Xhibition Kitchen
Live, Learn, Eat.
This is the mantra of the Xhibition Kitchen which is located in Stetson West Eatery. This venue fosters an environment to strengthen culinary art skills, broaden the knowledge of food and diversify the palate.
The Xhibition Kitchen is a state of the art exhibition kitchen complete with overhead cameras that project onto flat screen televisions, induction stove tops, yellow granite counters and round top tables for classroom style seating.
A variety of programs are hosted in this innovative kitchen which include chef demonstrations, cooking classes, book signings and interactive display cooking. This space has provided NU students, faculty and staff the opportunity to get up close and personal with James Beard award winning chefs, cookbook authors and restaurant chefs. A local television food show used the Xhibition Kitchen to film a series of cooking shows. The Food Network filmed a portion of Throwdown with Bobby Flay in the Xhibition Kitchen with award winning authors Marilynn and Sheila Brass.
Dining Services has hosted close to fifty authors in this demonstration kitchen. There is a complete library of signed books from all of the authors! Numerous authors are booked in collaboration with the NU Barnes and Nobles bookstore. World-renowned Master Chef Jacques Pepin, Certified Master Chef Martin Yan, best-selling author Frances Mayes have all cooked for us in the Xhibition Kitchen! James Beard award winning chefs Barbara Lynch, Ana Sortun, Alice Medrich, Michael Schlow, Johanne Killeen and George Germon, have all spiced up the XK.
Stirring up the pot this season in the XK with their cookbooks were : Cynthia Gold & Lisa Stern-Culinary Tea, Phillip & Lauren Rubin with The Comfort of Apples. Two 2011 James Beard award nominees Joanne Chang with Flour and Amanda Hesser with The Essential New York Times Cookbook filled the XK with sweet aromas from their delicious recipes. Ming Tsai wowed our students with his warm charisma and love of the culinary world! Students stood in line for hours anxious to score a front row seat to meet this celebrity chef!
Top restaurant chefs from Boston area also make appearances. This year’s guest chefs included: Jose Duarte from Taranta, Darren Carbone from Ken Oringer’s La Verdad Taqueria, French chef Raymond Ost from Sandrine’s Bistro, Chef Mark Porcaro from one of Boston’s finest dining locales The Top of the Hub and Pastry Chef Lee Napoli from Chocolee Chocolates.
James Beard Award winning author Joe Yonan from Washington Post cooked for us from his new cookbook Serve Yourself. Already booked for the Fall 2011 season Jacques Pepin with Essential Pepin and Dr. Nathan Myhrvold with Modernist Cuisine!
The authors and chefs are invited to the XK and we provide them with all the mise en place for their demonstration including samples of the recipes for all of the audience to taste during the presentation.
The food inspired programming possibilities are endless. This year Dining Services collaborated with NU Athletics and University Health & Counseling to initiate a series of healthy cooking demonstrations tailored for each athletic team. Eating and cooking well balanced meals while away at college can be challenging for any student, especially athletes. These students are not only busy with their class schedules but are also training daily with their teams. Nutritious meals must be part of daily campus life! This customizable event called Nutritious U: Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Healthy You. This is an interactive cooking demonstration where the team athletes come together for a meal in the Xhibition kitchen with our chefs and nutritionist complete with cooking tips, food safety and nutritional information presented by our culinary team. Each event is customized to a team’s unique dietary needs.
Come meet our “Campus Culinarians”. This is another series of cooking demonstrations presented by our own chefs from across the campus. We spotlight our culinary talent that cook for our students everyday from Johnson & Wales University and the Culinary Institute of America.
Interactive demos are programmed when we are not hosting a chef demonstration. These include chocolate fountains, decorate your own cupcakes, cheese tastings, sushi making, vendor days, cookie decorating, chocolate making, fondue fun, toast your own s’mores, stuff your own cannolis-just to mention a few.
