Next June, CAFÉ, the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education, will hold Best Practices in Education day on Saturday, June 16), preceded by industry Sessions on Friday, June 15 with a reception on Thursday evening, June 14.

This year the Best Practices in Education will focus on Keeping Culinary Education Relevant. In an environment where students can learn to cook on the job and may question the return-on-investment of culinary schooling, what skills does culinary education build beyond the technical? How does culinary education integrate soft skills, food science, sustainability, literacy and numeracy, technology and other skills and knowledge our graduates need. If you are interested in offering a presentation on this topic, or a related topic, please develop and submit it now. With this letter, I invite you to submit a proposal for a workshop, lecture, or round table discussion for the Friday sessions on Best Practices in Education. 

Last year, the program in Myrtle Beach focused on Learning Strategies for Students and there were a range of presentations with the following titles;

• Encouraging Students to Take Ownership of Learning New Coursework – John Bandman, Bergen Community College
• Smartphones for Better Learning – David Pazmiño, Newbury College
• Converting Unconvertible Classes in the Online Environment – Jackson Lamb, Metropolitan State University of Denver
• Recapturing Adult Learner Enrollments: Strategies to Recruit Students Through Employer Partnerships – Michael Carmel, Culinary Arts of Charleston
• Separating Lore from Practice: The Most Misunderstood Teaching Theories and Their Effects on Student Learning - Toni D’Onofrio, Westchester Community College and David Goldberg, Kingsborough Community College
• How a Farm-to-Table Curriculum Can Help your Program and the Planet – Nadia Minniti, Fayetteville Technical Community College
• A Passion for Teaching: Keeping it Fresh in the Kitchen for Instructors – Stella Bernard, Johnson and Wales – Denver
• Creating an Active-Learning Restaurant Management Classroom Through the Use of Real-World Scenario Spreadsheets – Ken Goldberg, Monroe College
• Beyond Traditional Product Utilization: Culinary Students as Levers for Improving the Food System – Johnathan Deutsch, Drexel University
• Writing Like a Reporter; How to Apply Basic Journalistic Techniques to Business Writing – Armond Labato, Idaho Potato Commission

If you have another idea, the CAFÉ Leadership Conference Planning Committee for Best Practices in Education is open to your ideas. If you have an idea or a proposal, please send it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by October 15 since the committee will start to consider proposals during that next week. The Committee will review your proposal and get back to you by early November so that you have plenty of time to plan.

Each proposal should contain the following information:

• Your name, email address, and phone number
• Your current title or position, and institutional affiliation
• The title of your presentation
• A description (approximately two paragraphs) of what you will present and reasons it is a significant presentation for the audience of culinary teachers and administrators
• Your audiovisual, computer or demonstration needs
• Any supporting information you want the Committee to review

Each session will be approximately 60 to 90 minutes in length although that may change depending on the number and type of proposals we receive.

The day will begin with a short plenary session providing background information about teaching and learning strategies and we will have roundtables at lunch. Most of the morning and afternoon will be filled with simultaneous presentations. Thanks for thinking of one.

On behalf of the Planning Committee, I look forward to hearing from you in the next month and seeing you in Milwaukee.

If you have any questions, please send me an email note at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Jonathan Deutsch, Ph.D.
Chair, CAFÉ Leadership Conference Planning Committee for Best Practices in Education
Professor
Center for Food and Hospitality Management and Department of Nutrition Sciences
Drexel University