Tidewater Community College's dining pleasures

I once knew a man whose eyes would actually roll back in his head with pleasure while eating a plate of food that had been set before him. Even people like us who love to cook love being cooked for.

So imagine how happy The Baby Girl and I were the other night when we had 14 people cooking for us all at once! We peeked in the kitchen beforehand and no less than 10 gas burners were lit, pans sizzling and scraping across the cooktop all to the beat of shiny knives going chop, chop, chop.

Once we were seated, the Tidewater Community College culinary arts students began a procession in pairs, each presenting their best dishes. We started with Angelo Perry’s hand-made mushroom-and-cheese stuffed ravioli with meat sauce (Chef and Instructor Emi Ostrander warned The Baby Girl not to eat it all, but in moments she was smiling like a Cheshire cat). We moved on to Mike Lambert’s pork enchilada, then Karen Fletcher’s champagne mushroom risotto. Alvin Carter served a plate of pepper steak with perfectly caramelized onions. Then followed Thai fried rice, pan seared beef tenderloin with sautéed mushrooms and more.

Then, to top it all off, the baking class in the next kitchen over sent out a tray of gorgeous desserts – pumpkin pie, bread pudding, the prettiest red velvet cupcakes and the most amazing pineapple upside-down cake made by Brandi Brooks, a young baker who has just gone public with B & G Bakery in Virginia Beach.

Anyway, a big thank you to all of the students – Mike Lambert, Karen Fletcher, Felicia Jenkins, Angelo Perry, Robert Skinner, Robert Weber, Barbara Hutcheson, Theresa Morse, Dennis Ange, Katina Richardson, Adlyne Joseph, Alvin Carter, Brittany Richardson and Mark Aliff. It was a truly “yummy” night, as The Baby Girl so succinctly put it.

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