A look into the culinary department’s cooking

How does making lunch for 4,000 high school students sound? The culinary arts department at UVU did just that on Tuesday when they prepared 4,000 hot dogs during the Center for the Advancement of Leadership’s 9th annual leadership conference.

“That is a lot of food,” said chef instructor Troy Wilson, C.E.C. “It will be days before the smell of hot dogs leaves the kitchen.”

High school students and teachers came to the conference from all over Utah in order to develop their leadership skills. This year’s keynote speakers were New York Times best selling author Ron McMillan and former Miss America Sharlene Hawkes. The conference had 22 different breakout sessions for students to attend before meeting up again for lunch at noon.

“The food took four hours to prepare,” said Wilson. “And we fed them in about 30 minutes.”

The food was donated by Wal-Mart and was prepared by first semester culinary students and chef instructor Todd Leonard, C.E.C. The remaining hot dogs were passed out to students around campus, and the leftover chips and bananas were donated to the Food and Care Coalition.

“It is not many of our students’ career goal to be cooking hot dogs,” said Wilson. “But occasional large volume cooking gives them invaluable experience.”

The culinary students will have another opportunity for large-volume cooking at this month’s Presidential Scholarship Ball. This event will feature a seven-course meal for 600 people and entertainment from UVU students. The event helps raise funding for presidential scholarships.

“The food will include a combination beef tender loin and lamp chop entrée and a wild mushroom bread pudding,” said Wilson.

The ball will be held on Oct. 24. Tickets cost $150 and are available from the University Marketing department.