Tre Nguyen and Kristian Diaz, speaker for Broadleaf, brought meats like duck sausage, lamb, wild boar and wagyu beef to the demonstration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Executive chef of Broadleaf Tre Nguyen sprinkles salt over steaks during a food demonstration event on Oct. 9 at the LAC campus.\u00a0At the event, representatives of the meat supplier Broadleaf Game, who sells specialty meats, cooked up wild boar, wagyu and lamb, as well as gave financial tips. (Tien Nguyen)<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Nguyen, Broadleaf products are available in all U.S. territories including the states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as in other countries. The company has about 800 active items. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Broadleaf cook Kristian Diaz, right, demonstrates to students how to prepare\u00a0Australian wagyu beef for cooking, while chef\u00a0Tre Nguyen, left,\u00a0finishes grilled lamb patties at a food demonstration event on Oct. 9 at the LAC campus. Broadleaf Game is a company that sells specialty meats, and they did food demos and gave students financial tips at the event. (Tien Nguyen)<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Nguyen and Diaz have similar journeys from working as chefs to becoming food sale workers and shared how chefs can creatively manage food costs without compromising menu quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, for the most exceptional food costs right now, for independent restaurants and hotels, it\u2019s about 27%. So for those of you who\u2019ve done your spreadsheets and costs down every single ounce of the lamb and come up with a basic future cost per plate, this is where other muscle crus say, well, maybe you can\u2019t put a lamb rack on the menu for like 40, 50 bucks to make 27%,\u201d Nguyen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this case, he suggested using other cuts, such as lamb shoulder or leg, and to incorporate them into dishes like aioli, pasta or risotto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust be creative. There\u2019s all sorts of ways to still feature a unique menu and still hit your food cost goal,\u201d Nguyen added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Nguyen was finishing up grilling lamb patties, Diaz demonstrated how to break down an Australian wagyu striploin and prepare it for cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diaz emphasized that every part of the animal could be utilized to minimize waste and create a diverse menu, for example, bones for broth, fat for oil and meat scraps for sausages and burgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile your competitor is trying to struggle with 10, 12 bucks, for a regular commodity, it\u2019s that extra spectacle we\u2019re trying to get at stake. That extra meat that you put in your menu will make sure that it\u2019s above the guy next door because at the end of the day, we love our neighbors, but that will be your competition. What separates you from the guy two doors down, three doors down? They all sell the same thing,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speakers hoped students learned something new from their demonstration, \u201cwhether it\u2019s professional or just cooking at home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nguyen said that beyond the kitchen, there would be many career paths to choose from, including sales, food photography, food styling and product development. Students serve themselves dishes prepared by Broadleaf cooks at a food demonstration event on Oct. 9 at the LAC campus.\u00a0At the event, representatives of the meat supplier Broadleaf Game, who sells specialty meats, cooked up wild boar, wagyu and lamb, as well as gave financial tips. (Tien Nguyen)<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n An LBCC Culinary Arts student shared their rating of the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI liked the preparation. The wagyu was delicious, usually something I don\u2019t buy when I\u2019m out of a restaurant, just because it\u2019s usually out of my price range,\u201d said Jabaree Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know that much [in] high school, about the costs of food and how we had to keep our costs in between, you know, a certain number.\u2029I didn\u2019t know that the 27% was the number that most restaurants are shooting for food costs. So with what we learned today, I have an insight on what to look for,\u201d Brown added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LBCC\u2019s Culinary Arts program hosted a food demonstration featuring guest speakers from Broadleaf Game on Oct. 9 at the LAC campus open to all students, staff and faculty. Broadleaf is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":20189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6229],"tags":[719,6423,718,6422,29,142,68,6313,6312,6314],"class_list":["post-20188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-arts","tag-broadleaf","tag-culinary","tag-demo","tag-lbcc","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-city-college","tag-nguyen","tag-tien","tag-tien-nguyen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Skgy-5fC","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Lifestyle_20251009_CulinaryArtsDemo_TNguyen_2290.jpg?fit=2400%2C1666&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20195,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20188\/revisions\/20195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Lifestyle_20251009_CulinaryArtsDemo_TNguyen_2308.jpg?fit=696%2C464&ssl=1\")
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After the presentation, students had a chance to taste the grilled meat samples: New Zealand lamb patties, venison medallions, wild boar tenderloin and Australian wagyu striploin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Lifestyle_20251009_CulinaryArtsDemo_TNguyen_2300.jpg?fit=696%2C464&ssl=1\")
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