On a roll

The college's culinary kitchens have been heating up. Culinary art professors and the hosts of Austin Community College's first cooking television show are giving students a new, creative way of learning food industry techiniques - outside of the classroom.

The hosts, chefs Brian Hay and Brian McCormick, are a part of one of the fastest growing departments at ACC. Student chefs get hands-on learning in a fully equipped kitchen which includes a wood burning oven. The show, "Austin Cooks," is the newest expansion to the program.

Chef Hay and chef McCormick teamed up with ACC's television crew to show students the new trends in cooking and give back to the local community.

"There is so much that we can do for Austin and the community college," said McCormick.

Charles Quinn, dean of Business Studies, helped come up with the idea for the show. Quinn stated that the show's five objectives were, "that it needed to be educational, interactive, entertaining, promotional and involve the local culinary community."

In upcoming episodes, the "Austin Cooks" stars will give viewers an inside look at local culinary businesses by visiting a fish market, an ostrich farm and a wine vineyard.

"Most people don't realize this," said McCormick about their visit to the ostrich farm, "but ostrich is a red meat. It is leaner, lowers cholesterol and looks and eats just like beef." On the show, viewers can learn how to prepare what, according to McCormick is a tender, healthy meat that is on its way to becoming the perfect substitute to beef.

Other shows teach how to saute a juicy chicken breast - with a sauce that includes white wine, lemon juice, butter, and capers - and will introduce the new, tender, flat-iron steak. There will also be a look inside of ACC's own bistro, which opened at the Eastview Campus in the spring of 2000.

The show's main purpose will be to educate the students of culinary arts. "Our students will be able to review some of the techniques they use in class," said Hay. "Then, they will have a resource on the web where they can put their input."

Hay also hopes that the show will, "help explain what [chefs] do, by informing the general public, and act as a marketing tool so that that the Culinary Arts program will continue to expand at ACC." The duo is already planning to film more videos this summer.

The culinary business is thriving because of booming travel and tourism, cruise industires, retirement resorts and hotels, explained McCormick. Employment opportunity is now bigger than ever. The Food Network has also contributed a great deal to the popularization of the culinary business. The chef aims to get all of his students into culinary management and ownership roles, and is sure that if the culinary arts program continues to expand, that goal will be easily achieved.

The wonderfully compatible, witty pair strive to make each week's cooking adventure a learning experience, and their show is reaching out to both aspiring chefs and those who just love to cook.

You can watch the show every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on ACC's cable channel 19. Visit www.austincc.edu/cooks to learn more about the show and to find recipes.