This article originally appeared in the January 2025 edition of The Commuter.
Each winter, the LBCC culinary department hosts a banquet as a showcase of the students’ skills and the work they have put in over fall term. This year, on Dec. 6, the department unveiled a gastronomic journey to the Pacific Islands and Hawai’i featuring house-made spam musubi, poke bowls, and many other dishes. The students not only developed the menu and the theme, but decorated the banquet area as well, with everything from adorable folded napkin turtles to a blue runner to resemble the ocean.
Culinary student Elizabeth Martinez worked primarily on the decorations for the banquet, but everyone on the culinary team was a part of the planning and execution of the dinner.
“I worked a little more with the decorating part, but with the food so far, my favorite station is the poke bowl station,” said Martinez. “It looks like everything is super well put together. There’s tuna, there’s a crab salad, there’s edamame, and it’s all going to mix together with some rice. After trying everything, I really like the crab salad, and that’s what I’m excited about. I’m hoping there’s leftovers.”
Fellow student Carson Grino shared a bit about the planning process for the banquet, as well as the exciting dishes.
“We’re doing a sweet chili chicken – it’s got a mango glaze on it,” explained Grino, “It was a recipe that I made before the banquet, inspired by Hawaiian and Samoan dishes, trying to do a sweet and spicy kind of thing… We also did spam musubi with a house made spam made out of pork belly. That was really fun. I’ve been prepping that all week. They’re super compact and I used to eat them all the time. It was my breakfast growing up, so that was my connection.”
With the help of the faculty and staff in the culinary department, the students made their visions reality with the classy but approachable buffet-style event on the evening of the 6th. Joining LBCC staff and community members were the family and friends of many of the students participating in the banquet.
“My mom and her boyfriend are coming in as well as my grandma,” said Martinez. “… I’d say I’m really happy with how everything came out. It’s exactly how I imagined it and I just can’t be any more proud.”
