Vaughn Trannon, culinary arts senior from Detroit, Michigan, has mixed so many of his personal accomplishments into Nicholls’s culinary arts program that he was invited to stir in some of his culinary expertise and excitement Tuesday on WWL Channel 4.
According to www.wwltv.com, Trannon was the first of several chefs from “local culinary schools” who will be given an opportunity to showcase their skills on live television in their search for the greatest culinary program. Each Tuesday morning on the 6 a.m. news, a different chef will be spotlighted.
“There are a lot of great students here, and I was honored to be chosen to represent Nicholls,” Trannon said.
Trannon said he did not know how he was chosen to be on the show. He did not know that Frank Davis had asked the culinary department to send over “one of their best” students until he was on the show.
“I was just asked by the dean (of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute). He came up to me and said he needed me to do something for him and wanted me to go on the Frank Davis show and represent the culinary program,” Trannon said.
“The process to choose me could have been a nomination from professors or a draw of straws and I won. I still don’t know.
“I was very surprised when I got on the show and found out that they were highlighting the best chefs from each culinary program.”
Robert Harrington, dean of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, said Trannon was chosen because of his leadership and involvement.
“Trannon is one of our senior students in the program and has been involved in leadership positions and programs in the department. He also holds a leadership position at the Ritz Carlton, has a good GPA and is an all around good guy,” Harrington said.
Trannon said he did not put a lot of thought into it when he was asked to go because at the time the show was two weeks away. As the time approached, he began to worry about whether he was going to mess up or maybe would not respond properly to question.
Trannon said he was able to cook in his own style but was asked to prepare a shrimp or crawfish dish of his choice.
Trannon cooked a classic shrimp jambalaya with a tasso risotto garnished with a lemon vinaigrette watercress salad. His assistant was Ryan Rondeno, senior culinary arts major from Metairie.
“I choose a classic shrimp jambalaya but made my own rendition of it. Everyone really enjoyed the risotto,” Trannon said.
When asked about his experience working with Frank Davis, Trannon said Davis is a great guy who likes to have fun and wants you to have fun.
“He actually complemented me more than gave pointers. He said I did really good and enjoyed the food and my professionalism,” Trannon said.
Trannon said this was the first time he has publicly participated in anything of this magnitude. He said he has done cook-offs and competitions and experienced the fun with colleagues and other people in the field but had never cooked on television.
“I learned how a TV chef behind the scenes, how they work and the whole process of going to commercial breaks. It was really weird,” Trannon said.
Trannon was rated the highest rating possible which was four hats.
“Frank Davis said if they would have had five hats I would have got five,” he said.
“He told me I definitely set the tempo and the rest of the students will have a challenge ahead of them.”
Frank Davis also told Trannon about possibly implementing a cook-off for the two best chefs in the series.
Trannon said educational purposes and food brought him to Louisiana. He received an associate’s degree in dietetics from Delgado and then transferred to Nicholls after working in the profession for a year and a half. During that time, Trannon was food service director for Touro Shakespeare nursing home.
“The passion, love and drive I have for food was what motivated me to enter culinary school,” Trannon said.
Trannon has been working two and a half years at Victor’s in the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. He began as a cook, became a chef departie and is now a saucier chef over the whole Ritz Carlton. He works full time as well as attending Nicholls.
He was also the instructor for the kid’s chef camp, which was held the first week of January at Nicholls and plans to participate in the camp in the summer.
In the future, Trannon said he hopes to utilize his culinary expertise with his nutrition background.
The culinary school, as well as Nicholls, received exposure of its students and programs through this series.
“Any advertisement is good, but I believe Tuesday was a great opportunity to see how the University supports their students and how it sets them in a structure where they can get exposure like I did Tuesday. It’s not common, so I think it’s really good,” Trannon said.
Trannon expressed the magnitude of the culinary arts school by explaining that not many colleges in the nation offer four-year degrees in culinary arts and that this program will make Nicholls a “nation-wide watch school.”
“Anything we can do to expose our program and present the quality of students at Nicholls and in the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute can only help attract students of equal caliber,” Harrington said.
Trannon said, “I think with the new groundbreaking of the culinary school being mentioned on the air that that alone will also persuade a lot of people to come to a brand new culinary school with a new building, new classes and new equipment.”
“I think it (the new culinary school) is great. The only problem is that I’m graduating in May so I won’t get the chance to utilize it. In that case I’m a little sad, but I think it’s great for the school, city and state because they never had this before and few have,” he said.