MICHAEL VIDAL
AGE:
22
EDUCA TION: Student, Florida International University (FIU)
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Miami
POSI TION: Lead student associate coordinator for the
Burger Bash, Best of the Best and the FIU School of Hospitality
tent at the Grand Tasting Village
EVEN T: 9th annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival, an
annual star-studded fundraiser for FIU, Feb. 25-28, featuring
celebrated chefs including Lidia Bastianich, Rocco DiSpirito,
Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Masaharu Morimoto, Rachael Ray,
Marcus Samuelsson, Michael Schwartz, Michael Symon and
Laurent Tourondel.
RESPONSIBILI TIES: I make sure the student
associates are appropriately paired with the 22 chefs
participating in the Burger Bash and the 46 chefs participating
in this year’s Best of the Best event.
For the FIU booth, I plan how we will prepare and serve our dish
and dessert to the thousands of people attending the weekend
extravaganza.
THINGS I LEARNED THAT I DIDN’T KNOW
IN CULINARY SCHOOL: Organizational skills, how
to deal with problems as they arise and the importance of
planning.
I started the process of
organizing the assignments and
placing students in jobs in early
January. Now, things have fallen
into place and are moving along
pretty steadily. There are three or
four positions still open, so I am
trying to fill those.
Working on the festival, I have
come to realize that if something
bad happens, we’ll just deal
with it, right there on the spot.
For example, last year, our team
didn’t provide water bottles to the
students assigned to work at the
chefs’ stations, and the students
got thirsty. This year, we know to
make sure that all of the students
have water.
Although working as the student
associate coordinator does take
up a huge amount of time, for
me, this experience is about more
than just the festival. It’s about
everything we’ve done from now
until the festival and how it will all
come together. We’re planning for
the worst and hoping for the best.
I hope all continues to go well.
FEB. 22
These past couple of weeks
have been defined by detail
and groundwork. I have been
preparing one day at a time,
working toward each event: the
Burger Bash, Best of the Best
and the Grand Tasting Village.
As I get new information, or if I
need to fix something, I take care
of it immediately. Much of the
work I have been attending to
is administrative work—sending
e-mails to students, adding or
removing students from the
master list and scheduling each
student to work a specific day
and time with a particular chef.
Last Monday, we started baking
bread to serve at the FIU School
of Hospitality tent, as well as for
the South Beach Diet booth at
the Burger Bash. We are making
several different kinds of dough—
brioche, ciabatta, French, Cuban
and whole-wheat buns.
We worked with Dr. Arthur
Agatston [author of The South
Beach Diet] to convert his turkey
burger recipe from a home
recipe to one to be served to the
thousands attending the Burger
Bash. We need 2,000 small
buns, and with the help of my
student associates we get the
job done. None of this could have
happened without them.
A few days ago we bought
240 pounds of turkey bones to
make turkey stock for the South
Beach Diet burger. We reduced
the stock from 24 gallons to 2
gallons. All of the buns are in the
freezer at school until the day
before the Burger Bash. On Feb.
24, we will transfer them to The
Ritz-Carlton. Then, the morning of
the event, we will move the bread
to the beach.
We are also making brioche,
which needs to be cut and toasted
for a crème brûlée bread pudding
to be served at our tent. It’s an
interesting interpretation of crème
brûlée—our version features
toasted brioche garnished with
