Fairmont Orchid Hawaii’s executive pastry chef Daniel Sampson was a recent guest chef speaking to students in Hawaii Community College — Palamanui’s culinary arts program.
Sampson, who has worked three decades for the Sheraton organization’s high-end hotel properties, gave a well-received lecture on desserts, which won him one of his eight awards at the Big Island Chocolate Festival. Sampson followed with a demonstration and preparation of chocolate cremeux, brown butter financier, apple banana brulee, Hawaiian sea salt caramel and chocolate paper.
Starting his education at the Nova Scotia Community College, Sampson honed his culinary skills by attending Culinary Institute of America, Le Cordon Bleu, French Pastry School, among others. In Canada, his competition successes have lead to several gold medals and a Grand Gold Medal for a score of 50 out of 50 for his International Themed Deserts.
The community college’s ongoing Guest Chef Program is sponsored by the Hawaii Culinary Education Foundation. It’s various topics are presented by locally and/or nationally recognized chefs that integrates into the two-year culinary curriculum. The HCC culinary program prepares students for a career in the food and beverage industry at a local campus, at an affordable price for local and relocatable career opportunities.
For more information, contact Associate Professor/Program Coordinator Chef Paul Heerlein via email to heerlein@hawaii.edu.