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Auburn University holds summer culinary classes

<p>The Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center will be a 142,000-square-foot facility set to provide students interested in hospitality and culinary sciences with hands-on learning experiences in a teaching hotel and a teaching restaurant, as well as a range of classrooms and demonstration and food production laboratories.</p>

The Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center will be a 142,000-square-foot facility set to provide students interested in hospitality and culinary sciences with hands-on learning experiences in a teaching hotel and a teaching restaurant, as well as a range of classrooms and demonstration and food production laboratories.

This summer, chef Ana Plana is bringing a whole new twist on date night to The Plains. Auburn University's College of Human Sciences will host recreational cooking classes throughout June and July. One of these classes is “Date Night.”

Though Auburn has embarked on summer cooking classes before, such as Camp Chew for children, “Date Night” explores a new avenue of cooking. The night offers a unique experience for couples to enjoy a meal with each other that they prepared. 

“I wanted the participants to make something they don’t always make at home or weren’t too sure how to create and leave with techniques they can use every day for the date night class,” Plana said. “Cooking with your partner makes it all the more exciting.”

Participants will receive instructions and demonstrations from Plana. 

Plana joined Auburn in August 2019 when she took on the role as the culinary lecturer of the hospitality management program. She worked in the food industry as a chef for over 20 years before transitioning to culinary education, where she has remained for more than 14 years. Plana has taught culinary classes at Miami Culinary Institute, Florida International University and MAST Academy in South Florida. 

The event will take place on Thursday, June 10, from 5-9 p.m. in Spidle Hall, room 238, and will cost $200 per person.

Other classes will also be available throughout the summer, including “Baking 101” on July 17 and a four-week boot camp in July, which will focus on one cuisine each week, including French cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine, Indian cuisine and various breads. 

“The culinary classes will be hands-on classes where I will discuss the topic, techniques and demonstrating while cooking along with our participants,” Plana said. 

The culinary science program started the classes to create awareness of and community within their program over the summer. Their hope is for the Auburn Family to be able to engage with their program before they move into the Rane Culinary Science Center in fall 2022. 

“Our program had its first culinary science classes in spring 2020 when the pandemic hit; now that things are slowly returning, our hope is our students will have more opportunities to participate in more events,” Plana said. “Our students also started a culinary club with many activities planned, and hopefully, those will also begin moving along.”

Those interested may register online through the College of Human Sciences website.


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