The Ever Ready gets a neon name tag

On Wednesday, December 21, 2011 the Dexter Sign Co. was at the museum, installing a replica neon sign for the Ever Ready. Museum Operations Manager (and photographer extraordinaire), Stephen Spencer, shot some photos of the action.

Gingerbread Habitats for Humanity

On Friday, December 16, 2011, the JWU Chapter of Habitat for Humanity hosted a gingerbread competition and silent auction here at the Culinary Arts Museum. All proceeds went to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Nineteen gingerbread houses were on display, and were built by members of the Johnson & Wales community, employees and students alike. Below are the fantastic creations that were made for the contest. You may even recognize some of the buildings!

The Culinary Arts Museum will be closed for the holiday break

 

Holiday Hours:

The museum will be closed from Friday, December 23, 2011 - Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Regular hours will resume on Wednesday January 4, 2012

We wish you all a very happy holiday and a safe and happy new year!!

And the butter lives on

On Sunday, June 26 Norma "Duffy" Lyon passed away in Marshalltown, IA.  If the name doesn't ring a cow bell to you, perhaps you have heard of the "Butter-Cow Lady" of the Iowa State Fair.  Ms. Lyon studied animal science at Iowa State University in the late 1940s.  Her artistic talent was discovered by an artist-in-residence there after he saw an ice sculpture that she had made for the university's winter festival. In 1960, she became the official sculptor of the life-sized Butter Cow, the dairy industry's symbol at the Iowa State Fair since 1911. Ms. Lyon also made sculptures of celebrities, comic-strip characters, and themes from well-known works of art. Her most ambitious sculpture was a recreation of "The Last Supper," made in 1999.

Although we never had the privilege of having her at our own country fair midway (if you've never been here before, yes, we do have our very own scaled-down version of a midway - smack dab in the center of the museum - as part of our "Country Fair to Culinary Olympics" exhibit), she certainly was a presence known at many fairs across the country. She was such a well-known and influential force in Iowa that Barack Obama asked for her endorsement during his election campaign there in 2007.  Ms. Lyon appeared on several television shows, including "Today," "The Tonight Show," and on "Late Night With David Letterman."  She retired from butter sculpting at the Iowa State Fair in 2006.

In butter-related news, the Iowa state fair kicked off this week. And, of course, Duffy was mentioned in this New York Times article about the 100 year legacy of the state fair. Chef Gary Welling of Johnson & Wales also weighed in on the history of the dairy sculpture. Here's to all the deep-fried food on a stick that you can eat!

Bruce Newbury is bringing his broadcast back to the museum!

Local radio host Bruce Newbury will broadcast his show, "The Tasting Room," live from the Culinary Arts Museum on Sunday, August 7, 2011.  "The Tasting Room" airs Sundays from 11:00 am - 12:00 noon.

If you can't make it to the museum on Sunday, tune in to your local radio station: AM790 in the Providence - Newport, RI - New Bedford - Cape Cod MA area, 830AM in the Boston - Worcester MA - NH - ME - VT area or 980 AM in the New London - Eastern CT region.

What does it take to get a cup of coffee around here?

Every summer, the Johnson & Wales Admissions department hosts a Career Explorations program for high school sophomores and juniors. Essentially, students have the opportunity to spend time at Johnson & Wales immersed in what it would be like to live and go to school here in the field of choice.

Registration for the culinary program is held here at the museum, and it always packs the house! Today we got some great shots from inside the Ever Ready diner.

Hopefully these people aren't waiting to order breakfast, they'll be waiting a while...

"What a cowinkidink!" - Bugs Bunny

Some of you may know that we tweeted for the first time today.  Some of you may also know that we constantly field all sorts of requests from people who want to donate to the museum. Our most recent acquisition, a donation from a JWU staff member, is a collection of menus from restaurants in Rhode Island and Colorado. As we were going through the collection this morning, we came across this menu. Now if that isn't a coincidence, I don't know what is!

 

Upon some further research, it seems like Tweet's Balzano's Family Restaurant in Bristol, RI is a place of special significance for those who grew up in the Bristol area.

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