Valley chefs "spice" things up at EVIT

Ten top Valley chefs donated their time and talent to help students whip up a beautiful gourmet dinner at the East Valley Institute of Technology Thursday night.


The chefs were participating in the school's annual Mystery Chef Dinner, which raises money for culinary student scholarships. Each year, the dinner has a different theme. Last year's theme was "cheese"; this year, it was "spice."


EVIT culinary students were hard at work all night, cooking, hosting and serving.


What a great event! Thanks to all the chefs who made the dinner extra special. To see more pictures from the night, click here.

Gobble, Gobble: EVIT Culinary students roast hundreds of Thanksgiving turkeys

The Culinary Arts Department at East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) smells like your Grandma's kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, but with a whole lot more activity. Watch the mass production of turkeys, pies, and breads to fill the thousands of orders for this special day.

Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at EVIT!

ACF Chefs competing at EVIT

The East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) Culinary kitchen is always humming with activity, but today it wasn't EVIT Culinary students causing the excitement. The Arizona state team of chefs competing for the Robert Bland Culinary Salon were creating the stir.

The judges gave the count and at the signal to begin, the chefs darted to the sink to wash their hands to begin preparation for the competition. The judges scrutinized every move of the competing chefs who were working as a team.

The competition is sponsored by the American Culinary Federation and is a three day event being held on the EVIT campus.

The 5th Season opens with a bang

EVIT culinary students opened the doors to their popular restaurant on Thursday for a night of gourmet food and great service.

This is the second year of the restaurant, which will be open to the public on the first Thursday evening of each month throughout the school year.

Students were hard at work with Chef Mike Turcotte before guests arrived, cooking up all kinds of amazing food:

And the dining room was sparkling:


For more pictures from the night, click here.

The restaurant will be open again on these dates: Oct. 7, Nov. 4, Dec. 2, Jan. 6, Feb. 3, March 3, April 7 and May 5.

For reservations, contact Tricia Guerrero at (480) 461-4139 or tguerrero@evit.com.

Culinary's version of orientation

First-year culinary students got a little taste last week of what they'll be learning this school year.

Second-year and former EVIT culinary students, along with a handful of well-known Valley chefs, held a Student Dinner last Monday. The chefs cooked the feast ...


... and second-year students served it up.


The dinner was a culinary-style orientation for the newbies to get a feel for all they'll be learning.

Art Institute students give demostration in culinary

Four students from the Art Institute of Phoenix visited the EVIT culinary class this week to practice for a big competition they'll be participating in later this fall.

The Art Institute students will be headed to an international cook off championship in Austria at the end of September, so they spent Monday morning practicing their skills during a demonstration for EVIT students.

Two of the four competitors also are former EVIT students, so they will be representing us during the competition, too! Here is former EVIT student Kolby Gessner, hard at work:

And former EVIT student Julie Fiedler, who has also competed on the Iron Chef America show:

During the competition, the two-member teams will each be given a basket of ingredients, and they'll have 30 minutes to create and execute a recipe.

Good luck, students!