Culinary Arts

Newport Beach resident Yvon Goetz, Executive Chef and Partner at The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar, will lead three of Orange County’s most talented and highly decorated chefs in creating a six-course dinner to help five aspiring chefs earn their Associates Degree in Culinary Arts at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. The inaugural “Orange County Celebrity Chefs Culinary Arts Scholarship” fundraiser will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 at The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar located at The District in Tustin.

Orange Coast College is making nearly $30,000 in scholarship funds available to graduating high school seniors who are interested in attending the college next year. The scholarships for the upcoming school year are valued from $400 to $500 each. The four types of scholarships include Emerging Leader Scholarships for students who have exhibited leadership skills in school or the community and who have grade-point averages of 2.0 or higher; Academic Excellence Scholarships for students with grade-point averages at 3.0 or above; Prospective Teachers Scholarships for students planning to enter the teaching profession; and the R.W. Smith Culinary Arts Scholarship for students planning to major in culinary arts.

UCI dean named Lawrence president UC Irvine professor Jill Beck will be Lawrence University's first woman president. Beck, 54, will start at the 158-year-old Appleton, Wis. university in July. She served as UCI's arts dean from 1995 to 2003 and founded two arts organizations during her tenure -- ArtsBridge America and the daVinci Center for Learning Through the Arts. Beck has written broadly on issues of arts education. She was awarded the 2002 UCI Medal, the university's highest honor, and the Orange County Department of Education honored Beck with its outstanding Contributions to Education Award.

Abbe Rich is Orange Coast College's new pastry chef. Rich runs the college bakery, which is in the Student Center cafeteria. She has an associates degree in culinary arts and a pair of certificates in culinary arts and advanced culinary arts ... Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephen E. Rodriguez, a 2000 graduate of Estancia High School, and his fellow sailors welcomed Maj. Gen. Graham Lamb aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise...

COSTA MESA — A graduate of Orange Coast College's culinary arts program won first place this week in a contest in which four top chefs went up against one another to see who could create an all-chocolate vehicle that actually moved. Award-winning Las Vegas pastry chef Chris Hanmer, a former resident of Costa Mesa, won $10,000 — not to mention a shot at fame on the TV screen. You can check it out on the Food Network at 6 p.m. Saturday. The contest, dubbed the Food Network Runaway Chocolate Challenge, will also air at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Costa Mesa resident James F. Normandin was named president of the Memorial Medical Foundation. The foundation supports Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children's hospitals. Normandin, who has been the executive vice president of the foundation for 20 years, took over his new post on Jan. 1. ... Lowell Petrie of Newport Beach was named vice president of marketing for Mimi's Cafe, the Tustin-based restaurant chain. Petrie's most recent position was vice president of marketing for Ruby's Diner.

Erica Shen In a cozy kitchen tucked behind the student center cafeteria at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, students gather for career training slightly different from the usual college fare. This is a classroom saturated with the smell of fried onions and baked ham, where course lectures are punctuated with knives chopping and pots clanging. Dressed in checkered pants, white jackets and high chef's hats, the students of OCC's culinary arts program took out their tools during a class session and began to experiment with the day's menu.

Orange Coast College will begin awarding associate degrees in science next year. The new degree program has been authorized by the college's curriculum committee, and by the board of trustees of the Coast Community College District. Approval was granted last week by the California Community College chancellor's office. OCC has been awarding associate arts degrees since 1948. The college also grants certificates of achievement to students who successfully complete required courses in a variety of certificate programs, and certificates of completion to students who complete specially designed or intensive learning activities.

Young Chang There are no secrets in their business. No hoarding of tricks or even recipes. In fact, chefs at the Taste of Newport will not only demonstrate how to make their signature fondues and salt-crusted red snappers and tarragon cream dressings, they'll send you home with written instructions, too. "Like the Food Network, only one-on-one," said Chris Lauderdale, a chef instructor at the Art Institute of...

Debbie L. Sklar Marco Colin, the executive chef at The Oasis Dining & Dancing in Irvine, doesn't have to worry much about competing with too many cooks in his kitchen. This 45-year-old chef, who lives resides in Costa Mesa, oversees the kitchen at this popular hot spot and he couldn't be happier. In fact, he's been working as a chef for almost as long as he can recall. Born in Mexico, he left when he was 17 years old and headed to the United States.

