By Derek Weaver
The Scene staff
The Cuisine Club’s weekly bake sale was a hit last semester, so members are doing it again in a new location.
People can buy student-made baked goods from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays at the popcorn stand in the Student Center lobby, just upstairs from the cafeteria.
“Man, this fire, bro,’ ” said architectural design major Obadiah Booker, 22, after taking his first bite of an apple parfait.
The bake sale is a fundraiser for the Baking and Pastry Arts Capstone Course.
“The Cuisine Club puts money into the food budget to buy materials for the class,” said faculty adviser Casey Shiller, baking and pastry arts coordinator.
“Then the class makes the food, and the Cuisine Club uses the food produced in the class for the fundraiser.”
People can buy quiche, blueberry almond tarts, brownies, cookies and apple parfaits at the bake sale. Prices range from 50 cents to $2.
The menu will grow as the semester continues, according to Jean Leathersich, 37, baking and pastry arts major and Cuisine Club vice president.
Bake-sale participants have doubled, from 10 last semester to 25 this semester. Students need not be Hospitality Studies majors to join the Cuisine Club.
“We encourage anyone who is interested in food,” Leathersich said. “But only students with the proper safety and sanitation requirements can prepare food.”
They also must wear chef-style uniforms.
The bake sale took place in the hall outside H-106 in the Hospitality Studies building last semester. That location was cramped and less visible than the Student Center lobby.
On a recent Wednesday, Pauletta Portis, 51, helped man the bake sale. She’s a baking and pastry arts major and Cuisine Club member.
“I love it,” she said. “You have to have a passion for what you’re doing.”
This semester’s customers include Tobias Knoll, a tutor in the Forest Park writing center, who favors chocolate-chip and peanut-butter cookies.
After a few chews, Knoll gave a thumbs-up.
“The prices are pretty economical,” he said.
Beyond the bake sale, the Cuisine Club is involved with special events on and off campus.
Last month, members helped prepared food for the Falling in Love … in Five Courses fundraiser for the St. Louis Community College Foundation. They worked under the guidance of New York celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich.
They also prepared food for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser for the Forest Park Disability Awareness Club.
The club will prepare food for a Business Club fundraiser April 14 as part of a Proper Dining Etiquette Class. Six students will attend a New Orleans culinary conference on Creole and Cajun cooking over spring break.
“(Funds raised at) many events we get involved with go toward scholarships,” Shiller said.