Celebrity chef Carla Hall has chosen to partner up with a team of Drexel students under the tutelage of chef instructor James Feustel to open Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen. The project started with a request from Hall’s business partner for Feustel to help design her new kitchen and restaurant. Instead of accepting the offer, though, Feustel decided to bring this project to the students to give them “some of the experience that … sets the Drexel education apart.”

Photo Credit: Connor Warren

Most culinary schools or plans of study consist of two main paths: becoming a chef or becoming a restaurant manager. These options are, Feustel believes, too narrow. “[This project offers a] holistic opportunity to see every aspect of the industry,” Feustel said. Students will be working in diverse aspects of the culinary world through this project. They will be developing, testing and commercializing recipes of Hall’s with a hands-on cooking approach.

However, they will also be designing the layout of the restaurant’s kitchen, evaluating different kitchen appliances, writing training manuals for future restaurant employees and working as partners with Hall, discovering first-hand what it takes to open a restaurant.

Currently, the project consists of 14 students, only three of them receiving credit for taking the class. Other participants are volunteers enchanted by the opportunity to work so closely and in such a unique situation with a prominent woman in the cooking industry. The second class to meet this term began with Feustel telling the students they would be preparing five of Hall’s signature dishes in batches large enough to feed 150-200 guests at a community dinner at the Dornsife Center.

As Feustel began explaining to the students the work they had ahead of them to prepare for the dinner, the task did not sound like something two freshmen, three sophomores, four juniors and one senior could handle in a three-hour class. The kitchen was filled with bustle, starting with the traditional “mise en place” French-style preparations in which students calculated and gathered all the ingredients they would need before cooking.

Temporary partnerships and small teams were formed to tackle different tasks, with some of the more experienced students handling the exploratory recipes and experiments. Food photographer and guest photo-documenter Brian Kinney danced around the room catching shots of students weighing and grating blocks of cheese, cracking countless eggs into large bowls, reducing a large pot of smoked turkey necks for a broth, trussing and dissembling full chickens, and making homemade buttermilk ranch dressing.

Peter Schoemer, known for his work with Drexel’s Food Lab and a volunteer for the project, has a four-year culinary arts and one-year business education plan. In the kitchen, he was working along with one other student and Feustel on modifying Hall’s famous hot chicken recipe to feed 200 without using the traditional frying method.

Raghav Mahendru, new to the culinary arts program after a gap year working in a hotel kitchen (where he discovered how much he loves cooking), said, “Food is my passion; food is what I love.” Previously a business entrepreneurship major, Mahendru seemed perfectly comfortable making and stuffing a combination of herbs into a whole chicken prepared to roast.

Other students, who were new to the culinary arts program, seemed a little less comfortable in the kitchen. Freshman Isabella Mauro was busy chopping huge blocks of cheddar for the macaroni and cheese dish, while another freshman, Megan Olivo, was spending her volunteer time cracking eggs. “It’s a great opportunity; why pass it up?” Olivo said.

Photo Credit: Connor Warren

The students got to meet Hall for the first time at a meet and greet the day of the community dinner. Hall tried the hot chicken that the students had prepared for her to see if the commercialized large batch dish still sang true to her favorite namesake recipe. She approved of the chicken and talked about the other food on deck for that night.

“Oh my God, I can’t wait! I’m so hungry,” Hall exclaimed to everybody present. Besides food, the team discussed some of the logistics of moving forward: how the kitchen would look, what kinds of appliances they would be testing and the newly produced logo for the restaurant: a chicken with bright pink hair wearing an apron. There was also talk about a partnership between Hall and Groupon this coming Thanksgiving season; Carla will be selling food boxes through Groupon that will be distributed in three cities with the goal of feeding about 12,000 people who wouldn’t otherwise have meals this holiday season, which was something they claimed to have never been done before.

The community dinner was held on the night of Oct. 7. A gathering of about 180 community members and Drexel students met at the Dornsife Center, where the project team served dinner while Hall floated around the room meeting fans, taking pictures, talking to the community and encouraging people to pose for “hot chicken face” photos. Hot chicken is Hall’s featured specialty and gets the name from the spice it packs in with habanero and Cayenne peppers. Hall has a tag on Twitter devoted to peoples’ reactions to the dish: #hotchickenface. Hall’s own hot chicken face was featured; She admitted, “I am a hot chicken wuss.”

