Source: Missy Schrader, 785-532-6438, schrader@k-state.edu
Pronouncer: Tila is Tea-la
Photo available. Download at http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/feb11/tila.jpg
News release prepared by: Jane Marshall, 785-532-1519, jpm2@k-state.edu

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011

COOK, LEARN, EAT: FOOD NETWORK GUEST CHEF EXPLORES TASTES OF ASIA AT CULINARY WORKSHOP

MANHATTAN -- Celebrity chef Jet Tila will demonstrate his signature pad thai, reveal the secrets of rolling sushi and share his award-winning recipe for tom yum soup during a culinary workshop March 10 at Kansas State University.

"A Taste of Asia," the seventh annual department of hospitality management and dietetics' Culinary Enhancement Workshop for professionals and alumni, begins at 10 a.m. in the Gold Room at Derby Dining Center. Registration deadline is Feb. 18.

Sessions will include flavors from China, Thailand and Japan.

Tila, a Food Network and radio personality, is executive chef at Wazuzu Pan-Asian Restaurant in the Encore Hotel, Las Vegas. The restaurant was named to Conde' Nast Traveler's Hot List Tables in 2009 and the Best Asian Restaurant by The Best of Las Vegas in 2010.

He has appeared on National Public Radio's "Good Food," and his recipes have been published in Bon Appetit. His Chef Jet line of signature frozen dishes, such as Cantonese steamed cod with ginger and soy and drunken noodles, recently debuted at Schwan's Home Service. He presented the 2006 Culinary Enhancement  Workshop at K-State.

Tila learned his craft from his Cantonese grandmother, at the family restaurant and at Le Cordon Bleu and the California Sushi Academy.

Participants, limited to 45, will learn production techniques, watch cooking demonstrations, dine on an Asian-inspired lunch and participate in a hands-on session during which Tila will help them make California rolls.

Ninety percent of the $100 registration fee is tax deductible and will help K-State students attend a repeat workshop on March 11 at minimum cost.

The workshop qualifies working professionals for continuing education credits for Kansas dietitian licensure. For more information and to register, log on to http://www.found.ksu.edu/culinary.

The workshop is sponsored by K-State housing and dining services and the McCune Foundation.

K-State's Melissa "Missy" Schrader, a dietitian with housing and dining services and instructor in hospitality management and dietetics, received the Mary Abbott Hess Award in late 2010 from the American Dietetic Association Foundation for creating the workshop.