Culinary camping food for Boy Scout ceremony

MILLBROOK — Six 5th-grade boys began the evening as Webelos II and left as Boy Scouts during the annual Blue & Gold Banquet on Friday, Feb. 24. The families of Pack 31 gathered at Alden Place Elementary in Millbrook for a special community evening. The annual Blue & Gold Banquet is a tradition for all Cub Scouts. Most towns have their own pack and that pack is broken up into dens based on grade levels. The occasion is a moving-up ceremony where the fifth-graders move out of the ranks of Cub Scouts and into the ranks of Boy Scouts, becoming Tenderfoots. This banquet brings the scouting community together. Traditionally the banquet is a potluck, however, Cub Scout father and member of the Blue & Gold committee James Clark started a new tradition during last year’s banquet that was very successful.“My wife grew up in Millbrook and she always got dragged to her brother’s local ceremonies and always complained that if you were at the end of the line for the potluck all you got were beans and salad,” Clark laughed. “When our son got involved in the Scouts we got involved in the Blue and Gold committee. It just so happens that with my work at the Culinary Institute of America [CIA] I came into contact with all types of students that have received scholarships. I met with young man that received a scholarship and was a former Eagle Scout. One thing led to another, and he agreed to volunteer his time to make the food for the Blue & Gold Banquet.”Last year’s CIA student graduated. The student gave Clark as a prospective substitute the name of Annie Kamin, who is a baking pastry student and teaching assistant at the Culinary Institute. She pulled together a team of five of her fellow students who volunteered to make all the food for the event. This year’s banquet theme was camping. The menu consisted of homemade hot dogs, buns, barbecue chicken with homemade barbecue sauce and homemade pork and beans. The volunteer students also used a new culinary product to make a low-fat creamy hot chocolate. Kamin made the dessert, which was a four-tier, five-foot tall “deconstructed” rendition of “camping,” complete with under lighting and dry-ice providing smoke for the cake’s campfire. The students donated their time, and the cost of the food was paid for by Pack 31. Clark said the pack did a lot of fundraising with local businesses and community members to help pay for the materials. He also said that the CIA students and people from the community volunteered their time in some way to make the banquet a success, without bankrupting the Scouts. The Webelos said they were happy to have a great menu for their banquet. After the meal the rank advancement ceremony began, and the Webelos became Tenderfoots, making them officially Boy Scouts. After the ceremony Pack 31 put on skits and raffled off prizes.“It feels good to be a Boy Scout,” said Joseph Richard, a newly advanced Scout. “I am going to go to a higher rank and higher level, and I am excited to now go on big camping trips.”Clark made some final remarks about the evening.“We were able to supplement the budget to provide this experience for the Cub Scouts who see these on television,” he said. “But very few of them will ever come into contact with the culinary quality or culinary experience, if you will. Then on the flip side you have the young men and women from the CIA who are incredibly gifted and they are giving back to their adopted community. They are from all over and come to school here in the Hudson Valley, so they get wrapped up in it.”The following Webelos advanced to Boy Scouts: Ethan Bialy, Ryan Cantilli, Dimitri DiCintio, William Konys, Nicholas Pandaleon and Joseph Richard.