Completed Events Spring 2011

Tuesday March 22nd, 2011: Free Cooking Lesson with GMU Executive Chef Peter Schoebel

DONE

Thursday March 24th, 2011: Off-Campus Student Appreciation Week Festival

Not enough people were able to participate; we declined.

Thursday March 24th, 2011: Free Cooking Lesson with GMU Executive Chef Peter Schoebel

There’s a catch: You must be an off-campus student
When: 5-7pm
Where: at Southside
Learn the basics of cooking with Mason Dining’s Chef Peter
You must register for this event at offcamp1@gmu.edu
http://offcampus.gmu.edu/ for more info about events for off-campus-students
POST-EVENT-COMMENT: This was well worth it. Chef Peter is nothing less than extraordinary. He’s genuine, hardworking, and knows. his. stuff. Even though they changed the event time (last minute) to 5-7PM, Chef Peter stayed late to teach and speak with students.

Friday April 8th, 2011: CAFE-GMU Movie Night

When: 7:30PM-9:30PM
Where: Piedmont Multi-Purpose Room
Rebecca Draft is leading a movie night, kicking it off with Disney’s Ratatouille. She’s got a delicious menu planned, including creme brulee (finished with a blowtorch!) maybe even chocolate or maple flavored creme brulee(!) We may be doing the cooking a day or two ahead of time; contact us if you want to help cook or if you can provide any of the cooking hardware below and we’ll coordinate. Like playing with fire? Like making cute French pastries to go with this movie’s Paris location? This event is for you 🙂
We need
- Volunteers to go grocery shopping at Safeway / Giant / Costco / WholeFoods (have a car? We need your help!)
- A creme-brulee torch. Something that sports food-safe butane
- Ramekins (little ceramic baking dishes), a 13×9 baking pan (steep sides), and 2 saucepans
- Measuring cups/spoons/etc

Thursday April 14th, 2011: Celebrate Food with Professional Chef Annie Sidley and CAFE-GMU!

Where: JC North Plaza (rain location: JC Dewberry Hall)
When: 2-6PM (setup can begin at 12:30PM; cleanup/teardown is 6-7PM)
This will be an awesome event in a tent outside the JC where we help Annie prep and cook foods from four different cultures (Thai, Mexican, Middle-Eastern, and American). There are many ways to participate:
Cooking.
- We worked with Annie last semester and she’s AMAZING. Culinary school educated and an accomplished musician!
Setup/teardown
Serving audience members samples of the delicious food
Speaking to the audience about the four cultures and why their cuisines are the way they are. For example, some ingredients grow only in certain parts of the world which influences the kinds of dishes prepared there. Do some research and have fun facts to share with our audience 🙂
Check-in. We need to ensure that off-campus students are given priority seating at this event, because it’s sponsored by GMU’s office of Off-Campus Programs and Services.
The Farmer’s Market may also be there (have fliers to hand out, or surveys for the audience, etc) and we’ll want CAFE-GMU members to take care of this

Saturday April 16th, 2011: Helping ΑΦΩ with their BBQ

This is tentative! If they’re borrowing the huge Sodexho grill, we should send a few members to help them transport it, help them cook, and help them clean it and dispose of the ashes safely. Let us know if you’re free that weekend!

We did reserve the grill, but the grilling portion got rained-out

Saturday April 23rd, 2011: Help the Business Fraternity Δ Σ Π at their Olympics for Charity Event

There will be games, music, drinks, and prizes.
Delta Sigma Pi will give us a table to do whatever food-related presentation we want. We need a minimum of three CAFE-GMU members to commit before we accept their offer. We don’t have to stay the whole time.
Email cafe.gmu@gmail.com with your RSVP to volunteer for this event NO LATER THAN APRIL 15th!
WHEN: 11AM-5PM
WHERE: GMU Fairfax at President’s Park (Next to Ike’s)

Not enough people wanted to participate, so we declined their invitation.

Wednesday April 20th27th, 2011: CARmunity Catering

Morri Sands, one of the founding members of CAFE-GMU is leading a catering event for a new student-organization Fall 2011 called CARmunity. Location and time are tentative.

Thursday April 21: Ballroom Dance Club presents: The (early) Cinco De Mayo Spring Dance

CAFE-GMU will be catering this event in JC Dewberry Hall South (lower-level of the JC). The event is from 6:30PM-10:30PM. RSVP online here!

