Mr. Randolph "Raymond" Brown
November 2, 2006
HONORING AMERICA’S SOLDIERS
November 7, 2006
Before Nicholls State University’s John Folse Culinary Institute chefs can indulge in Thanksgiving feasts with their families, they must pay tribute to the cultural cuisines that have influenced the dishes they prepare daily.
The Institute is celebrating its 10th annual “Bite of the Arts” culinary gala Nov. 16, and the chefs want this fund-raiser to stand apart from the rest. They have elected to turn Cypress Columns in Gray into a culinary time machine that takes gala-goers on a five-course journey into the past, tracing the roots that have made Cajun and Creole what it is today.
Along the culinary journey Chef George Kaslow said, “The chefs will embrace cuisines from France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Africa and Native America and put them all together to form what we called ‘A Taste of Louisiana’.”
Chef Don Kasten, NSU dining room and student bistro manager, said the Institute started the gala 10 years ago as a way of getting the community involved in the initial education process of students and faculty, namely through scholarships. He said gala participants will engage in silent and live auctions bidding on everything from dinner at a restaurant to having the Institute’s faculty and students prepare dinner at the top bidder’s home.
The Institute has raised more than $500,000 since the event’s initial appearance on the scene. All the proceeds go toward student and faculty scholarships and to purchase equipment, as well as culinary facility development research, Kaslow said.
“The Institute’s founding fathers, the university’s president and the administration began the fund-raiser in 1996 and it has turned into a program of excellence,” he said. “The gala is so important to NSU – and to help out the supporters from the community – we formed a committee to organize the details of the gala every year.”
Kaslow said the students are preparing a festival of appetizers to tickle guests’ taste buds before the main course is served. And no good meal is served without a fine wine by its side, he said.
“I look forward to the gala every year because it gives the community an opportunity to participate in the workings of the Institute and it also gives the parents a chance to see their child’s culinary talents as a chef,” he said.
Kasten said the event is a good learning experience for the students because it shows them how the to prepare a smorgasbord of food for a multitude of people.
The diverse menu will showcase foods such as bouillabaisse and crawfish cardinale bouchess with a French flair; the Spanish delicacies paella and empanadas; African-influenced gumbo zerbes and grillades and grits; Italian favorites penne primavera and caponata; and daube glace, an English dish, will be showcased during the cocktail hour, Kaslow said.
For the main course, Kaslow said the meal will begin with an Indian salad followed by a succulent German braised port roast with sweet farre rice dressing and roasted baby beets, and will be followed with an assortment of dessert.
Once the journey is complete, gala-goers will engage in a live auction for chances to win delectable dinners at restaurants including Chef Folse’s Bittersweet Plantation or White Oak Plantation restaurants. Bidders may also win a faculty-prepared dinner, a dinner at the home of Stephen L. Hulbert, NSU president, or an Institute chef-prepared dinner.
Also up for bid are Mignon Faget jewelry, Lodge Enamel cast iron cookware, fine bottles of wine and tickets to a Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Kaslow said.
The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available for $125 or $150, and tickets for a table of 10 are $1,250 or $1,500. For more information, contact the John Folse Culinary Institute at (985) 448-7100.
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