Once again Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Services was chosen to assist in the meal preparation at the Olympics.

After a successful experience at the Beijing Olympics. Chef Rebecca “Becky” S. Woehrle, CWPC NCHS Chef Instructor at the Sullivan – Louisville Campus was chosen again to take a select group of students to the winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Chef Becky will be sending periodic updates to share the experiences of her students with all of you. Below is the latest update from Chef Becky.

Hello again, from Vancouver,

They are jokingly saying that these are the nicest summer Olympics ever held in Canada. The weather remains beautiful. It was sunny today and almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If we ever took a lunch break, today we would have taken it outside.

I can’t believe that we are all planning and looking toward the closing ceremonies on Sunday, but we are. The time has flown here and things are coming to a close. The once packed freezers that held palettes of protein are starting to empty and it’s a little sad. We are all still working long days but recognize the mood of the end of the games. We are all very proficient and creative at utilizing any product still in house.

I wish I could say that I have met all the celebs and athletes that have crossed the threshold of the USA house, but I haven’t. Jackie and I have a nice baking home at the commissary where we spend most of our days producing the desserts for lunch and dinner for the USA houses Vancouver and Whistler. It is quiet and without interruption, unlike the USA house Vancouver, which is mayhem at most points of the day. Rachelle, April and Jose are essential elements of the kitchen at USA Vancouver, but they don’t get out to the floor much either.

The real celeb greeters are Suzanne and Brigitte. They work front of the house and special parties so they get to meet the guests. The list is impressive from Shawn Johnson and his friends to Vice President Biden, Michelle Kwan, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Wayne Gretzky, Tara Lapinsky, Vera Wang, Kristi Yamaguchi, Michael Phelps, Brian Boitano and Evan Lysacek.

The USA house was designed to be a private oasis for athletes, dignitaries and sponsors. It is a place that they can visit without throngs of people asking for their autograph or picture. So unfortunately, the policy states that we cannot ask for an autograph or picture. When we are off duty we are not allowed to visit the USA house as a guest. I discovered at a Curling match a couple nights ago when I was sitting next to an athlete’s family member, that not even family are allowed in the house unless the athlete wins a medal and brings them for the party that is thrown for them.

I wish I could tell you more about who’s visited, but the experience for those of us working this venue is about high quality and high volume food production. We all work long but rewarding hours to accomplish this. The selection and variety of food is immense. And the presentation rivals anything I’ve seen in food magazines or competitions.

It is an amazing learning experience. And just like Beijing, challenges pop up every day. Today our dish machine backed up and we were doing mountains of dishes by boiling water on the stove, hand washing and sanitizing. The bakeshop has yet to acquire cake circles, so we’ve been cutting out circles from cardboard boxes and wrapping them with foil. At least we aren’t opening individual packets of Splenda. J

The city is absolutely bursting with Olympic pride as the Canadians clog the streets dressed in red and carrying flags cheering on their team. Sometimes I wonder if they own a single piece of clothing that doesn’t say “Canada” on it.

I would have to say, this is one of the huge differences between Beijing and Vancouver. The Chinese were so reserved. They never paraded around like this. I’ve never seen anything like it. The Canadians are unbelievably passionate about their sports. We were all unsure about how they would react when we beat them in hockey the other night. But, they were very gracious.

Overall, this has been another great experience. Just wish we could have gotten some of the snow you all have.

Love to all and thank you for your emails, texts and support.

Becky