Students and staff members enjoyed creating a festive whipped fruit salad during the November Teaching Kitchen class at the Student Center South. It consisted of canned fruit cocktail, pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, dried Jello, whipped topping, mini marshmallows, coconut flakes, maraschino cherries, and walnut pieces. The easy-to-find ingredients were selected partly because they are available at both Campus Cupboard locations. While mixing their salads, attendees had the option of halal substitution ingredients. 

Teaching Kitchen attendees had the opportunity to explore a spice station and bottle their own spice blend using ground star anise, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, baharat, gram masala, and almond extract.

Yasmine Amoussa, left, Iman Diefalla, center, and Fateha Choudhury, right, showcase the spice blend they created before the start of Teaching Kitchen.

Fourteen students and two staff members took part in the University of Houston Dining Services Teaching Kitchen event in November.

UH Dining System Senior Executive Chef Benito Gavirio led the class and shared with attendees that the fruit salad was a favorite of his daughter.

Attendees watched and followed Chef Gavirio as he made his fruit salad. Chef Gavirio described each step along the way and ensured everyone was following along.

Elena Nguyen adds whipped cream topping to the fruit salad, marking one of the final steps for the fruit salad.

Karina Carcamo and Alfred Guzman proudly show off their in-progress fruit salad in their first-ever Teaching Kitchen event.

Sheila Yap watches Shirley Yap add extra whipped topping to her completed fruit salad. Attendees packaged their fruit salad in to-go containers to enjoy later that day.

Communications Program Director Trever Thomas, left, and Baur College of Business Sr. Project Manager Genny Lee attended their second Teaching Kitchen of the semester and enjoyed the sweet changeup from the first class.

Christa Onyia, left, and Brianna Bell, right, opted for smaller to-go containers for their fruit salad. This marks Onyia’s second Teaching Kitchen event of the semester.