Since 1991, chefs from all over the world have come to Oklahoma State University for one week to teach School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration students the art and science of preparing and serving a multi-course gourmet meal for guests. 

The 20th anniversary celebration of the Distinguished Chef Benefit Series kicked off recently with Kansas City Chef Michael Garozzo leading approximately 50 students to create and serve a five- course meal for 225 guests. 

Jim Anderson, former HRAD faculty member and past president of the American Restaurant Association, started the event 20 years ago to provide professional instruction and hands-on experience for students who were entering hospitality careers.  Since then, more than 100 chefs have provided valuable lessons to students while exposing guests to unique cuisine from around the world.

Bill Ryan, Director of the School said the Chef Series has elevated the reputation of the program which is housed in the College of Human Sciences. "Chefs go back and spread the word about this amazing event that provides our students additional experiences outside the classroom," he said.

Ryan said family is the theme of this year’s events. "The wonderful experiences over the years have brought chefs, students and the community together as a family," he said.

"We considered each chef’s relationship to OSU as we were preparing for this year’s events. Chef Garozzo returns as one of our most popular chefs, Chef Miguel represents our international legacy, Chef Billingham’s focus on beef compliments our cowboy heritage, and the Biard brothers’ Oklahoma roots run deep."

As one of the most popular events at OSU, there is a waiting list for tickets to each event. A portion of the price of each ticket provides scholarship funds for hospitality students. More than $300,000 in scholarships have been provided over the last 20 years.

Preparing for the event makes for an intense week for students and chefs. The students and chef meet for the first time on Monday, food is ordered, tasks are assigned in the kitchen and the dining room, and a multi-course, gourmet meal for 250 people is served on Thursday evening.

Sperry native Ashlee Overall, who will graduate in December, has participated in ten events in one way or another over the past four years.  For the first event of the 2011-12 series, she was back of the house student manager for Chef Garozzo.

"Since my first Chef Event I wanted to become a manager," Overall said. "Many of my friends have been managers and I learned a lot from them. I picked up things I wanted to change while working other events and put them into practice during this one."

For this event she organized the students who would be working in the kitchen, helped the two chefs who traveled from Kansas City, and generally assisted the chef while he was on campus.

Chef Garozzo’s menu for the latest dinner included shrimp scampi and chicken spiedini for hors d’oeuvres, gnocchi with vodka sauce and his special wedge salad for the first course, veal spiedini ala sophia marie with eggplant parmigian as the main course and cannoli for dessert. 

Overall learned that the chef pays close attention to detail. "It was important for me to anticipate what he would need and have a few options to present," she said. "When we looked at plate choices for the dinner, I had to locate 250 of each plate. We only had 212 of the style of plate he wanted to use so I had to improvise and find another similar plate that would meet his expectations."

Chef Garozzo gave Overall a new nickname and she is proud of it. "He calls me Radar like the character from M.A.S.H. He chose this because I anticipated his needs like Radar did for the officers."

For more information on the Distinguished Chef Benefit Series, please go to www.humansciences.okstate.edu/hrad