Culinary Arts

J. Kelly Lane, a Baltimore artist, got a jolt of inspiration recently while walking down the produce aisle of the grocery store. Lane, a painter, was having trouble conjuring up an idea for her next piece. "I was coming up empty," she said." Then I was in the grocery store, Shopper's, and they put out these most beautiful artichokes. And I said, 'That's it!' " Lane told me. She bought an artichoke, took it home and worked its image into a painting called Flag of Artichokia. The work, she said, "has stars, stripes and artichokes."

David Himelstein has been going blind since he was 18. Now he's 49 and can see nothing but what he described as a "white cloud." Bright light hurts his eyes, so for the past five years, he said, "I was stuck in a house in a dark room." Last week, though, he was in a kitchen at Anne Arundel Community College, adding cloves and cinnamon to a marinade for baby back ribs and flank steak. Himelstein, of Baltimore, was one of five participants in a training program called the Maryland Business Enterprise Program for the Blind, run by the state's Division of Rehabilitation Services.

Ken Jarvis, a professor at Anne Arundel Community Colleges Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute, dipped a spoon into the vinaigrette and tasted. If you want, you can just put a tiny bit of salt in there, he told Josh Morris, a Chesapeake High School junior who had paused in his whisking. That will help break up the acidity. He drizzled more oil into the bowl while Morris whisked again. Then he picked up the whisk and demonstrated the best motion. Use your wrist, not your whole arm, he said.

RICHARD E. HEITMUELLER, 32, Hollidaysburg, formerly of Baltimore, died Tuesday, November 1, 2005, at Altoona Regional Health System, Bon Secours Hospital Campus. He was born March 20, 1973, in Harrisburg, son of Helen (Schropp) and the late Richard A. Heitmueller. He married Heather Jean Fritz, August 4, 2001, in Lancaster. Mr. Heitmueller worked for many years as culinary chef in Baltimore at his own restaurant, then traveled to Germany and worked as a food service director. Most recently, he was self-employed in home renovation and the family bed and breakfast.

VIRGINIA, Ireland - For most students, heading back to school this year meant new clothes, new notebooks and a familiar ride on the local school bus. For John Hufnagel, it meant an international flight, a three-hour wait for a taxi and more than an hour's drive into unfamiliar countryside. It was a long way to go to get to Virginia - Virginia in County Cavan, Ireland, that is. Hufnagel is one of four students studying at the Park Hotel in County Cavan under the auspices of the Baltimore International College's School of Culinary Arts honors program.

Whenever culinary arts teacher Tim Norwood asks beginning students to list their favorite foods, their typical responses are pizza, French fries and cheeseburgers. Two years ago, a student seated in the front row of Norwood's classroom at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center answered, "foie gras." "I knew right then that this kid would work out fine," Norwood said. Norwood nominated that student, Chad Little, for a state award. Tonight, the Restaurant Association of Maryland will name Little, 17, a senior at the Westminster school, its Student of the Year.

Mom always told you not to play with your food, but Christmas is the one time of year when you can ignore that rule. Grown-ups and kids hunker over gingerbread houses, applying gobs of royal icing to roofs and windows. Hershey's Kisses are stuck onto Styrofoam cones to make Christmas trees, and candy canes and gumdrops are turned into reindeer and snowmen. The most important thing to keep in mind when creating food crafts, says Joanne Hoff, an associate director of Kraft Kitchens, is: "Keep it simple."

More than 30 chefs from the some of the country's best restaurants and culinary schools (including New York's Culinary Institute of America and Rhode Island's Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts) will be poised to cook you a wine brunch Sunday in Wilmington, Del. While the event may be out of town, there's a local tie: The herbs and seasonings the chefs are using all come from Baltimore-based Vanns Spices. The annual event, called Meals From the Masters, raises money for local chapters of Meals on Wheels, a nationwide nonprofit program that delivers hot meals to homebound seniors.

Elected officials and representatives of business and industry will help Anne Arundel Community College launch renovations tomorrow to turn the Robinson Building into the home of the school's Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute. The ceremony will highlight the partnership of the county, the college and the hospitality industry to provide training and services for those sectors of the area's economy. The 14,000-square-foot building, at 7438 Ritchie Highway, was purchased for $2 million in the fall by the county, which had been renting space there.