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Final Exam to Serve 300; MATC Culinary and Hospitality
Students Get
Real-Life Experience Cooking Up April 29 “Evening of Good
Taste” Event
About 100 MATC students from Madison Area Technical
College’s Culinary
Arts, Hospitality, and Meeting and Event Management programs are cooking up a
very special event on Saturday, April 29. Under the direction of MATC's four
accomplished chefs and special guest chef Odessa Piper, founder and former owner
of Madison’s L’Etoile Restaurant, the students will present "An
Evening of Good Taste" from 7 to 10 p.m. (see details at: http://matcmadison.edu/culinaryevents/).
Tickets are $50 a person and can be reserved at (608) 243-4455 or ltoepper@matcmadison.edu.
“This event is not only a fundraiser for the Culinary and Hospitality Department,” says
Lorin Toepper, the MATC associate dean who oversees these programs, “but
their contributions and performance at this event are an important part of the
students’ final exam grading.”
Next week, the students will begin their behind-the-scenes,
hands-on preparations for the event that has been in the planning
stages since the beginning of the
academic year. “It takes a tremendous commitment of time and effort, combined
with talent and organization, to create a dining and mingling soiree for 300
people,” Toepper explains. "That particular job is up to the college’s
Meeting and Event Management students, who developed the theme and are responsible
for delivering an environment that guests find entertaining and welcoming.”
The food will be handled by teams of culinary students
with a real-life chain of command established for the event. The
second-year culinary students will
act as sous chefs, supervising their first-year counterparts.
Each culinary student
is responsible for one dish. “In all, guests will
be able to sample and enjoy 38 different recipes, from appetizers to dessert,
all prepared by our chefs of tomorrow,” explains Toepper. Guests will be
able to watch the students as they create their dishes at six special “action
stations.”
In addition, guests can taste and learn about fine
wine, beer and cheese from the pros. A Wine Component and Aroma
Tasting Booth will offer learning sessions
and Joseph Huber Brewery will offer a guided tasting, pairing its beers with
Wisconsin Artisan Cheeses. A silent auction will include numerous
products and services donated by local businesses, including a meal for four
to six people that Odessa Piper
will cook for or with them. In addition, the auction will include individual
bottles from a case of wine valued at $800, a unique blend of Cabernet Sauvignon
grapes by Martini Winery called "A Trio of Kings." Some of the dishes from the innovative selections
to be served include:
- Lobster Pot Stickers
- Sweet Potato Ravioli with Curry
Butter Sauce
- Salmon Sate with Mango Dipping Sauce
- Carved Smoked Pork Tenderloin
with Huckleberry Sauce
- A torte to serve 30
- Three other mini desserts and pastries
- Plus, 11 "American
Classics," such as French Onion Soup, Rice-A-Ronnie
and Southern Thanksgiving, will be miniaturized into unique, "bite
size" hors
oeuvres in a special "Deconstruction Zone" area.
The MATC chefs who
will be directing their students are: Event Coordinator John Johnson, Master
Baker Maureen "Punky" Egan, Italian and New York-trained
Joseph Gaglio and Paul Short, owner and chef of the former Sandhill Inn. In
addition, Odessa Piper herself is donating her time to help direct some of
the action during
the event.
More than 30 local businesses and organizations
have donated merchandise or services to support this fundraising
event. These event sponsors include:
- Ancora Coffee
- Blue Marlin
- Boelter Companies
- Carr Valley Cheese
- Cave of the Mounds
- Christmas Mountain Village
- Culver’s
- Food Fight
- General Beverage
- Green Bay Packers
- Joseph Huber Brewing Company
- Lake Express High Speed Ferry
- Lake of the Torches Resort Casino
- Left Bank Wine Company
- Lombardino’s
- Madison Magazine
- Mansion Hill Inn
- Metcalfe’s Sentry Foods Hilldale
- Mohican North Star Casino & Bingo
- North Central Group
- Northwestern Cutlery
- Odessa Piper
- Orange Tree Imports
- Pizza Hut of Southern Wisconsin
- Robert Mondavi Winery
- Rowe Pottery Works
- Sprecher Brewing Company
- Sundara Inn & Spa
- Sysco Food Service of Baraboo
- Universal Orlando Resort
- Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
MATC is one of the largest of the Wisconsin Technical
College System’s
16 colleges. It provides a comprehensive curriculum of technical, liberal arts
and science, adult basic education and life enrichment studies and activities,
as well as customized employee training. MATC offers associate degrees, vocational
diplomas and certificates, and non-degree courses in more than 140 programs of
study. The college serves all or parts of 12 counties located in southcentral
Wisconsin and offers instruction through five campuses and numerous community
locations throughout the district.
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Last
Modified:
April 21, 2006
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