Le Cordon Bleu graduates 13,000 students a year. As this author reveals, the biggest change among U.S. schools involves teaching interpersonal skills so that successful grads know what’s going on all over the business.

By Tristan Navera

Whether they be aspiring young cooks or experienced and refined restaurateurs, people involved in the profession today are finding that working in a restaurant has drastically different demands than it did five or ten years ago. To the faculty at Le Cordon Bleu, the largest international hospitality institution in the world, these changes mean formal culinary education is more helpful than ever.

Back to Basics
Culinary education has always been essential for its teaching of ground-level cooking skills, says Chef Edward Leonard, Certified Master Chef, Le Cordon Bleu vice president of culinary education and corporate chef for Le Cordon Bleu North America.

In celebration of The Bocuse Restaurant opening in February at The Culinary Institute of America, Paul Bocuse made a special trip from Lyon, France, for the star-studded inaugural dinner cooked by CIA students.

Culinary luminaries such as Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Charlie Palmer, David Burke, Michel Richard, Jerome Bocuse and the restaurant's namesake, famed Chef Paul Bocuse (named Chef of the Century by the CIA in 2011), gathered at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., on Feb. 15 to celebrate The Bocuse Restaurant’s inaugural dinner. In addition to the restaurant opening, attendees also celebrated Paul Bocuse’s 87th birthday, his decorated career and his incomparable contributions to culinary education throughout his lifetime.

The U.S. renaissance in charcuterie coupled with diners’ love of sausage makes housemade sausages a customer-satisfying, brand-building notion.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

More and more chefs at U.S. restaurants, hotels and clubs are wowing diners with interesting sausage inspirations that perfectly balance savory, sweet, spicy and smoky. Americans’ ever-increasing desire for good sausage is why culinary students enrolled at the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago learn sausage-making during their first year of study.

Indeed, today’s sausages—as links, patties and crumbles—can showcase any ground meat combined with sufficient animal fat and any combination of a vast array of seasonings and other flavoring ingredients.

Thanks largely to chefs’ sausage inventiveness, the homemade-sausage trend is also propelled in part by growing consumer interest in enjoying fresh, locally grown and raised ingredients. European and other heritage sausages are enjoying a renaissance, too.

Good news for graduates this year is that foodservice in healthcare and B&I is projected to expand, says Technomic.

Even though most of the focus in the foodservice industry is on major restaurant chains, the noncommercial sector is also a thriving realm for foodservice. Noncommercial operations accounted for 34% of total U.S. foodservice sales in 2012, garnering more than $200 billion in sales (retail sales equivalent).

In 2013, Technomic expects the strongest (nominal) growth in the healthcare (4.5%) and business & industry (4.0%) segments. As a whole, noncommercial foodservice operations are forecast to grow 3.7%, representing many and varied opportunities for suppliers to the industry.

More popular than chocolate and potato chips, snacking occasions bearing fruit are growing.

Fresh fruit is not only the top snack food consumed in America, it is also one of the fastest growing, according to new snacking research from Port Washington, N.Y.-based The NPD Group, a global information company.  NPD’s recently released “Snacking in America” report finds that growing concerns about health and eating right are contributors to the increasing popularity of fruit as a snack.

Like the many herbs cultivated for healthy, flavorful dishes and cocktails at the new Seasons 52 in West Los Angeles, executive chef and partner Jessica Koine finds a place to grow.

By Lynn Schwartz

It is not unusual for chefs of small, independent restaurants to be committed to a seasonal menu. They often support local farms and farmers’ markets in an attempt to bring the freshest ingredients to their customers. But it is impressive when a corporate, multiunit company is forward-thinking enough to practice a similar sustainable philosophy.

Seasons 52 (a brand of Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world’s largest full-service restaurant company, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden and The Capital Grille) is capitalizing on the growing consumer interest of eating with the seasons. Not only does Seasons 52 purchase locally, but they are dazzling customers with an extensive, indoor herb garden and a spectacular outdoor “living wall” of culinary and non-edible plants. As executive chef of the recently opened Century City venue in the heart of West Los Angeles, Jessica Koine must create seasonal, health-oriented dishes that are less than 475 calories. She must also cultivate her green-thumb abilities while tending to more than 150 edible plants.

Assigning students to write a white paper can help them focus on an audience, develop an appropriate voice, learn to make a solid case with evidence and conduct careful research.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed the value of old-fashioned writing assignments, such as notes, journals and reflective papers instead of blogs. This month, we will review the value of using white papers as thoughtful and effective assignments for students.

History of White Papers
White papers have historically been used for a range of purposes, most commonly to persuade decision makers to adopt a policy or consider a new program or a set of strategies. In many situations, they were background papers to provide an in-depth analysis of a situation, event or potential development so that key executives had the information to make better decisions. Sometimes, they were just background documents; often, they contained recommendations for decisions and information about implementation steps. They were typically written for a specific audience and crafted to make a persuasive case backed by strong evidence.

Steam is a very efficient method of cooking, but students approaching it for the first time tend to overlook several important considerations to ensuring food quality.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

In January I wrote than, in my opinion, students need to have a good working knowledge of the following recipes and technique. In the past I have written articles about teaching braising (September 2010), baking (July 2011) and sautéing (January 2012) in 50 minutes. In the next several months (with an occasional break here and there to spice things up), I will write how to teach other basic cooking techniques.

This month, steaming.

Rotating groups through learning modules keeps students engaged while enhancing their skills development.

By Carrie Stebbins, CWE

If you teach practical lab classes and have not yet tried a lesson plan where you have students rotate through a number of modules, each teaching a specific skill, I encourage you to try!

This works especially well early in a class when you have several fundamental skills you want your students to practice. With a lab class of 20 students, I plan four modules with five students in each group. I give each of the groups a mise-en-place list.

Coors Recycles® teams up with Recyclebank® to reward consumers for their environmental efforts.

Coors Brewing Company, inventor of the first 100% recyclable aluminum can in 1959, last month kicked off its latest sustainability initiative by announcing a partnership with Recyclebank®, the company that rewards people for taking everyday green actions with discounts and deals from more than 4,000 local businesses and national brands. The program, Coors Recycles®, will support the Recyclebank mission to promote environmentally conscious waste disposal through a monetary contribution and special packaging.