A member of the American Culinary Federation’s chapter in Atlanta lauds the personal and professional value of attending a well-developed and executed monthly meeting.
by Eric Karell, CEC, AAC
I attended the April meeting of our chapter not really knowing what to expect. The last time I attended an ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter Inc. meeting was at least three years ago when I hosted the President’s Gala at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Even though it was a beautiful spring evening and I was fairly tired from a busy weekend, I decided to drive the nearly 30 miles to the Halperns’ Purveyors of Steak and Seafood’s kitchen, research and training facility.
I was greeted warmly by some old friends at the door, Halperns' employees I have known for a dozen years. They gave me a raffle ticket and informed me there would be a drawing for some boxed steaks at the end of the meeting. Sounded promising.
As revealed at this year’s IACP Conference in New York, on the map, but off the beaten path, is where today’s food trends are emerging.
Courtesy of Olson Communications
Chicago-based Olson Communications attended the annual International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Conference in April, where food, fashion and media connected in New York City. The discussions were charged with passionate and often disparate beliefs on food, fashion and the emerging role of the chef as cultural curator.
National advisory board recommends a more-modern approach to culinary education for the 16 schools in the United States.
Visiting a restaurant today often means watching chefs and their culinary staffs perform in open kitchens, tasting a variety of small plates featuring seasonal ingredients and enjoying a gourmet twist on comfort food. Gone are the days of five-course, white-tablecloth meals every weekend. So as American restaurants continue to evolve, so, too, does culinary education.
Recently, Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) College of Culinary Arts assembled its National Advisory Board (NAB) in Scottsdale, Ariz., to address the demands for today’s culinary professionals and how their educational programs can evolve. The board, comprised of a variety of chefs and industry business leaders, agreed that today’s educators need to focus on the fundamentals of cooking, while also having the flexibility to integrate a more modern approach.
Many students arrive for class thinking they don’t need to know about beverage because they deal with food. Here’s why they’re wrong.
By Albert W. A. Schmid, MA, CCP, CHE, CFBE, MCFE, CCE, CEC, COI
The message outlined in black letters on the white t-shirt is clear: Beer is Food! The first time I saw this t-shirt, I smiled, but beer does not hold a unique distinction among alcoholic beverages because wine and spirits are food, too.
In simple terms, beer is made from grain and wine is made from fruit. If a beer is distilled, it becomes either vodka or whiskey. If a wine is distilled it becomes a brandy (or sometimes vodka). There are other spirits that might be considered either depending on how you look at them, such as tequila from the agave plant, rum from sugar cane and vodka from potatoes. In any case, the alcohol starts with a food product, and we consume the final product as part of a meal or snack.
At The Culinary Institute of America, a final-semester project to plan and execute an event marketed to the public is one of the most rewarding parts of students’ educations.
By Dr. Pat Bottiglieri
Foodservice Management is taught in the final semester of the senior year in the Bachelor of Professional Studies Program at The Culinary Institute of America (
In addition, the course includes a capstone project. The project requires students to plan and execute an event that is marketed to the general public. The events must generate a profit. And, as the
Dylan Lipe of Sweet Baby Ray’s Restaurants & Catering was born to barbecue.
By Brent T. Frei
Barbecue is “part of everyday life” for Dylan R. Lipe, corporate executive chef for Sweet Baby Ray’s Restaurants based in Wood Dale, Ill., with two units in greater Chicago, and True Cuisine & Sweet Baby Ray’s Catering, a full-service off-premise catering, event-planning and event-production company.
Hailing from southern Illinois, part of America’s rich barbecue region that includes Kansas City, Memphis and St. Louis, “As I’ve grown as a chef and culinarian, it doesn’t matter where I went, I would always seek out barbecue in some form or another,” Lipe says.
Sweet Baby Ray’s is eponymous with the No. 1 barbecue sauce in the nation. But the restaurants’ reputation transcends the sauce brand that was sold five years ago to a salad-dressing manufacturer. Licensed to open four restaurants under the Sweet Baby Ray’s name, the company still has room for and envisions expansion.