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Future chefs cook for a cause

Twenty students create a delectable feast to help Habitat for Humanity.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published September 24, 2006

TAMPA

The culinary students at the Art Institute of Tampa wore professional gear: chef's jackets, pants and floppy hats.

They trimmed boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They measured flour and sugar. They cut up vegetables.

In the business, the procedure is called mise en place, a French term that means readying the ingredients in a recipe up to the point of cooking.

All of those preparations are good practice for developing chefs, but none of the students received academic credit for the work. Nor were they paid.

The team of 20 volunteered to create the menu, make a budget, and prepare and serve the food for a charity event: Saturday's 15th annual Building Dreams benefit for Pinellas Habitat for Humanity.

Culinary instructor Michael Lynch has worked in some of the nation's premiere restaurant markets: Miami's South Beach, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

Thursday afternoon, in one of the Art Institute's big kitchens, he said the group already had encountered some glitches.

The fundraiser took place at the Gulfport Casino, which has no kitchen. The team scurried to find a place nearby to prepare hot food and was able to use equipment at the Pasadena Yacht and Country Club.

Spanakopita was on the menu, but the students prepared it without spinach, Lynch hastened to add.

He didn't want to spend Saturday evening facing questions about food safety after bags of contaminated greens prompted national recalls.

Samantha Scott undertook the construction of a gingerbread house, a task that may require 20 hours of labor or more.

Some of the other recipes may demand more of the students than their experience has taught them so far. That's one of the points of such an exercise, Lynch said.

"We can overcome all of these challenges," he said.

"Do whatever you want to do," he told the class, "but come Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock. It's got to be done."

The fare for the Habitat for Humanity event included artichoke dip, chicken satay with peanut sauce, chicken mousseline in puff pastry, pork loin dredged in black and white sesame seeds and stuffed with marinated vegetables, bruschetta, stuffed mushroom, petits fours, and chocolate hazelnut and orange-melt cookies.

The students also prepared Bananas Foster, a nod to the survivors of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

Lynch said he emphasizes the value of experience and philanthropy in training the next generation of chefs.

Numerous businesses donated most of the ingredients for the menu.

"I think it's a great way to give back to our community," said culinary student Louise Snipes.

Since 1985, Pinellas Habitat for Humanity has built 133 homes for struggling families in the county, using local donations, communications director Jamie Cataldo said.

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 21:39:45]