Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: Virtual Cooking Series

About this entry: When we were forced to transition our events virtually due to the pandemic, we had no prior experience producing online content. We certainly never expected to host an innovative, interactive, live cooking demonstration as part of our Alumni engagement programming and we certainly never expected to host more than one cooking event. However over the course of 2020-2021 we did just that as we hosted four live cooking events with a group of alumni volunteers as our chefs! Over the course of the four events, we engaged 382 constituents and learned so much from each other about cooking. Each event had the same group of volunteers and the same format however, we featured a different chef and a different cuisine at each event. Prior to the event we sent all Alumni the recipes so they could purchase the items. During the event, our Alumni chef would provide instruction and a live demonstration as they cooked the event in their own home. One of our volunteers on the cooking team was an alumni of the food science program so would be able to share the science behind the cooking process. Alumni participants were also able to ask general questions about cooking and walk away better cooks as a result of attending the event. We also hosted a photo contest and raffled away gift cards to those who submitted their pictures, so had great content for social media and helped those cooking at home feel more connected to others attending the event.