Heather Sheridan places grilled apple slices while prepping a salad as classmate Thy Le looks on during a Hospitality, Tourism and Events luncheon last week in the Plaza Building.

Metro State’s award-winning culinary team received a standing ovation when introduced at the State Capitol on Friday, April 25.

Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, invited them to the Senate floor after learning of their first-place win at the Colorado Bistro Challenge on April 5 at the Adams Mark Hotel.

“I am always looking for different avenues of education that provide opportunities for student success,” Todd says. “I was especially impressed by the way that each of these students arrived and how they balance a job as well as being a student.”

“It was great having them recognized at the Capitol,” she adds. “Hopefully my fellow legislators increased their awareness and understanding of one more program at Metro State College of Denver, and how it reaches out to a wide diversity of students.”

This was the first year the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Events (HTE) had assembled a team to compete in the first Rocky Mountain Junior Executive Culinary Challenge, and it was the challenge’s first time in Denver. The event is sponsored by the International Food Service Executive Association (IFSEA).

New IFSEA board member Raul Diaz, (’02, HTE) actually asked the HTE department to get a culinary team together, says Jackson Lamb, assistant professor and director of culinary management. “Being an alumnus, he wanted us to be involved, and wanted to see what we were made of.”

Diaz was co-president of the IFSEA Denver chapter before becoming a board member for the national organization.

Irish crème mousse was the featured dessert at last week's HTE lunch.

A fast-growing industry
By forming the culinary team and making other improvements around the department, HTE has been keeping pace with a fast-growing industry, Lamb says. “The Food Network comes around and everyone wants to become a chef.”

In the past two years, the faculty has increased from five to nine full-time members, and the number of cooking classes has increased from four to eight. Lamb says that when the proposed hotel learning center on campus is completed, it will act as a premier learning center for all HTE students.

Senior Todd Friedman, captain of the culinary team, has been in the program for three years.

“I got sucked into this great program,” Friedman said. “All the professors really care, and try to help the students.”

Friedman has been a chef for 20 years, and at one point owned his own restaurant. He started to teach a cooking class for at-risk youth, and now would like to earn his teaching license to work with special education kids.

“Winning the Bistro Challenge is just a great way to end my academic year at Metro,” Friedman said.

The students of the HTE department hold special luncheons in Plaza 128 consisting of a three-course meal for $10. This semester’s last two luncheons take place on May 1 and 8 from noon to 1 p.m. For reservations, please contact Marc Lowenstein at 303-556-3152.