Chef demonstrates cooking techniques at MSU

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Steaming Asian dishes filled the plates of 80 hungry guests as they watched chef Jackie Shen from Chicago demonstrate each recipe Wednesday night at the Kellogg Center.

Shen, a chef at the Red Light restaurant in Chicago, held a cooking demonstration Wednesday night and a four-course dinner Thursday night, as part of the Kellogg Center Visiting Chef Series.

The demonstration, which had a line starting at 5 p.m., was held like a fancy cooking class. The guests had recipes in front of them and sipped on red wine as Shen demonstrated the trick to folding a wonton. After each recipe was shown, the food was served to the guests. Each dish was greeted with smiles and applause.

“This is so good,” hotel general manager Joel Heberlein said after his first bite of the pork dumpling with teriyaki sauce.

At the dinner Thursday, guests were served a four-course meal, including a seafood terrene and smoked salmon. Unlike Wednesday’s demonstration, guests didn’t get to see the chef until after the meal. Having a taste of many cultures, Shen said she enjoys fusing different types of food together.

“The interesting thing is my background, learning from a French chef, my mom and dad from China and living here for so long, I get to absorb a lot of cultures’ food,” she said. “Rather than just doing pure Asian, or pure Thai, I just throw everything in the dish and say ‘OK, let’s blend this all together.’”

Returning guests to the Visiting Chef Series said the uniqueness of each course is what continues to draw them to the event.

“I have never been disappointed in any of the chefs here,” said MSU alumna Nancy Houthoofd, who has been attending the Visiting Chef Series for about seven years. “I really like chefs that combine different styles and a lot of the chefs that come here
do that. It’s not the stuff that you can get at a local restaurant here.”

Shen has appeared on the PBS series “Great Chefs of Chicago.” She organized Chicago’s “Taste of the Nation,” the largest nationwide restaurant fund to benefit the country’s hungry and homeless.

At the Red Light, Shen creates Pan-Asian dishes that offer Chinese, French, Thai and other Asian menu items, she said.

“I really like the Asian culture, food and flavors,” Shen said. “I like to utilize my French training to let in everything, cooking all over the map.”

The Kellogg Center State Room chefs who worked with Shen said she taught them habits to make their cooking better.

“We learned from her, like she makes her chocolate mousse differently then I do,” said Michael Clyne, the head chef of the State Room. “My guys are learning how to fold the wontons so they stick and don’t break apart when you cook them. At a lot of these Chef Series, we learn little tricks.”

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