The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute hosted Halloween Bite Night

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute hosted its Halloween Bite Night last Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Ducros Plantation in Schriever.

In the past, the Culinary Institute hosted a Bite of the Arts fall fundraiser. This year administration decided that maybe a new idea would be refreshing.

“We kept the ‘Bite’ and went with a Halloween costume party instead,” John Kozar, department head and assistant professor, said.

At 6 pm, the event began with hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction preview of cookbooks from Andrea’s Restaurant & Catering, Galatoire’s Restaurant and gift certificates to several restaurants.

A local band, “Soul Survivors” played as the food buffet opened. Some of the foods served that night included a whole hog with green onion kimchi, brisket, smothered green beans with salt pork and several other various foods.

The students of the Culinary Institute prepared all of the food served at the Halloween Bite Night with the assistance of Jean-Paul Bourgeois, the distinguished chef of the night.

“It was a great experience for the students to have the visiting chef,” Kuzar said. “That has always been a part of the fundraising, being able to bring someone from the outside in, make contacts for the students and to teach them a little bit more about the business.”

Jean-Paul Bourgeois is a 2006 alumni of the Nicholls Culinary Program. Bourgeois is currently the executive chef of Blue Smoke, a restaurant located in New York City.

“I taught Chef Bourgeois when he attended Nicholls,” Kuzar said. “It’s so rewarding to see that a student can take what they learned here [at Nicholls] and apply it to the real world. He was able to go out there and succeed after he graduated.”

For this year’s event they had a student leadership team that included Jordan Bradbury as the Executive Chef and Jonathon Dent as Executive Sous Chef.

Other aspects of the night were monitered by culinary students: Stephanie Perez was the event manager, Jovana Thomas was in charge of decorations, Devon Cenac with entrance/auctions, Alison Roberts for service, Justin Webb at the bar/beverages and Amber Reaves in charge of parking.
By the end of the night, Halloween Bite Night had a costume contest. There were two categories: individuals and small group/ couples.

“My favorite part of the night was the costume contest,” Kuzar said. “It was the first time we had a costume contest, and it was really awesome watching the people strut across the floor. Just seeing how much time and effort people put into their costumes made it so rewarding.”

The winners of the costume contest received seats at the Bistro Ruth, run by the Nicholls Culinary students, when it opens for the spring semester.

“It was not as many as we had hoped, but we received many amazing comments from people in attendance,” Kuzar said. “Also, the amount of interest in the costume contest made the event successful in our books.”

Approximately 110 people attended the 2016 Nicholls Culinary Bite Night.

“We are looking forward to and are already beginning to plan for the event next year,” Kuzar said. “We hope to continue the Bite Night for many years to come.”