Venezia: A tasty visit to Orange Coast College

The holiday season is a time for good food and getting together with friends.

So when Doug Bennett, executive director of college advancement at Orange Coast College, and Liz Parker, an OCC Foundation specialist, invited me to lunch and tour their culinary arts program, I was delighted.

Parker and Bennett were instrumental in bringing the Feet to the Fire Forum, a candidates debate I organize, to the college earlier this year.

It was the perfect venue, and they were so welcoming that I looked forward to seeing them again.

Lunch sounded great, but touring the Culinary Arts program?

Though I love to eat, I hate to cook, which is interesting since I spent so many years in a TV kitchen filming the comedy cooking show, “At Home on the Range,” with my co-host, John Crean.

During my time as a “professional stirrer,” let’s just say I was there more for the comedy than the actual cooking, which wasn’t very good.

Considering our most popular recipe was Crean’s homemade dog food, need I say more?

Because those shows are part of Orange County pop culture history, people think I love cooking. I’m sure Parker and Bennett probably assumed that as well.

So keeping my little secret to myself, off I went to meet them at the Captain’s Table on campus.

The restaurant is at the heart of OCC’s food service and culinary arts program.

With 75 seats, the Captain’s Table is a hands-on training facility for students who prepare, serve and learn what it takes to run a restaurant.

It is open to the public on Thursdays during the semester, and reservations are a must.

The day I lunched with Parker and Bennett the joint was sold out. The majority in attendance were there to support friends and relatives enrolled in the program.

The five-course menu had a California cuisine theme.

We began with artichoke bruschetta, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, olives and roasted almonds, and black mission figs wrapped in country ham with balsamic vinegar.

Next up was a cioppino mini-taste, which included grilled spiny lobster, sauteed fennel, frise, roasted pepper saffron mayo, broiled roasted garlic and sweet butter toast.

The salad was a wilted arugula with honey-cured bacon dressing and included a fried beet chip, pickled candy-stripe beets, salt-roasted golden beets, Humboldt fog cheese and beet “caviar.”

For the main course diners had a choice of duck confit and butternut squash agnolotti with brown butter, chanterelles and braised chard, haricot verte almandine, or roasted free-range chicken with cipollini onions, apricot glaze, herb polenta and roasted fingerling potatoes.

Desert was a chocolate mousse, peppermint bark and a crunchy cookie with vanilla sauce.

OCC’s culinary arts program attracts all ages. Take Reggie Jenkins from Huntington Beach.

Her mom, Pat Rogers, told me this program was life-changing for her 40-year-old daughter.

Jenkins broke her leg after accidentally tripping over her dog. During her recovery she watched countless hours of food shows.

“Food became her passion,” Rogers says.

When the leg healed, Jenkins decided to take her interest to the next level and enrolled in OCC’s Culinary Arts program.

Jenkins said having the experience helped her get a job as a food and beverage supervisor at the Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa.

And she looks forward to continuing her food education next semester.

Touring several large industrial kitchens, I met students busily preparing food for the Student Center Café — the main cafeteria in the student lounge — and catering a special holiday event on campus that day.

Students interested in getting into the food biz find several options at OCC.

The food service management program provides a varied curriculum in culinary arts, restaurant management, catering, fast food management and institutional food service.

Certificate programs are provided in each of these specialties and by completing the general education requirements, a student is eligible for an associates degree.

Culinology/food science is for those interested in a career in nutrition and offers certificates in nutrition education, dietetic technology and one that enables students to become community nutrition assistants.

The culinary arts program is spelled out on the college’s website.

I was impressed with not only the amazing lunch, but with the excitement of the students I’d met.

I’ll admit there was a part of me that wanted to join in as I watched them in the kitchens, whipping up fancy pastries and other tasty treats.

Was it time for me to finally learn how to cook?

The thought has crossed my mind many times over the years. Luckily, it always passes quickly!

BARBARA VENEZIA, whose column appears Fridays, lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].