Other than hot chicken, the menu at the dinner consisted of macaroni and cheese, braised collard greens, corn pudding, a Southern chopped salad, some chow-chow and Hall’s famous pickles. The line to get to the food wrapped all the way around the outside of the dining room and down the stairs.

Lucy Kerman, vice provost for University and Community Partnerships at the Dornsife Center, shared that tonight was one of the most successful community dinners held thus far. “When communities come together … soon they become familiar, and instead of meeting as strangers, they meet as acquaintances and friends,” Kerman said.

Photo Credit: Connor Warren

“I think you have to get the community involved … I believe in sharing” Hall said. The team talked extensively about where to source their food from at the meet and greet and the belief in local farmers and food suppliers was unanimous.

“All the chefs trusted us to do the right thing … It was amazing to see that confidence,” Mahendru added. The students, along with Feustel had expressed that they had no doubt that the project would lead to success.

Photo Courtesy: I AM THAT GIRL

Claiming , the non-profit organization I Am That Girl has grown in the past five years to an impressive and formidably popular feminist organization. Kelsey Gringer, junior graphic design major as well as the president of the new Drexel chapter of IATG, has a lot to be excited about.

Gringer realized, after learning about IATG through a friend, that the mission of the organization was one she believed in and one she wanted to pursue and make available to the women of Drexel.

Gringer has already gathered a group of 50 members, and gained recognition of the chapter from Student Affairs two weeks ago.

“This organization is intended to help women see themselves as the amazing people they are. By building a network of women through this group, it provides 50 new people to talk to, hang out with and eventually become friends with,” Gringer said.

She continued, “I was raised to love myself and I want to spread that mentality to other girls who struggle to see it.”

The mission of IATG is, according to its website, to create “a community, a support system, and a movement inspiring girls to LOVE, EXPRESS, and BE who they are.” Visiting the organization’s site provides a barrage of blog articles, campaign packages, conversation kits and a chance to pledge yourself to the missions of the entity on every single page. Pledging on the website makes you an official IATG community member, adorned with email subscriptions, inbox articles, event news, and updates regarding chapters near you. There is also an “I Am That Guy” pledge available for men, in accordance with the concept of feminism that runs as a central vein throughout the organization’s mission and movement. Part of the pledge states that the organization “isn’t just a girl’s movement; it’s a human movement,” and that men who pledge are claiming that they are “proud to be a part of it.”

The many campaigns that are run by the organization are large in scope, aimed at providing materials, both to local chapters as well as to curious and hungry women around the globe. The campaign kits allow them to discuss and communicate freely their ideas of beauty and self-love with one another. The kits include main ideas and sections, which in turn feature several quotes, photos, discussion questions, activities, books and movies suggestions.

Gringer says that in an average meeting, the girls present will spend a large amount of time in free discussion led by the ideas in these kits and curricula. According to Gringer, this is one of the most important aspects of meetings and is “the girls’ time to talk and be really open about whatever we are discussing and have a great conversation.”

Intercultural advocate and student employee for the LGBTQA Student Center, graphic design senior Maddy Russell saw positive potential in this new chapter of IATG. From an inclusion standpoint, Russell believes that the group “has the potential to affect [inclusionary student life] if [it] works with the Center” and that the effect “would be positive.”

As for LGBTQ involvement and association with the organization, she felt there would be no issues, and that the club would bring something the queer community in general supports: feminist ideals.

Freshman Kyle Streeper, computer science major, spoke in favor of IATG. “As a guy, I can say this sounds like an amazing idea for the inclusiveness of all people. It’s a club I would support,” he said after learning a bit about the organization and its goals.

Streeper later said he would be interested in going to the online community and searching for more information, and possibly pledging to the cause. When Gringer was asked about the possibility of male membership in her chapter, she allowed that while at the moment the group was girls-only, in time, as the group felt comfortable and the decision was unanimous, events and discussions would be held which were open to both sexes.

She added, “I think it’s just as important for men to hear women’s opinions as it is for women to hear men’s. It’s just about having that conversation in an environment where everyone is respectful and open-minded.”

“It’s about respect for women from men, and respect for men from women. No gender is superior. So it’s about respect for people overall,” Ginger said. Feminism has become a politically and socially supercharged word that brings up preconceived ideas. However, organizations like IATG focus not on that “f-word,” but rather on self-love, true beauty, confessional media and healthy propaganda.