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The North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) Culinary Arts program will host its 5th annual Culinary Scholarship Dinner on Thursday, March 6, 2025, at the Hektner Student Center on the Wahpeton campus. 

This event serves as a key fundraiser for the NDSCS Culinary Arts program, helping provide scholarships that increase accessibility for students pursuing careers in the culinary field. Attendees will enjoy a six-course gourmet meal with wine pairings, carefully prepared and served by NDSCS culinary students, faculty, and alumni. 

An Evening of Fine Dining and Fundraising 

The Scholarship Dinner is not only an opportunity to support the next generation of culinary professionals, but also a hands-on learning experience for students, allowing them to refine their skills in a real-world fine dining setting. 

Event highlights include: 

• Six-course meal with wine pairings
• Wine raffle – Guests can purchase a cork for $25, each matching a bottle of wine valued up to $150
• Silent auction – New for 2025, featuring exclusive culinary experiences and premium items 

Ticket Information 

• Date: Thursday, March 6, 2025
• Location: Hektner Student Center, NDSCS Wahpeton
• Tickets: $125 per person – available online at NDSCS.edu/Culinary-Dinner 

A significant portion of the event’s food and supplies are donated by industry partners, ensuring that most of each ticket price goes directly to the NDSCS Culinary Arts Endowment Fund. Tickets are tax-deductible. 

For more information or to reserve tickets, visit NDSCS.edu/Culinary-Dinner.

NDSCS Culinary Arts students and faculty hosted the 3^rd annual Scholarship Dinner on Thursday, February 29^th.

The annual Culinary Scholarship Dinner helps raise funds to support scholarship dollars for Culinary Arts students, increasing accessibility for students to attend this program at NDSCS. This dinner is also an excellent opportunity for students to help create and serve a multi-course fine dining experience for guests, teaching important on-the-job skills and benefiting their overall Culinary education. This year’s event brought in over $9000, which will be added to the growing program-specific endowments for student scholarships!

This 6-course dinner was prepared and served by culinary students, faculty, and program alumni. Guests enjoyed a social hour with appetizers, and then soup, salad, fish, entrée, and dessert courses and wine pairings, along with great conversation and a relaxed atmosphere. 75 patrons attended this year’s event, which was the highest number of guests present at the Culinary Scholarship Dinner.

This year’s event chefs included Alyssa Burger from 84 Italian Steakhouse, Kevin Roller from NDSCS Dining Services, Summer Peterson from Bernbaum’s, Joe Brunner from Mezzaluna, Mark Schmidt from Bix Produce, and Grace Lamberson from the Toasted Frog. Our guest chefs are not only helping create dishes and teach our students, they’re also getting future employees! At least 3 Culinary Arts students typically get job opportunities because of the event. The businesses who invest in the program are able to attain much needed manpower.

After the event, Chef Kyle Armitage, the Culinary Arts program coordinator recalled, “The success of the 2024 Culinary Scholarship dinner is not just a celebration of fundraising, but a demonstration to the shared belief in the power of education to transform lives. Each person there, and those who support the event by donating, are helping our future students pursue their dreams. An event like this shows that there are limitless possibilities when a community comes together.”

The Culinary Arts program would like to include a special thank you to donors to the event: Brew Restaurants, Bix Produce, Sysco Foodservice, Mezzaluna, Bernbaum’s, 84 Italian Steakhouse, Toasted Frog, NDSCS Dining Services, NDSCS Alumni Foundation, ND Beef Commission, and the many others who donated wine for our Wine Wall Raffle. The Culinary Arts program is hoping to expand the wine wall next year, and appreciates donations to that portion of the event.

Chef Kyle Armitage remarked, “As a program, we can’t thank our guest chefs enough for sharing their talents, time, and knowledge with our students and community. As we reflect on the incredible success of this year's event, we eagerly anticipate the culinary delights and cherished moments that await us at next year's gathering.”

Photo courtesy of Haley Frost Creative.