Culinary Arts 2 begin International Cooking Unit

Jon, Jenna, and Mike with their winning dish

Kicking off Culinary Arts 2 International Cooking unit, students were given an open cupboard lab that had to identify with whatever cuisine they were most interested in learning about.  Most groups prepared European-based cuisine.  The winning group's dish to the left was a take on Chicken Cordon Bleu, served over rice.

Pastry Chef Demonstrates for CA2

Mindy Gohr, pastry chef at Bittersweet Pastry in Chicago and 2004 graduate of Pulaski High School, began assembling a wedding cake for the Culinary Arts 2 students.  Students were able to see how Styrofoam forms can be used in cake construction, as well as see Mindy's work with buttercream and fondant in the assembly process.

Fox Valley Technical College Culinary Theater Dedication

It was an exciting day for FVTC's Culinary Arts program as their Jones Farm Culinary Theater was officially dedicated and open for their program.  The theater is the first and only culinary theater in Wisconsin.  At minimum, we have 7 ProStart students from Pulaski joining the FVTC culinary program next year.  

Breast Cancer Family Foundation Stories of Strength

Stacie Hackl and Dean Raasch shared their stories of survival and cancer prevention strategies to Family Foods and Wellness students.  Stacie, breast cancer survivor, and Dean, leukemia survivor, provide a much needed powerful message to students about the importance of early detection and how lifestyles chosen now can impact the rest of their lives.  I highly encourage everyone to check out the Breast Cancer Family Foundation web-site for additional resources and opportunities to support their organization.

Stacie Hackl, breast cancer survivor and Breast Cancer Family Foundation Director shares her story and encourages students to try organic foods in their diets (with a little help of organic suckers!)

Dean Raasch shares his story of leukemia survival being diagnosed at the age of 19

A McDonald's hamburger and french fry after 15 months... and it still looks the same!?!?

An always needed reminder of smoking's connection to cancer

3 Generations of Breast Cancer Survivors!

Please check out the YouTube video "My Sixteen Year Old Me" below and share with your family and friends on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else that will help in spreading this message.

ROUX-lers of the Family Foods Cream Soup Cook-Off!

Alyssa takes home her first win in Hr 2!

Within the protein unit, Family Foods students used dairy culinary techniques in preparing cream soups that included a roux.  As you can see, they were very successful and excited in making their chosen recipes!

Hr 1 Winners with Bacon Potato Soup

Hr 3 Winners 

Hr 2 Winners with  Broccoli Cheese Soup with Baked Potato Soup

Music for the Mouth

Culinary Arts 1 student and ProStart culinary team member Hannah prepared a saxophone cake using a combination of buttercream and fondant. To play or eat, that is the question...

Restaurant Wars

       Culinary Arts 1 students had their own version of Top Chef's Restaurant Wars by creating a restaurant concept including menu, service-style, and general techniques to be used by their front-of-the-house staff to enhance customer satisfaction and overall restaurant profits. Students had to determine reservation systems, procedure for taking orders (POS systems), suggestive selling techniques, etc.  For the cook-off, teams planned amuse bouche (a gift from the chefs not found on their menu) for their guests to represent the flavor of your restaurant and 1 main entrée served for the actual meal.  Judging was based on the overall taste, appearance, and quality of both the amuse bouche and main entree.  
Winner: Shiwu Restaurant serving Pot Sticker Dumplings and General Tso's Chicken by Melissa Skalecki, Christa Charnon, Hunter Kleist, and Katelyn Winther.

Rolling the pot-sticker dough for Shiwu's amuse bouche