Five culinary students from across the U.S. recently were treated to a free four-day trip to learn first-hand what Idaho agriculture is all about.

The learning experience was part of a scholarship program sponsored by the Simplot Company and Idaho Potato Commission.

Students Erica Sung from Sullivan University, Noel Muniz from Kendall College, Renee Lalonde from the Florida Culinary Institute, Aurora Nessly from the Institute of Culinary Education and Elizabeth Weiss from Cincinnati State were chosen to attend as a result of their winning essays. The topic of the papers was: “If you are chosen for the Simplot Culinary Learning Experience trip, how will it affect your future as a culinary professional and what do you hope to get out of it?”

The culinary learning experience scholarship program was established as part of Simplot Food Group’s top of house culinary board as a way for culinary professionals to support and mentor students seeking a career in the foodservice industry. The Idaho Potato Commission subsequently joined forces with the Simplot to help aspiring culinary professionals better understand the resources that Idaho state government provides to the food industry.

The experience included a welcome dinner at Brick 29 in Boise for an all-Idaho tasting menu featuring items such as tempura Hagerman trout, Idaho jo-jos, Symms Farm’s apple slaw, Shepard’s Farm lamb chop, and grilled Williamson peaches. Leah Clark of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture spoke to the students during dinner about the ways Idaho commodities and specialty crops have made agriculture the state’s leading natural-resource-based industry.

The students were also taken on a tour of the Clear Springs Foods trout farming facility. They walked alongside the outdoor ponds where young trout, called fry, are nurtured until they reach a typical market weight of 10 to 14 ounces. Clear Springs is the world’s largest producer of rainbow trout, processing more than 20 million pound a year.

Next, the students visited the Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese Farm where Steve and Stacie Ballard explained the cheese-making process. The family run farm in Gooding is home to about 100 Jersey cows, which produce the milk that goes into handmade specialty cheeses such as Danish Pearl and Golden Greek.

The Ballards explained during a cheese tasting that different cultures produce different types of cheeses and that various aging processes affect the texture of the cheese. The students got up-close and personal with the cows themselves as they were allowed to walk the farm and greet the animals, including several calves.

Day two ended with a visit at Lava Lake Lamb Ranch, located just south of Sun Valley where the Pioneer Mountains meet the Snake River Plain. The ranch features 500 acres of certified organic hay that is raised for the lambs that roam the spread. The students explored the ranch on foot and enjoyed breathtaking views of the grassland plains and the black lava flows of Craters of the Moon National Monument. Before heading back to Boise, the students enjoyed a picnic dinner of lamb meatballs while watching the sunset.

The students spent the following day at the Simplot headquarters in Boise. They attended a weekly product-tasting and a sensory-evaluation demonstration that illustrated how products are tested for preference formation and food choice.

Then it was off to one of the company’s nearby potato processing plants, where the students were shown how tons of potatoes are cleaned, peeled, cut, cooked, frozen, and packaged for distribution to foodservice distributors and operations around the world. Their potato experience didn’t stop there because the students were taken to a potato field where they rode a harvesting tractor and learned first-hand how growers work the crops.

During the final day of their learning experience, the students attended the Taste of Idaho and a lively outdoor farmers market in downtown Boise.

After returning to their campuses, each of the students shared their experience with classmates as a way to help promote the 2010 scholarship program.

For more information about the Simplot Food Group, visit www.simplotfoods.com.