OSUIT Cowboy Chef’s Table features authentic Italian and western cuisine
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Media Contact: Hicham Raache | Communications Coordinator | 918-293-4678 | hicham.raache@okstate.edu
Old World Italian cooking met the Old West in an exhilarating showdown of dynamite flavors during Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology's Cowboy Chef’s Table.
Community members from Okmulgee and several neighboring areas attended Cowboy Chef’s Table, a fine-dining luncheon that is held each semester to raise money for scholarships awarded to the School of Technology, Arts, Sciences and Health’s Culinary Arts students.
The luncheon was held on May 21 and featured a dazzling four-course meal prepared by advanced Culinary Arts students under the guidance of expert traditional Italian cuisine chefs Teresa Parrott and Luigi Sposato.
“I have been very impressed with the students. They have great instincts. The longer that they're in the industry, the better their confidence will become in the kitchen,” Parrott said. “They know what they're doing already. And that speaks to the quality of the instructors who are here.”
The four-course meal included authentic Italian dishes with some touches of the Wild West. The menu featured smoked ricotta, Calabrian bread soup, tomahawk steak and tiramisu, among other flavorful delights.
“This particular menu was inspired by the fact that my bonus dad, [Luigi], who is Italian and a master baker, is here with me as well,” Parrott said. “He is from the old world and very much represents the traditional methods. I am from the new world, and I build upon those traditions, so I may take a little bit more liberties than he does. I thought the perfect representation of the two of us would be a spaghetti western.”
The OSUIT Culinary Arts Program has hosted Cowboy Chef’s Table for over a decade. The event is held each semester. Proceeds from ticket sales support scholarships for Culinary Arts students.
Stone Bluff community members Rick and Darlene Sandifer returned for Cowboy Chef’s Table after their first experience at the event in March.
“We enjoyed the first one so much. The food was really good. Basically, we're just foodies. We just love good food. And it was flavorful and well made, as was this,” Rick said.
The Sandifers left last week’s event full and happy.
“This was great. I love the Italian food. It was a lot of food, and it was delicious,” Darlene said.
Traditional Italian cooking is a sacred and enduring part of Parrott’s family heritage. Parrott was born into a massive Italian-American family that included 11 aunts and uncles and more than 60 first cousins. She spent countless hours in the kitchen with her mother and aunts, learning the old ways of using simple ingredients to bring magnificent flavors to life.
“From a very young age, I learned that the only way to be in the kitchen was to have some sort of job. And I wanted to be in the kitchen with all my aunts and all the action, and the fun stuff is always in the kitchen,” Parrott said.
Parrott’s culinary skills grew when she traveled to Milan, Italy. She trained directly with an Italian home cook.
“She showed me a lot of shortcuts that I wasn't familiar with because in Milan life is much faster than in the rest of Italy,” Parrott said.
Parrott went on to earn a degree in International Business from OSU. Years later, she enrolled in OSUIT’s Culinary Arts program and traveled from Tulsa to Okmulgee each day to learn professional food preparation skills.
She said the chefs who led the program provided her with an invaluable education.
“The reputation and the chefs that have come out of this program, the food and the quality of what they produce, there is not even a close second in the area,” Parrott said. “The knowledge that they have in bread-making, chocolate, desserts, everything, it's really unmatched in this area. And that's why the reputation of the school is there, and it continues to produce top-notch, top-level chefs.”
Parrott owns a catering business, Cozy Cuisine, providing an all-around culinary experience for intimate, smaller-scale gatherings. But she continues to learn and evolve in her craft. She recently completed a six-week immersion in Calabria, Italy, deepening her knowledge of Southern Italian cooking and reinforcing her dedication to authenticity. She described Italian as one of the few master cuisines in the world and an important skill for an aspiring chef to learn.
“Italian cuisine focuses on ingredient quality. So even if you are not going to cook Italian food, learning the difference between one tomato and the next tomato is so important for you as a chef,” she said.
Culinary Arts students Thomas Lindsey and Kim Prince observed Chef Parrott and Chef Luigi as they demonstrated time-honored techniques.
Lindsey, who aspires to be a chef for the Oklahoma City Thunder, was especially impressed with Chef Luigi’s expertise in making Italian bread.
“It was amazing. You sat there with this baker who's been baking since 16, and now he's 60, and you just sit there and watch him, and he just knows how the bread's supposed to look within 10 seconds of him mixing it. It's not even a dough ball yet, and he knows it needs more water. He knows it needs a little salt, a little flour,” Lindsey said.
Prince, who is nearing the completion of her culinary training at OSUIT, helped prepare different courses for the event. She said there is a sublime simplicity to Italian cooking.
“What I've learned about Italian food is very simple. It’s a lot of simple ingredients, and it's just simple, basic techniques that we learn in Skills One and Two. Watching it come together in this big of a process is really amazing,” Prince said.
Parrott sees excellence in the next generation of Oklahoma chefs.
“Working with the students has been so much fun for me because I really can see the quality of the next generation and where it's going, and it's so exciting to me,” she said. “I can't wait for Tulsa to get these new chefs. Some of the ideas and the things that they're coming up with, it's going to be amazing.”