout.
Kevin Brown, culinary arts instructor at the college, said he enjoys when students who are participating in the open house later enroll in the culinary program.
"These open houses really provide a great opportunity for us to showcase our program and I'll actually see students from this tour with me in the fall," Brown said.
The college students prepared fruit and vegetable carvings at the garmage station, quizzed the high schoolers on the equipment used in commercial kitchens and wowed the crowds with flaming bananas Foster. They also displayed a variety of ways to fold napkins into elegant designs, made mini pizzas and showed the high schoolers how to make roses to decorate cakes. Other stations included hot appetizers, knife sharpening and sous vide cooking - a method of cooking foods that are in a sealed pouch at a lower temperature.
Brown said he enjoys seeing his students teach the high schoolers.
"(My students) love it, they all have smiles on their faces," Brown said.
The stations can vary from year to year, depending on what the college students are interested in.
"It evolves every year what the students are interested in showing people and how we do it and the type of students that come," said Vicki Mendham, culinary arts instructor. "We've changed the format so many different times that now we are kind of encouraging full classes, not just individual people to come."
Hakim Salaam, adjunct culinary arts instructor at Nicolet and a graduate of the program, likes that the open house is available to students.
"I think it's good exposure for (the students)," Salaam said. "I think it's great that students from all over the area get a chance to see what we do here at Nicolet culinary."
He thinks the students really liked the pizza and cake decorating stations.
"It seemed like the students really were very hands-on with the cake decorating with the roses and the decorating of the cupcakes so it seemed like that one was more of a hit," he said.
Salaam hopes that the open house will draw students to the culinary program.
"Hopefully we can entice some of these youngsters to come to the culinary arts program," he said.
Ben Kalata, freshman at Crandon High School, is considering going into the culinary field.
"I would have to say the bakery with the flowers and the roses (was my favorite station)," Kalata said. "I thought that was pretty cool how you could do that."
Kalata said he liked that the open house was available to high school students.
"I think it's a really good experience, good chance to get out of school and learn the different kinds of culinary arts," he said.
His classmate, Kobe Gallion, is also considering the program.
"I kind of like the idea of being able to bake all day," Gallion said. "(The table setting station) looked like it would be kind of fun trying to figure that out," he said.
He enjoyed his time at the open house and the exposure it gave students.
Troy Schmitt, third-year student at Nicolet, wowed the students with his culinary roses.
"I am showing the students here how to do roses for our cakes and they are doing good for their first time doing it," Schmitt said.
The high school students weren't the only ones who learned to make roses that day, Schmitt learned that morning. It was also his first time teaching other students.
"I think (the open house is) a good idea to show the kids what we do during the week," he said.
Karen Lehman, Family and Consumer Economics, culinary arts and health instructor at Crandon High School, was pleased that the open house is available to students and opens possibilities for them.
"My big is thing is getting the kids to go for their passion, what they love to do and I told them they're going to learn to cook, they are going to have to cook for the rest of their lives," she said.
She said the kids liked the bananas Foster station.
Daniel McHale was the student manning the bananas Foster station where he prepared the delectable dessert that includes butter, brown sugar, bananas, banana liqueur and a splash of rum that creates quite the table-side experience.
"It's a nice dessert, caramelized bananas over ice cream," McHale said. "Sometimes you can throw in a little bit of cashew or a peanut or a walnut, whatever you like ... You can make a big flame with it if you want."
McHale said the students seemed to like it and he was happy he got to work that station and demonstrate what he has learned.
"This is a great place to go to school, it's a great program," McHale said. "I recommend anybody to come here. It's really fun, the professors are very smart."
Camrei Riedy, a junior at Northland Pines High School, has some experience working in a restaurant.
"I really like the pizza making station because in Land O' Lakes I work at TJ Grizzlies as a pizza maker, so that's kind of like my natural habitat," Riedy said.
She also liked the bananas Foster station.
She saw the value in having an open house.
"Having it be available to high school students is a really good thing," Riedy said. "I think it's a pretty good opportunity for high school students just because it's a college so it's a higher level of class."
She added that it also gets the students on campus and interested in Nicolet.
Camie Kolb, family and consumer sciences teacher at Northland Pines, said her students were amazed by the food art stations with fruit.
"They had actually tried doing some of the fruit in class and they said 'Ms. Kolb, these look so much nicer than ours,' - and theirs were pretty good though - but I think it's good for them to see now what training and experience can do to improve on those skills," Kolb said.
She is looking forward to next year's open house.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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