Friday April 22nd: Corporate Catering; ISM’s Google Conference

The Information Society Movement is hosting a live web-conference with Google representatives from California to talk about Google’s two-year residency program for new college grads. CAFE-GMU is catering lunch.
Where: JC Dewberry Hall South (bottom floor, Johnson Center)
When: 12:00PM->3:00PM

Saturday April 23: CAFE on Camera

A different charismatic CAFE-GMU member will host each of four cooking shows which highlight dorm-friendly recipes. Our own head chef, Kevin Spitery will be teaching a student how to cook those recipes. This should be fun. Episodes will air next semester on Mason Cable Network channel 89.
Tentative episode themes are:

Microwave Magic
Boiling Water
Healthy Cooking
Better Baking

Mason Day, Friday April 29th: Gluten-Free Goodness

Our wonderful Amy Fitzpatrick is leading this gluten-free cooking event! Have recipes to share? Want to cook? Let us know! 😀
Sodexho graciously donated their humongous grill for this event, so we’ll be cooking exclusively on the grill. Marinated chicken drumsticks/breasts could be on the menu too, with Aqua’s famous Apple-Bourbon marinade!!

Udi’s Gluten Free Foods is interested in sponsoring part of this event. Check out their list of products and think up creative things to do with them (I see a future full of delicious French Toast… and gluten-free pizza with fresh herbs!)

Friday May 6th: Pleasant Picnic for Student-Orgs’ Bench Painting

We love our fellow student organizations. We’d like to show more of that love by making them a picnic lunch while they decorate the benches along the sidewalk of SUB I’s Quad.

Any time during the semester: Free Food Safety Classes

Why? Because CAFE-GMU needs more members who know safe food-handling techniques. We require at least one person at every event who’s a certified Food Handler, and we can’t expand the club further without your help. The study materials and exam are 100% free and are online at http://www.vafoodhandlers.com/
If you prefer doing this at home on your own time/schedule, study and do the exam, then take a screenshot (or print) your results to show us. There’s need to pay them $10 to “print your Card.” If you’re interested in doing this as a club, let us know your availability during the week (which days/times are best) and we’ll meet in one of the computer labs one day to study for the exam and we’ll take it together.

Some time this April: Field trip to Restaurant Depot

Imagine “Home Depot” but for people who love to cook. It’s the kid-in-a-candy-store effect!

Hundreds of awesome professional cooking tools
TOTALLY FRESH GROCERIES because of the extremely fast turnaround; nothing sits in inventory for long
We need forks and plates for the club, but you’re welcome to buy anything for yourself as well!
Let us know if you want to go, and if you’re able to drive. Target field trip size: 5-20 people.

Some time next semester: Slovak Cooking

Our friend Lubos Brieda, owner of slovakcooking.com is passionate about Slovakian cuisine and would like to come teach us how to make sweet bread desserts from scratch, by hand, with minimal tools. Playing with dough is always a good time. Who wants to lead this event? Who wants to participate? Let us know which date(s) you prefer!
Here’s the kind of food Lubos is thinking of making: http://www.slovakcooking.com/2009/recipes/makovnik-orechovnik/

Some time this Semester (and next!): Free Cooking Classes with Chef Cordon Bleu Javier Loayza

Javier is an artful culinary-school-educated chef who’d like to teach us anything and everything we’d like to learn. From which groceries to buy and why, to cooking and plating skills. We need CAFE-GMU members to help with and coordinate these events. Our ideal target is 20-30 students per class.

CAFE-GMU OFFICER ELECTIONS: We’re late!

According to CAFE-GMU’s Constitution:

Elections will take place in March, with certain flexibility based on situational circumstances.
Officer nominations for elections will be presented by blind ballot in late February. Should there be more than one nomination for each individual position; existing officers will decide how to manage the situation on a case-by-case basis with consideration for qualification and history of dedication to CAFÉ GMU’s previous endeavors.

So. Who wants to be an officer for one of the largest, most friendly, and prestigious clubs on campus? Let us know what position(s) you’re interested in and which year you are (fresh/soph/junior/senior/grad). We may forgo the “blind ballot” part to save time, but if anyone really wants to, we can setup an anonymous nomination website 🙂 Again, let us know, and ASAP!

Details:

Officers are expected to be active participants in the club and to attend club events as their schedule allows
We’re allowed a maximum of 8 people as officers
Positions are President, Executive Vice President, Foodie, Secretary, Treasurer, and as many “Vice President of _____” positions as we need (VP of Marketing, for example)
Two non-officer roles are also available: SI Liaison and Webmaster
One person may have multiple officer titles and/or roles, as long as we have a minimum of five flesh-and-blood people as officers when elections are over.
Feel free to ask us “what’s the job description of xxxx officer position?” 🙂