Houston Texans serve up a memorable experience for HCC Culinary Arts students

Nov 2, 2015

What’s cooking in the Houston Texans kitchen? Houston Community College Culinary Arts students got the rare chance to find out! They recently took a trip to NRG Stadium and saw firsthand what the players, staff and fans eat on a daily basis and during game time. This unforgettable experience called “Taking the Class to the Field” was made possible through the partnership between HCC and the Houston Texans.

“It’s an opportunity for us to get students out of the classroom, come to NRG stadium – learn about some things with the Houston Texans they didn’t realize and hopefully take away something new,” said Austen Smith, director of Partnership Marketing for the Houston Texans.

Students get exposure to the many facets of the Texans organization’s daily operation as it pertains to their courses of study at HCC. On this day, more than two-dozen aspiring chefs, along with their Chef instructors Eddy Van Damme and Nicholas Boland, toured the kitchens at NRG, spoke to Senior Executive Chef Mark Cornish with Aramark, and walked the famous field.

“I never really associated stadiums with culinary arts,” said Shantell Leleo, HCC Culinary Arts student. “It has opened up a new opportunity for me and different avenues in the culinary arts world.”

HCC is the official education partner of the Houston Texans and the NFL team has provided HCC access to their facilities and personnel as part of the curriculum for classes.

“We would love to bring on some new hires from HCC to a part of our game day experience which is the best in the NFL,” said Smith.

To see the many rograms offered at HCC, visit hccs.edu/programs.