First-year students in NAIT’s garde manger class learned something new yesterday: The Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana.
They also learned that celebrity chef David Adjey has spent a fair amount of time in the Mexican border city, and that he cooked for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston on their first date.
But what the NAIT students were really in class to learn from Adjey, the school’s Hokanson chef-in-residence, was how to make the perfect salad.
“It’s pretty cool,” said student Carly Minish. “He’s really experienced and he’s taking food in a new direction.”
Minish said she’s impressed by NAIT’s ability to bring in big-name chefs to help teach eager culinary students.
“They bring people in every year,” she said. “It’s something we can get excited for and learn from.”
Adjey is used to cooking in a classroom setting. The star of the TV show Restaurant Makeover attended the Culinary Institute of America before moving on to fame and fortune.
“They call it the Harvard of cooking schools, do you know why?” he asked the students. “It’s because it’s so expensive.”
Adjey is currently in production on a Food Network show called The Opener. The celebrity chef will be at NAIT until this Friday.
