Students & Chefs at Last Year's Noble Chef EventThe good news for UH Maui College’s Maui Culinary Academy (MCA) is that their biggest fundraising event of the year, Noble Chef, is now sold out without even mailing the invitations.  The bad news for culinary aficionados is that they’ll have to wait until next year to taste the culinary delights of top chefs and the MCA students they mentor.

This year’s Noble Chef, themed “Celebrate the Harvest,” will offer a cornucopia of delicious menu items that include Duck Bao, Seared Scallops and Big Island Mushroom Tortellini, just to name a few.

“We are very fortunate to have an outstanding group of highly talented and innovative Noble Chefs in place for our 2012 event,” said MCA External Program Coordinator Chris Speere. “Through the support of our Noble Chefs and our community, the Maui Culinary Academy can continue to provide scholarship opportunities and quality educational experiences for our students. Funding from Noble Chef ensures that we can offer  effective “real world”  learning in our culinary labs, giving students the skill sets essential for success in the workplace”.

“I feel that our Maui Community recognizes the quality, effort and educational importance we have invested to make Noble Chef the premier food and wine event on Maui,” added MCA Program Coordinator Dean Louie.  “In the past 3 years the MCA Program has raised over $300,000 to meet the needs of disadvantaged and exemplary students in the culinary arts program. These funds also award UHMC scholarships to Maui County High School students entering the program through our annual “Into The Fire” Culinary Competition.”

Due to the generous support of committee members and donors at the 2009 and 2010 Noble Chef events, MCA was able to establish an endowment fund. Earnings from this invested fund will be used to provide scholarships to future culinary students, and funds raised at Noble Chef 2012 will support the culinary arts program with “fund-a-need” to further support the Noble Chef Scholarship Endowment. The endowment will ensure that Maui’s brightest students will be able to experience the premier culinary education provided by Maui Culinary Academy.

UH Maui College’s Maui Culinary Academy was recently recognized by the American Culinary Federation Educational Foundation as one of only 71 “Exemplary” Culinary Programs across the nation.  With more than 38,000sf of facilities, the MCA program provides daily dining options as well as customized full-service catering capabilities. MCA is planning to extend Internationaleducation and food innovation opportunities along with current research andproduct development.

Those who didn’t get tickets but would still like to support the MCA can make a donation by contacting Ray Tsuchiyama (UH Foundation) at 984-3471 or email: ray.tsuchiyama@uhfoundation.org.