Baking & Culinary Articles

WNEP-TV’s Mackenzie Aucker visited campus to report on Penn College baking & culinary students who will head to Churchill Downs on Monday, April 28, to complete Derby Week internships. Their workweek will culminate with the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby.

“Have you ever eaten on camera? It's a little uncomfortable," quips Brian Walton, assistant dean of business and hospitality. "I’ve got to imagine this isn’t flattering, but it is delicious.” Walton, a Penn College alumnus and campus favorite, steps up to the plate for "Wild Ones Episode 3."

About 30 Pennsylvania College of Technology students will be part of the culinary brigade serving guests at Churchill Downs during the 151st running of the famed Kentucky Derby on May 3. The students were interviewed and hired by staff of Levy Restaurants, which provides dining operations at Churchill Downs, for internships at the facility during Derby Week, the event-filled lead-up to the Kentucky Derby.

Thanks to a Northeast Beef & Veal in the Culinary Classroom grant, students in Chef Frank M. Suchwala’s Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie Applications class learned how to break down primal cuts of beef and veal, then researched and showcased recipes using the cuts.

Penn College’s baking & culinary program – under the lead of Chef Frank M. Suchwala, associate professor of hospitality management/culinary arts – prepared two of the five soups featured in the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s Ladles of Love fundraiser. Students in this semester’s Foundations of Professional Cooking class spent much of their Wednesday session making the soups: 10 gallons each of smoked tomato basil soup and wild mushroom bisque.

Taking off on the concept of a popular YouTube talk show, Pennsylvania College of Technology is launching “Wild Ones,” a series of video interviews with members of the campus community. The fun concept: The interviewees try to keep their composure while eating progressively hotter sauce-drenched chicken wings. (Or, in some cases, vegan wings.) The series launches on Penn College’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/penncollege) on Jan. 22 – national hot sauce day.

Representatives from across the college traveled to the Pennsylvania Farm Show – the nation’s largest indoor agricultural exhibition – during the first week of January to plant seeds of excitement about Penn College’s hands-on programs. While academic programs and support services provided activities in the college’s exhibit space in the Main Hall throughout the week, students and staff from the college’s baking & culinary program busied themselves at the Culinary Connection.

Pennsylvania College of Technology hospitality students recently donated 25 pounds of handmade soap to the Shepherd of the Streets ministry in Williamsport. The ministry helps to provide guidance and counsel, prescription assistance, oral surgery and vision assistance, medical transportation assistance, baby diapers and supplies, and dental hygiene kits to those on the streets confronting fear, hunger, homelessness, unemployability or other difficulties.

Penn College’s baking & culinary program hosted students from six secondary schools on Friday, showcasing the program’s facilities, unique opportunities (like a culinary tour of Italy and internships at the Kentucky Derby), and baking & pastry arts students’ capstone masterpiece: the Grand Pastry Display.

The latest edition of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Visiting Chef Series featured one of Lycoming County’s own: Chef George E. Logue III, a 2010 Penn College culinary arts graduate, a member of the reigning World Barbecue Championship team, and co-owner of Herman & Luther’s, just north of Montoursville.