Taste of Derby!

I had the amazing opportunity to work at the Taste of Derby last Thursday, May 3. This Derby Weekend Kickoff event is raised well over $100,000 for hunger relief locally and around the world. Nineteen renowned chefs from around the world came to accentuate the cause.What got me most excited? Iron Chef Cat Cora was "headlining" the event! I have looked up to her for a few years now.

myself with Cat Cora and my classmate, Bill Cherep

Honestly, the night before this event, I could barely sleep. I was like a child awaiting Christmas morning. I was so excited for the next day's adventures and opportunities. I got to school around 9am Thursday morning, chipper as could be. I think I was smiling ear to ear before I even walked in the door. Immediately, I was put to work. Through the prep day, I worked with chefs from Baltimore, California, Belgium, and Dubai. Once all the chefs were prepped and ready, we began the voyage to the event site.

The event took place at the Louisville Executive Aviation Hangar at Bowman Field airport. They transformed this huge dirty hangar into a huge, snazzy party room. Basically, each chef had a station and came with a small appetizer dish to serve to the 1200 expected guests. Each guest paid $300 per ticket but they were welcomed with free exquisite food, an open bar, and some awesome live music.

Some of us from Sullivan were assigned to particular chefs to assist them during service. I was lucky enough to be chosen to work with Chef Nicolas Bour, the Executive Chef of El Bizcocho in San Diego, California. His presentation was a Beef Tartare with Violet Mustard and Fresh Quail Egg.

I literally cracked over 500 quail eggs and obtained each yolk in less than three hours. The difficult thing with quail eggs, however, is that the membrane around the yolk is SO thick. You almost have to "cut" it away without breaking the yolk. Ensuring that the membrane was completely removed was important in order for the yolk to stay on our towers of beef tartare. It was a long process but I got into a great rhythm before too long. At the end of the night, Chef Bour told me if he ever had a quail egg cracking station again, I'd be the first person he called. That simple, almost joke of a statement really meant a lot :)

After cleaning up the whole hangar and collecting a few goodies, we all headed back to Sullivan after midnight. Regardless of a long 15-hour day, I don't think I ever stopped smiling. At one point during the day prep, one of my Sullivan chefs stopped me in the hallway and said he "appreciated" me. When I asked him why, he responded, "You just look like you're having a blast today." I just felt so lucky to be given the opportunity to work an event like the Taste of Derby with some amazing chefs. I did some great networking for my potential future and left with more than memories. I'll never forget this day!

Feel free to check out the rest of my photos from the day : Taste of Derby album. 

Hayley Charron