OLIVIA URBANOWICZ '13, CO-PRESIDENT, CULINARY CLUB:
I'm a senior from Denver, Colorado, and I currently am a co-president of the
Hendrix Culinary Club.
My love of food started with my family. It was always a tradition for us to cook
together, especially for big holidays. I knew that that was something I was going
to miss when I came to college, so i was really looking forward to getting to try
out my skills that I learned at home here.
KATHRYN ARMSTRONG '14, GENERAL MEMBER, CULINARY CLUB:
I'm a general member of Culinary Club and next semester I will be the head of
catering for Culinary Club, and basically all that entails is I will be in charge
of creating menus for events that we cater. I will be in charge of doing the prep
work and getting the food together and serving it at the events.
When I was a senior in high school and deciding what i wanted to do for college
or with the rest of my life in general, one of the things that appealed to me was
cooking school. Culinary Club offered me a great opportunity to still be able to
cook in college and to also even be involved in catering in college. So I kind of
got the best of both worlds and got to look at both aspects of cooking and just
being in college.
URBANOWICZ:
The culinary club initially was designed for students to be able to cook when
they came to college since most of the dorms aren't stocked. So the primary purpose
is to feed people. We meet twice a month on Saturday nights when the cafeteria does
not provide any food for students. We do a full five-dish meal. We all get together
and cook in teams. We learn new skills. We try to mix up the ethnicities and just
provide a home kitchen away from home.
The second purpose, that is pretty recent in the last couple of years, is to
provide catering for other on-campus organizations. So we get hired by people like
SOCO or the Multicultural and Diversity Committee to provide food for their events
tailored to their specifications. That way we get experience cooking on a professional
level, and interacting with other students on campus.
ARMSTRONG:
My favorite event that Culinary Club does or is involved with would have to be
Toga. We make really great food, we make gyros we make tzatziki sauce and hummus
and all the food's really good. It's the last party of the year so it's kind of
like Culinary Clubs last little "hoorah" before the end of the year, so that would
probably be my favorite.
URBANOWICZ:
We do a formal winter harvest meal for the admissions committee every year, for
the Hayes Scholarship Dinner. Right now, I'm cooking ethnic food for the MBC block
party including Indian food, some Mexican cookies and Thai noodles. So it's a whole
mixture that we get to do.
ARMSTRONG:
My favorite part about Culinary Club would have to be the catering. Catering
is a little more fast-paced and there's a bit of a time crunch. There's a little
bit of pressure but it's a good amount of pressure. I love seeing how people react
when you make the food for them. We usually get pretty good reviews, so It's nice
to hear that your food's good and that people enjoy it. Catering would have to be
the best part just because it's a little more fast-paced.
URBANOWICZ:
Last year we put on the Apartment Council crawfish boil. I had 180 pounds of
live crawfish in my car, which was a definite new experience for me, but we pulled
it off. We also cater for the Mardi Gras party and make our own king cake. We try
to be as authentic as possible, and also get lots of judgment from the New Orleans
homegrown people.