Campus club offers tasty treats
There is something delicious cooking in the ovens of Utah State University’s Culinary Arts Club.
The club, which has been around since the beginning of the young culinary arts program on campus, is hard at work on projects for various university organizations. The group was working over the weekend preparing desserts for the Nora Eccles Harrison Art Museum’s 20th anniversary celebration.
Providing delectable treats and catering services isn’t all the organization does, however, said club President Audrey Clawson.
“We don’t only do catering,” she said. “We also have the chili bowl sale with the Ceramics Guild.”
The chili bowl sale is a high point for the clubs fundraising year, Clawson said. The Ceramics Guild makes bowls and sells them to students for $6; students may then have their bowls filled with chili prepared by the Culinary Arts Club.
“We’ll have vegetarian and traditional chili,” Clawson said.
Funds raised from the chili bowl sale, along with catering functions help the club with expenses, as well as trips to various locations outside of Utah.
“Last year we took a trip to Seattle,” said Jenaca Coombs, vice president. “We hit Pikes Place Market, and the Space Needle.”
While sight-seeing was a major part of the club’s Seattle excursion, they found great interest in the vast culinary variety found in the Washington metropolis, Coombs said.
“The culinary atmosphere isn’t what a lot of cities in Utah are known for,” she said.
Aside from catering and the chili bowl sale, the club is preparing for a winter project available to anyone interested, which is good news for anyone anticipating holiday treats.
“One thing we’d like to do for Christmas is a Christmas catalog where we would pick out five different holiday dessert items and make it available for people to order,” Coombs said.
The catalog will be out just before Thanksgiving, she said.
The extra exposure for the club will help in accomplishing the goals of co-adviser Grace Harvell.
Harvell said she envisioned the club doing more on campus while getting more people aware they were around.
“People still don’t know there is a culinary department,” she said.
The current projects the club is participating in should give more exposure to the organization, as well as give its members valuable experience in culinary arts.
“The best place to learn is from other people,” Coombs said. “I like that it provides another outlet for extra experience; when you’re in a class you don’t get the hands-on experience unless you have a job.”
A culinary job is very difficult to acquire in Cache Valley, Coombs said.
“It’s really nice that we have these opportunities,” Clawson said.
Clawson said a lot of the enjoyment of the club is the communal aspect.
“This is a social club, we really stress that part,” she said.
There are currently 10 members in the club, and anyone is welcome to join.
“If anyone has any interest in learning about cooking, this is a great opportunity,” she said.
Coombs said no one should feel intimidated about joining if they have little culinary
experience.
“This is a club where everyone is at different levels,” she said. “If you just want to learn, you can learn a lot from the people around you.”
Students interested in joining the Culinary Arts Club can contact adviser Erik Burlile at 797-8122. Dues for the club are only $5 per year.
For anyone interested in having a fun time cooking or gaining some culinary experience, this is the place, and as Coombs said, “It’s not just apple pie.”
-str@cc.usu.edu
Jenaca Coombs, Audrey Clawson and Rebecca Elwood, members of the Culinary Arts Club, work out how they will present a dessert they are making for an event. (Photo by Scott Davis)