Tips From the Chefs

Marcell Mustafah, executive chef at the Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo, likes to impart bits of professional wisdom--and realism--whenever he has the attention of culinary students.

“A lot of people who go to culinary school think they are going to be making all this money, but it’s a process,” he said. “It’s not impossible, but few chefs become great chefs. I give them a lecture about what it’s all about--a lot of dedication, a lot of hours. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Mustafah will have more opportunities to share his real-world knowledge as a member of the new advisory board of the Oxnard College Hotel and Restaurant Management program. Mustafah is joined by 13 other culinary and hospitality professionals who will provide insight into the current needs of the local industry, offer instruction and help the department raise funds to expand its program.

The hotel and management program had been without a board of industry professionals for the last couple of years.

“We really are asking them to get involved with activities,” said Tanya Burke, dean of the Oxnard College Business and Technology Division and supervisor of the Hotel and Restaurant Management program.

“Keeping in touch with people who run businesses in the industry helps us keep abreast with the needs of the clientele,” Burke said. “Graduates go to work in the local industry and we want to make sure we are training the students for what the local industry needs.”

Among the other members of the advisory panel are Linda Boysiewick, manager of the Chart House in Ventura; Kay Morter, general manager of the Oxnard Hilton; Gary Hermans, area manager for the Pizza Hut chain; Ken Kallusky, area manager for Alliant Food Service; Rosa Garcen, human resources supervisor with the Hyatt Westlake Plaza; and Harry Brockwell, caterer and member of the American Culinary Federation.

Burke said the group will be asked to offer plenty of assistance with fund-raising activities. Mustafah will be the first to step up, providing a five-course benefit dinner Sept. 25 at Spanish Hills.

“They have good people running the program,” Mustafah said. “But they do need more rooms and more equipment and more full-time instructors, so they need more cash flow.”

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Right about now, Dennis Ofsthun of Camarillo might be unloading barbecue sauce from a truck. Or he might be making sure he has enough pork to handle the hungry hordes.

These activities are nothing new to Ofsthun, who regularly prepares the barbecue dishes at the Adobe Cantina in Agoura Hills. Today, however, the maker of Rib Tickler’s barbecue sauce is hundreds of miles from the cantina.

Instead, Ofsthun is at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks, Nev., where tomorrow he will defend his title as champion of the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off.

Last year, on his fourth trip to the competition, Ofsthun beat out two dozen cooks from across the country and Australia. He said the secret to his champion pork ribs was a marinade made from Rib Tickler’s mild barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar, salad oil, salt and pepper. After smoking the ribs in the marinade for two hours, he wrapped them in foil drenched in barbecue sauce, pineapple and honey and smoked them for another 40 minutes.

And how does he plan to repeat as champion?

“I’m going to do exactly the same thing this year,” Ofsthun said. “I’ll marinate my ribs and slow-smoke them.”

In addition to preparing food for the judges, Ofsthun will fix up some barbecue for the public. He said he will receive plenty of help handling what he expects will be a large turnout at his booth.

“I’ll have about 14 people with me--I only had about seven last year,” he said. “Winners bring more people. Everybody wants to be involved with a winner.”