Newport Harbor senior Crystal Morales' life changed dramatically Tuesday as she was walking home from school. Just last week, Morales wrapped up an intense project as an editor and actor in a short student film. On Tuesday, the shy and creative teen was critically injured in a suspected DUI crash. The 17-year-old is scheduled to graduate this spring and possibly enroll in Orange Coast College culinary classes or in film courses, said her mother, Gloria Morales. Speaking from Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where Crystal is in a medically induced coma, Gloria's voice breaks up as she talks about her daughter.

COSTA MESA — Newport Harbor High School's culinary arts students will represent California at the nationals later this month after winning a state competition. On April 7, Newport Harbor's culinary and management teams each took first-place finishes at the California ProStart Competition at Cal Poly Pomona's Collins College of Hospitality Management. "When they announced that our culinary team had won state, we were just ridiculously excited," said senior Luke Fischer, 18. "It was unbelievable how happy we were.

For those who aren't sure how hot that serrano chili pepper is once it hits the soup, remember this: The seeds aren't what make the pepper hot; that's been a misnomer for years. What gives the pepper its heat are the veins inside it — at the base, not the tip. So if you don't want whatever it is you're cooking to be too hot, just cut a small vein out of the tip and you'll be OK. As for pomegranate, if you want to look cool around school, just buy a few pieces of fruit at the grocery store, roll them around on a hard counter top to "juicen them up," then stick straws in the top of them.

COSTA MESA — A graduate of Orange Coast College's culinary arts program won first place this week in a contest in which four top chefs went up against one another to see who could create an all-chocolate vehicle that actually moved. Award-winning Las Vegas pastry chef Chris Hanmer, a former resident of Costa Mesa, won $10,000 — not to mention a shot at fame on the TV screen. You can check it out on the Food Network at 6 p.m. Saturday. The contest, dubbed the Food Network Runaway Chocolate Challenge, will also air at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Newport Beach resident Yvon Goetz, Executive Chef and Partner at The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar, will lead three of Orange County’s most talented and highly decorated chefs in creating a six-course dinner to help five aspiring chefs earn their Associates Degree in Culinary Arts at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. The inaugural “Orange County Celebrity Chefs Culinary Arts Scholarship” fundraiser will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 at The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar located at The District in Tustin.

“It is rare to produce a dinner of this quality today because the world does not have the chefs,” offered hotelier Henry Schielein , standing before a grand banquet table surrounded by men in tuxedos in the Grill Room of his domain, the Balboa Bay Club & Resort. Schielein and the resort hosted the spring 2008 formal dinner of the Escoffier Society of Southern California. Ironically, his guests were many of the great chefs of the region, including Frederick Castan , Bruno Massuger and Fred Mensinga . These gentlemen and many of the others in attendance devote their daily lives to culinary excellence.

SANTA ANA — When Corona del Mar High School senior Scott Buchert was little, he used to whip up a batch of pancakes for his family all the time. He parlayed those pancakes into $1,000 scholarship Saturday, when Buchert, 18, was a semifinalist at the Art Institute of California Orange County's scholarship cook-off. Buchert was one of 10 semi-finalists to win the $1,000 scholarship and to prepare pre-selected dishes at the school, which is on the border of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa.

Orange Coast College will begin awarding associate degrees in science next year. The new degree program has been authorized by the college's curriculum committee, and by the board of trustees of the Coast Community College District. Approval was granted last week by the California Community College chancellor's office. OCC has been awarding associate arts degrees since 1948. The college also grants certificates of achievement to students who successfully complete required courses in a variety of certificate programs, and certificates of completion to students who complete specially designed or intensive learning activities.

Erica Shen In a cozy kitchen tucked behind the student center cafeteria at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, students gather for career training slightly different from the usual college fare. This is a classroom saturated with the smell of fried onions and baked ham, where course lectures are punctuated with knives chopping and pots clanging. Dressed in checkered pants, white jackets and high chef's hats, the students of OCC's culinary arts program took out their tools during a class session and began to experiment with the day's menu.

Costa Mesa resident James F. Normandin was named president of the Memorial Medical Foundation. The foundation supports Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children's hospitals. Normandin, who has been the executive vice president of the foundation for 20 years, took over his new post on Jan. 1. ... Lowell Petrie of Newport Beach was named vice president of marketing for Mimi's Cafe, the Tustin-based restaurant chain. Petrie's most recent position was vice president of marketing for Ruby's Diner.