HSFI: Our First Event Was a Fashionable Success!
By Kimberlee Preish
Photo by Isabela Elizondo
On Monday, we arrived on site at HSFI around 12pm for the leather workshop setup. Because school was still in session, our kitchen brigade began mise en place early and waited until three o’clock to begin cooking. We became familiarized with our main contacts on-site, Ms. Rosa Chavez, a HSFI faculty member who has been working with our team on event development, and the cafeteria staff for food safety and serving purposes.
FUA professor David Weiss led the students on an exploration of Tuscan leather culture and traditions. Students got to work with leather brought directly from Italy with the help of the Lordchoise accessories designers, and stitched together their own personal leather pochette. To complete the bags at home, we shared this Youtube tutorial accessible to all viewers.
For menu service, we worked together very smoothy and efficiently because we all wanted the event to be a success. Two of the kitchen brigade helped with the service of the buffet; although we only met them days before, Mayte and I instantly clicked with them and we worked as a single unit during the buffet service.
My favorite aspect of the night was the enthusiasm from the High School participants. They all adored the leather workshop; students mentioned that it was challenging in a good way, and they were excited to be able to make something, an ipad case, that they could use in real life. Furthermore, when I was in high school, I remember being a very picky eater, but these students we eager to try every item on our menu and their open minds impressed me. I was glad they were willing to try all the dishes, even the ones they had never heard of before such as pappa al pomodoro. We received lots of positive feedback, and most came back for seconds and thirds!
Another big hit during the event was the desserts! HSFI loved the presentations of each of the bite size treats and deemed them worthy of their fashionable standards. The pastry crew also added a personal touch by adding the “HSFI” acrononym on the insole of the shoe on the cake, which touched the whole crowd.
Overall, I think we all left the event feeling as if we were walking on water despite the fact that this was our first event. Both the students and the faculty members were blown away by our presentation.