10/03/08 Potato field trip gives culinary students food for thought

Farm and Ranch October 3, 2008 They weren't the typical students you would think of going on a field trip. Earlier this week Chef educator Doug Fisher and 34 of his students from the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy of Community Colleges of Spokane were bussed to the Columbia Basin to get a taste of potato harvesting, as well as storage, packing and some potato soup. Karen Bonaudi, assistant executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission says it was part of an educational partnership. Bonaudi: "This is the first time we have tried this aspect of our chef education program. We developed publications and we developed curriculum for classroom instruction but what we heard from the chef instructors was that the students really needed greater depth of understanding of where food came from." The tour was an eye-opener for both the students and their instructor. Bonaudi: "Both the instructor and the students appreciated seeing the size of the equipment it takes to farm, the amount of potatoes that were actually dug and all the handling that had to go on to bring crops from the fields into their restaurants and grocery stores." The culinary students were also given a potato recipe book, something they will hopefully use back in the kitchen. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.