Bulldogs participate in cooking skills survival course
The scene Thursday evening inside Room 108 of the Family Food Science Building featured the sounds of clinging pans, whisked batter, boiling water and sizzling sautéed vegetables mixed together with the critical ingredient of the night: Fresno State student-athletes.
These student athletes — which on this evening featured Bulldogs from the equestrian team and a football player — participated in Fresno State’s Bulldogs in the Kitchen, a program coordinated through the Food Science and Nutrition Department that teaches cooking survival skills.
Dietetics students in red aprons accompanied and guided groups of student-athletes in hairnets, kitchen gloves and white kitchen coats with rolled-up sleeves during the cooking process.
“What we’re trying to do is give them that sense of independence and autonomy so that they can go to the grocery store, purchase foods and guess what? They can make foods as opposed to always having to buy things that are already premade,” said Lisa Herzig, director of the Dietetics and Food Administration Program at Fresno State.
The program is in its fourth year of existence. This year, the program expanded from four sessions to seven four-hour sessions that will stretch through April 30.
The success stories have included several repeat participants, including Fresno State volleyball player Marissa Brand, who has participated all four years.
“The fun thing is to see them here, make a full-course meal and then be able to say, at the end of the night, they know how to make four new dishes,” said Rayanne Nguyen, a senior Fresno State swimmer and dietetics major.
Nguyen’s fellow swim and dive teammates took the cooking skills courses earlier in theweek.
“It was fun to see them in a different environment than the pool,” said Nguyen, one of the supervising dietetics students on hand who also previously participated in Bulldogs in the Kitchen as a student-athlete.
Suli Faletuipapai, a defensive end on the Fresno State football team, had a tough decision to make: tackle the kitchen or watch the first round of the NFL Draft, where former teammates such as Phillip Thomas and Robbie Rouse awaited their fates.
It wasn’t a hard decision to make, he said.
“It was kind of a toss up. But I’m glad I’m here. The Draft is prerecorded so I’m not really worried about it. I can go home and watch it later.”
After the a one-hour lecture and two-hour cooking session, the student-athletes ate the meals they worked hard to prepare together — family-style.
“It’s interesting: same recipe, but they all taste a little differently, which is really cool,” Herzig said. “They’re very proud of the end result.”
“It smells really good right now,” Faletuipapai said of his stir-fry cooking on the stove while whisking batter for his crepes.
“I just want to eat it out of the pan.”