OSU-Okmulgee students tour San Francisco and California

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A tour of San Francisco, the Napa Valley, and Sonoma County “wine country” regions would be a classy cultural experience for almost any college group. However, for OSU-Okmulgee Culinary Arts program students, instructor Jeff Howard said the California trip will play an integral part in shaping their careers.

“Tours like this one show students the diversity of our restaurant business,” Howard said. “They see firsthand the importance of quality and flavor as well as service. California wines are now recognized as some of the finest in the world.”

According to Howard, firsthand knowledge of America’s wine country regions adds to the professional expertise students can bring to the workplace.

“In the past 10 years in Oklahoma, wine has become a much larger part of the food service industry. During this trip, our students saw production from the grapevine to the bottled product," Howard said.

Howard was one of three instructors and 10 students who made the trip to California. Howard and Chef Grady Perryman are cosponsors of OSU-Okmulgee’s Future Chefs’ Association, the group sponsoring the California tour. Chef Valarie Carter, instructor of the wine education course, also accompanied the students.

“The Future Chefs’ Association takes several smaller trips each year, and we also try to take a larger trip,” Howard said. “In the past, we’ve gone to schools, restaurants and trade shows in Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas.”

The tour combined education with amusement. Students toured San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square and took a sightseeing cruise in the bay. The group also visited the Culinary Institute of America at Graystone, located in the heart of Napa Valley.