Schedule for Cooking Classes Finalized!

Posted on September 5, 2011 by cafegmu

The full schedule is below.  CAFE-GMU will put a form online about 2 weeks before each class for Mason students to register.  All the classes will be filmed by the talented Ashlee Duncan and crew for the Mason Cable Network.  Important details about each cooking class will be found on the online signup-form.  Stay tuned for the Sept.12th signup! 😀

All classes will be held on a Monday evening from 5-7PM at Southside‘s “Without Boundaries” station (except the Pastry class).

Sept. 12th – Starches

Lecture topics:  Understanding the different varieties and cooking rice, grains, pastas and potatoes.  Demonstrations and participation:  (1) Making Homemade French Fries (knife skills and technique)  (2) Making Risotto (knife skills and technique).

Sept. 26th – Date Night Dinner

How to prepare a three course dinner to impress a date.  We will prepare an elegant salad course, entree course with a starch, vegetable, protein, sauce and garnish and then a simple but elegant dessert.  (Knife skills, starch cookery, vegetable cookery, sauce making, protein cookery and pastry)

Oct. 17th – Healthy Cooking Choices

Techniques of healthy cooking.  Using spices, herbs and modern sauces for flavors and healthy low fat quick cooking techniques like grilling, wok cooking and poaching.  (Knife skills, vegetable cookery and protein cookery)

Oct. 31st – Spice Class

How to use the proper spices and blends to season foods. Various spices and flavors from around the world.  How to get different simple world flavors with the same protein.  (Knife skills and protein & vegetable cookery)

Nov. 14th – Protein Cookery: Poultry

How to roast a whole chicken, turkey or duck.  Boning an entire chicken.  How to properly cook a duck breast.  (Knife skills and protein cookery).

Dec. 5th – Pastry

How to work with puff pastry and some simple kitchen desserts.  This class will be held in the Southside bakery.  (Baking skills)

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Attend the biggest food-show in North America

Posted on June 27, 2011 by cafegmu

The International Fancy-Food Show is coming to DC.  We are invited to work the show as “temps” on July 10th, 11th, and 12th.  This is the 57th year they put it on (it’s usually in NY) and you will be wowed by 180,000 products from 80 countries and 2400 exhibitors (yes, it’s HUGE, one of the top 5 food-industry trade-shows in the world).

Interested?  Details:

  • Be part of a team at a booth (as a prep chef, general helper, bilingual translator, etc.)
  • $13-15/hr
  • Work one, two, or all three days (July 10/11/12); it’s a Sun/Mon/Tue
  • Hours are from 9AM-5PM
  • Location is the DC Convention Center (metro accessible, though if you’re asked to drive in, they’ll pay for parking)
  • They REQUIRE enthusiasm about food. 😀  They prefer work-experience (at jobs, but not necessarily as chefs; can be retail in general) so that you can jump right in and help an exhibitor run their booth.
  • This can be a FANTASTIC experience for any student, and especially business-minded or food-loving students

To get good placement at the show, let us know if you’re interested by Friday July 1st by emailing cafe.gmu@gmail.com (the absolute last-day deadline to let them know is Thursday July 7th).  We’ll get you additional information about the event, and the agency offering us this opportunity (Food Temps, based in Rockville, MD) will ask for your resume and contact info.

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IDEAS for Cooking Classes: Fall 2011

Posted on June 17, 2011 by cafegmu
  1. Knife skills and basic cooking techniques: Sauté, Grill/Broil, Roast, Fry, Steam and Braise/Stew
  2. Sauces: How to make the 5 classical French “Mother” sauces and modern type healthy sauces.
  3. Protein cooking classes: Various types of center of the plate proteins and how to cook them: (3A)Four legged proteins: Beef, Pork, Lamb (3B) Two legged proteins: Chicken, Duck and Turkey (3C)No-legged (sort of) proteins: finfish and shellfish. Each of these would really need to be a separate class to do justice to each protein group/type.
  4. Starch cookery: The art and science of cooking starches: Potatoes, pastas, rice and grains
  5. Vegetable cookery: (Again) The art and science of vegetable cookery and vegetable entrees
  6. Dorm cooking that’s not fast food junk.
  7. The art of Healthy cooking – Good tasting food without the fat and calories
  8. Spices and seasoning foods from around the world.
  9. Date Dinner – A simple but elegant three course dinner to impress your date and have them thinking you really know how to cook! What a catch!
  10. The pastry class is a little more complicated, but we could have some simple fun with purchased puff pastry.

Please comment on this thread to let us know which things you’d like to learn from the best professional chef on campus. 🙂  We haven’t decided which classes to teach yet, so we need everyone’s input!

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Congratulations

Posted on May 6, 2011 by cafegmu

We earned it.

^5, CAFE-GMU 🙂

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[FREE] Gluten Free Night [FOOD]

Posted on April 25, 2011 by cafegmu

In true CAFE-GMU style, we’re trying to feed all 7000 estimated Mason-Day attendees delicious food on a shoestring budget.  Thanks to our sponsors, the Mason Office of Student Involvement, Mason Dining, and Udi’s Gluten Free Foods (who is generously providing samples of their products!) we’ll try ;D

See you at Mason Day!

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Yearbook photo

Posted on April 23, 2011 by cafegmu
Yearbook Photo

We love this club

I hope you all like it!

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Come Dance and Eat with us!

Posted on April 17, 2011 by cafegmu

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iWeek multicultural cooking event rocked!

Posted on April 17, 2011 by cafegmu

First, we’d like to thank Dana Fayyad of GMU’s Off-Campus Student Programs and Services and Sara Morrisroe of the office of Student Involvement for sponsoring this event and helping to organize it.

Download recipes here!  (FYI, this is not yet the complete recipe packet; we’ll have that for you ASAP)

Professionally setup, all the way

Delicious food...

...and a crowd to enjoy it!

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Movie Night with CAFE-GMU: Disney’s Ratatouille

Posted on April 5, 2011 by cafegmu

CAFE-GMU members and Mason Students only!

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What to Cook?

Posted on March 19, 2011 by cafegmu

We need to know which events and meetings we want to have as a club, this semester.  We have a LOT of opportunities.  Read about them here, and let us know which ones you’re most excited about: http://cafegmu.onmason.com/events/

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