Culinary Arts Hosts Olive Tasting Table

Thursday, October 8, 2026

This week, the Culinary Arts department at Bakersfield College hosted an olive tasting table on the Panorama campus to let students and community sample olives grown in BC’s edible garden and promote opportunities available through the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Culinary Arts Pathway (ANCA).

Several Culinary Arts faculty and student workers set up tables and tents and presented an assortment of olive samples for everyone to try. They were happy to share their ‘home-grown’ olives and were eager to discuss the benefits of the edible garden and the academic opportunities available through the ANCA Pathway at BC.

Matilda Arnold currently attends BC and is majoring in ornamental horticulture. She is also a student worker in the Culinary Arts department who helped coordinate the olive tasting table. She was excited to have staff and students taste some of the produce that was grown in the edible garden. “We are running this table today to share food grown right here on campus and to help students realize that they you can produce things in their own back yard and use it to cook,” she said, “we are also handing out recipe cards to help [students] see that it’s not hard to make specific types of foods on their own.”

She was also eager to tell everyone about the edible garden. “We are also spreading the word about the edible garden on campus and the academic courses associated with it,” she said, “I have been working there for about a month and have helped with growing, planting and harvesting different types of fruits, vegetables, flowers and other things. It’s been great.”

Thank you, Culinary Arts department, for hosting the olive tasting table and showcasing the amazing agricultural resources on campus. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Culinary Arts educational pathway and preview some of the delicious food being produced right here on BC’s Panorama campus.

For more information about the Edible Education Garden courses, please visit the Bakersfield College online catalog.