Preparing food for the Little League World Series in Lycoming County
Newswatch 16’s Mackenzie Aucker met the people at Penn College in Williamsport who are responsible for keeping the team energized and ready to play ball. WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — It’s heating up in the kitchen at Le Jeune Chef Restaurant at Penn College of Technology in Williamsport. Although the school year doesn’t start until next week,…
Newswatch 16’s Mackenzie Aucker met the people at Penn College in Williamsport who are responsible for keeping the team energized and ready to play ball.
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — It’s heating up in the kitchen at Le Jeune Chef Restaurant at Penn College of Technology in Williamsport. Although the school year doesn’t start until next week, students and staff in the Culinary Arts program are hard at work, they’re preparing food and desserts for the Little League World Series.
“So far we’ve done over 800 cause we have about 400 people every night, so for the past 4 nights we’ve gone through about 400 each, so we’re definitely doing a lot of desserts,” said Patrick Hufnagle, Le Jeune Chef Restaurant Pastry Chef.
For some staff and students, this is their fourth or fifth year preparing and serving food at the Little League World Series, while others are experiencing the hustle and bustle for the first time.
“I’ve never done anything like this other than with derby, which was a high-maintenance kind of cooking outlet, and this feels somewhat like derby but a lot easier,” said Steven Penley, Baking and Pastry Student Chef.
Throughout the World Series, students and staff are going to be working long hours preparing thousands of dishes for players, coaches, and team hosts.
“Three meals a day for people, you gotta start early in the morning and late at night, and then also the students helping out have to get ready for classes to start next week, so it’s definitely a lot of work that goes into it,” said Luke Whipple, Senior
Students say cooking in bulk is a valuable experience.
“It’s a great opportunity to get to see a large-scale production like this and sort of experience quantity cooking, and it’s good food, not just opening boxes from the freezer, we’re doing it from scratch, so it’s pretty awesome to see,” said Whipple.
This year’s menu is a little different, implementing new foods and desserts to have different varieties of flavors to dig into.
“Sopapilla for our Tex-Mex night, so we’re kind of trying to give back some of the flavors that they would have there in their communities that way they’re feeling more at home and more of a community together,” said Hufnagle.
The students will continue to cook for the Little Leaguers throughout the tournament’s final day of competition on August 24th.
