And this past weekend, I had my first opportunity to go out into the community to talk about nutrition. One of my close friends here is an assistant student chef who volunteers in the Providence area doing nutrition demos, teaching children to make nutritious snacks, etc. Last Saturday, she was assigned her first demo without a supervisor so she asked me to tag along. The "nutritious" menu was pre-set by the coordinator at the venue (which was a church in East Providence), so my friend and I had to figure out how to slap some health facts on chocolate-dipped strawberries and brie en croute. Great. Chocolate and pastry-wrapped cheese. And the coordinator actually thought these foods were healthy! We incorporated some information we had picked up in our academic nutrition class as well as our Nutrition and Sensory Analysis lab class, and I would say the demo went off without a hitch...or almost without a hitch.
Before our presentation, my friend and I were in the kitchen getting our prep work ready when we realized that every single pilot was out on the stove. We looked for a lighter and found only a small box of matches. Neither of us felt like burning our hands with the 2-inch matches so I stepped up to the plate and assured her, "Don't worry. I've got this." Whenever this happens in class (as she well knew), you can easily roll a paper towel into a wand and use it as a stick to light the pilot. So she lit the paper towel for me, and I lit one of the pilots. I was feeling swift, so I decided to try to light a second one with the same paper towel. 1.) Fire spreads very quickly. 2.) Paper towel is excellent kindling. 3.) I learned both 1 and 2 on Saturday. Before you get any ideas, let me say that I did not actually cause a kitchen fire, but I certainly put on a show for my friend. Within half of a second of trying to light the second pilot, my paper towel had gone up in a flame the size of the Olympic torch. I huffed and puffed on it a few times until I realized I was only making the flame bigger. I tried to smash it on the stove but only managed to force the flame closer to my hand and send embers flying all over the range. I finally ran with that flaming paper towel as if I was running toward Vancouver and threw it into the sink just in the nick of time. Meanwhile, my friend was crumbling on the floor in laughter.
Aside from that, it really was a success though. We received great feedback from the church and the food turned out really well. My friend demonstrated the strawberries and I presented the brie. I felt like I was on the Food Network, and I now understand how difficult it is to cook and talk at the same time. The demo had a Valentine's Day theme so we tried to incorporate that into the brie. Here's the before:
And here's the finished product:
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