Ris Lacoste, owner of RIS in Washington, D.C., got her big break while typing recipes at La Varenne Écôle de Cuisine in France. Today a chef celeb and successful restaurateur, she has a particular message for women in culinary: You can handle the job. Lacoste should know.

By Lynn Schwartz

Ris Lacoste has been a culinary shining star in Washington, D.C., for more than two decades. She arrived in the nation’s capital from New England in 1987 to help Chef Bob Kinkead open Twenty-One Federal and then Kinkead’s American Brasserie. Washingtonian magazine named them Restaurateurs of the Year in 1992. Lacoste then spent 10 years as executive chef of Georgetown’s 1789 Restaurant, where her innovative, regional fare earned numerous awards and national recognition.

Lacoste is also a writer and created “Cooking for Julia,” a PBS documentary celebrating Julia Child’s 90^th birthday. When Lacoste faced a big birthday of her own, 50, she knew it was now or never to open a restaurant, and RIS, situated in the heart of D.C.’s West End, was born. “I suppose opening a restaurant is really a young man’s job,” Lacoste says, “but I also know that RIS is successful because I’ve come with years of experience. I know what I want. I know how to get things done.”

Like it or not, for a growing number of our students, Facebook is the preferred means of communicating—with everyone. To help them use their Facebook sites effectively, we need to remind them of at least three important guidelines: audience, permanence and development.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

In December, we talked about e-mail and the e-mail pledge that represents a focus on communicating clearly and with respect using e-mail. This month, we will talk about Facebook.

Facebook as E-mail
A number of students and others use Facebook as a means of communication to others. Instead of just friending people, building a profile, posting pictures and jointly playing games and other activities, Facebook has become, for them, the preferred way of sending messages, following up on conversations and chatting. In fact, a number of my colleagues reported getting thank-you notes during this holiday season through Facebook and not via regular e-mail.

Chef Weiner argues there’s only one right answer.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Paper or plastic? Shaken or stirred? Regular or decaf? Red or white? Recipes or technique? These are some of the great questions that plague culinary instructors on a daily basis. To start the New Year, I am going to open the debate (please post a comment on this website so we can really get the debate going) on whether we should focus our students on learning how to follow recipes or how to use their technical skills to create or duplicate dishes.

Recipes or technique is a question that drives culinary instructors crazy. When I focus on teaching recipes, a number of my friends (many of whom volunteer to teach the class and others who hire my students) tell me that I am doing a disservice, because when they go out into the real world there won’t be recipes. These chefs contend that when the students go out into restaurants they will be shown a dish once and then be expected to duplicate it.

Share your best ideas for innovation in teaching sustainability by April 1, 2013.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

The Kendall College School of Culinary Arts and CAFÉ are proud to announce that entries are being accepted for the 2013 CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award. The first national award dedicated to building the body of teaching knowledge for all sustainability educators, it recognizes innovative teaching and projects that could have applications for other culinary programs across the country.

All secondary and postsecondary culinary-arts and baking/pastry programs are eligible to enter. Entries will be judged based on the level of innovation; perceived impact on students’ understanding of sustainability practices and their importance; and the ease with which elements of the winning program can be implemented by other culinary programs nationwide.

Volume VII in the World Culinary Arts Series at ciaprochef.com, focusing on the cuisines of Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago.

Take your students on a virtual tour of the islands of the Caribbean, where leading chefs and food authorities explain and demonstrate their culinary techniques in step-by-step detail. The Culinary Institute of America, in association with Unilever Food Solutions, presents “Savoring the Best of World Flavors: The Caribbean,” the seventh edition of the World Culinary Arts Series. A first-of-its-kind video reference library documenting the “gold standards” of world cuisines, these HD video podcasts are packed with cooking demonstrations, in-depth interviews and recipes.

Hard work pays off! That’s the underlying philosophy the Monroe Culinary and Confectionery applied in their weeks of preparation for the cold salon at the 2012 International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show in November at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. As a result of their efforts, Monroe won the gold medal of the salon and the Prosper Montagne award for cold-food display.

To prepare, the 27 students, led by their team of coaches, transformed the college‘s new pastry lab into a tropical rainforest of delicate chocolate pieces, sugar artistry, a cake featuring all of nature’s beauty and a finely airbrushed frog composed of rice-crispy treats. The long hours of work ensured that each delicate piece of their craft, from the pastries to the poularde, came together for the cold-food display table.

Kendall College is pleased to announce that Heidi Hedeker, MA/MSW, a baking and pastry instructor and assistant professor in the School of Culinary Arts, earned her master-baker certification (CMB) from the Retail Bakers of America (RBA) during practical testing at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde, Park, N.Y., in October. She is the second CMB teaching at Kendall College.

Hedeker’s most-recent accomplishment makes her one of only 169 Certified Master Bakers in the United States. In addition to Hedeker, Kendall College is also home to CMB baking and pastry instructor Melina Kelson-Podolsky, who earned her master-baker certification in 2008.

A CMB must have deep expertise and proven skills in a broad range of baking environments, as well as the technical and administrative ability needed to operate and manage the production area of a full-line independent or in-store commercial bakery. The rigorous requirements, which include the principles of sanitation, food management, retail sales and merchandising in addition to the fundamentals of high-quality baking, make the CMB designation one of the most challenging in the culinary field.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and its faculty earned seven first-prize awards and two Best of Show honors at the 144th Salon of Culinary Art during the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show in New York City on November 12.

The CIA earned Best of Show awards for Best Sugar Display by Joseph Utera and Best Bread Display by Hans Welker. It was the second consecutive year that both chefs earned Best of Show awards at the event at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Additional first prizes were earned for the CIA’s chocolate and confection display, as well as for its wedding cake, special occasion cake and two meat platter entries. The CIA team took a second prize in the only other category in which it competed, the four-course presentation.

“Our presence at this show is a great representation of the professionalism and talent at the CIA,” says provost Mark Erickson, CMC.

The New England Culinary Institute, Montpelier, Vt., announced Nov. 1 that its vice president of culinary operations and executive chef, Jean-Louis Gerin, has been recognized in the premiere listing of Partners and Alumni of the Culinary Research and Education Academy (CREA).

The slow-cooking revolution was launched when CREA was founded in Paris more than two decades ago by French biochemist and food lover Bruno Goussault. Since then, the school has trained chefs from some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants in the art and science of sous vide. It’s changing the way the world cooks and the definition of fine dining.

Sous vide, French for “under vacuum,” is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times—72 hours in some cases. It requires an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55°C (131°F) to 60°C (140°F) for meats and higher for vegetables.

Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas was proud to host the inaugural Marukan Cup of Culinary Excellence sponsored by the Marukan Vinegar Company in October. Teams from four Le Cordon Bleu schools participated in the competition, including a student and a chef instructor/coach from each of the Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles schools.

The winning team was Geoffrei Taylor and his coach, Chef Austin Yancey, from the Chicago campus. Geoffrei was awarded $2,250 in scholarship dollars along with the Grand Trophy appropriately named the “Marukan Cup of Culinary Excellence.” Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago will now hold the trophy until the 2013 competition.