Program offers chance to taste students’ cooking
The Cardinals on the Run program offers Lamar University culinary students the opportunity to get hands-on experience by preparing and selling chef-designed meals to the campus community. The program combines classroom instruction with real-world training in a professional kitchen setting.
Culinary arts and restaurant management students design menus, calculate costs and execute meal service. Plates costing $10 may be ordered in advance and picked up at the Nutrition, Hospitality and Health Sciences Building during scheduled service days.
“We each get split up into groups, and we each get to design a menu for that week and just offer different varieties of food to campus.” Adriana Houston, Fort Worth sophomore, said.
The program teaches students the importance of time management within the kitchen, Myah Wilson, Missouri City sophomore, said.
“It is a fun, four-week project of different foods (where) each group gets to present different flavors — and it’s a fun time to support the culinary team,” she said. “You have to work together to complete everything in time.”
The students also learn the importance of communicating with each other.
“We all work in the back of the kitchen, but you still have to tell somebody something in a professional manner,” Javon Moore, Houston junior, said.
Frances Venegas, Conroe sophomore, said the program also strengthens practical skills. Working in a fast-paced environment allows them to apply classroom concepts directly to meal preparation and service.
“Whenever you learn hands on, you have that skill that is needed and you tend to learn it better versus if it’s verbally taught,” she said.
Hazel Lewis, Houston sophomore, said she has learned aspects of working in a kitchen that she never realized. One crucial part in this field is understanding the cost of meals.
“I was surprised on the amount of math that is involved,” she said. “As groups, we create a budget, make conversions for recipes and make sure we spend within the set budget.”
Watching the future chefs work in the kitchen, one notices that enjoyment they take from the experience.
“Every time I come to class, I’m happy to come in and excited to get to work,” Moore said.
Meals are limited to 50 per session.
For more information, visit www.lamar.edu/nursing-health-professions/nutrition-hospitality-human-services/events/cardinals-on-the-run.html.