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.

After years of working hard and plenty of time spent “doing life,” retirees have earned their break. Chefs at Beacon Hill at Eastgate in Grand Rapids, Mich., uniquely meld their talents with the culinary wonders of the region and the desires of residents.

By Timothy England, CEC, AAC

It been said time and again that life begins at retirement. For many this means a time for travel, investing in family, perhaps even taking up a new hobby, or reengaging in an old one. It may mean new experiences with your bride or a time to dance with your groom again. Perhaps it is a friendship that needs nurturing or a time for your soul to rejuvenate with regular exercise.

Retirement has long since passed the time of boring days at home with little or nothing to do; menial tasks that fill the time but do little to engage the mind. With all the possibilities for adventure and new discoveries, retirees these days are known to be setting out on a new life that takes them far beyond the routine of their long, hard working years and into a world of fresh starts and checking things off that lifelong “bucket list.”

Look for noodles of all stripes to show up in hearty layered bowls on menus. We’ll also see mainstreaming of South American-style grilled meats and Latin-Asian fusion seafood dishes. And, African peri-peri chicken should take flight.

 Technomic, the Chicago-based foodservice research and consulting firm, brings together the best judgments of its consultants and editors to peer ahead to food trends that might significantly impact the restaurant industry in 2013.

These expert insights are based on site visits evaluating the restaurant scene in cities across the country as well as interviews and surveys of operators, chefs and consumers, backed up by qualitative data from Technomic’s extensive Digital Resource Library and quantitative data from its vast MenuMonitor database. Some of these developments are mainstream trends among major players; others are edgy urban movements that might or might not spread to the wider American public; and some are in the process of evolving from leading-edge to mainstream.

Passion for fresh, seasonal, straightforward ingredients and cooking; diversity and flexibility of service; and leveraging meal occasions to build community among students and staff are hallmarks of the dining program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Olson Communications, a food-marketing agency based in Chicago, is proud to announce that Vanderbilt Campus Dining, a nonprofit, university-managed auxiliary service for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is the recipient of a 2012 Chefs of Tomorrow™ Award. Sharon Olson, founder and president of Chicago-based Olson Communications, presented the award to Chef Camp Howard, CEC, director of Vanderbilt Campus Dining, on Nov. 6 at an annual dinner for foodservice media.

Inaugural seven-month program concludes with ceremony and celebratory meal at San Antonio campus.

Nine culinary professionals spent the 30 weeks at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), San Antonio, learning about the cuisines of Latin America and preparing menus with leading chefs from many of the regions studied. A graduation ceremony on October 27, 2012, marked the completion of the first class of the college’s Latin Cuisines Certificate Program. Graduates then celebrated with a special luncheon at Nao, the newest restaurant on the CIA’s San Antonio, Texas, campus.

The country’s oldest collegiate foodservice operation partners with a noted authority to meet student demand for cuisine authenticity.

Authentic Greek fare is being introduced to the menus and students at Harvard thanks to collaboration between chef and cookbook author Diane Kochilas and Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS). Beginning last summer and extending into the fall, Kochilas and HUDS have developed recipes, trainings and tastings, which will culminate in more than a dozen new items for HUDS’ residential-dining winter menus.

Greek cuisine, regarded for its nutritional benefits through the use of plant oils, lean proteins, vegetables and distinct seasonings, is an ideal fit for Harvard menus where students are increasingly interested in authenticity and health. Seafood and vegetarian options that appeal to non-vegetarians are among the most demanded items on student surveys.

Kochilas was a presenter at the Spring 2012 Worlds of Healthy Flavors conference, hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Culinary Institute of America. HUDS’ managing director, David Davidson, and director for culinary operations Martin Breslin were in attendance and immediately saw the opportunity for bringing Kochilas’ expertise to campus.

Saying that five times fast led to a college student’s likeness in Darigold butter.

It took 110 pounds of butter, two days of carving and a 14-second, tongue-twisting video to make it happen. One lucky Seattle resident, Haley Alaji, was announced the grand-prize winner in Darigold’s “Better Butter” online contest, and as her prize, Darigold created an oversized butter bust carving of Alaji that will feature prominently on billboards throughout Puget Sound through December.

“It’s amazing to see myself in butter—the carving is so precise, and it actually looks just like me!” says Alaji, a theater student at the Cornish College of the Arts who lives in downtown Seattle and moved to the Northwest four months ago from Detroit. “I happened to come across Darigold’s contest asking people to submit videos of themselves saying ‘better butter better’ five times fast, and decided to go for it. I found a street performer playing the violin, set up my camera and shot a little spontaneous dance video, and the judges picked me!”

An interview with father and son Michel and Sébastien Bras of France.

By Brenden Blaine Darby

A small glance, a deep breath, a long pause and a lingering stare. These two men seem to dance with each other on a cerebral level, always interacting with the other’s thoughts. My questions are pondered in their own unique way and only answered once all the right words are ready to be expressed. While speaking, they look at each other to make sure they are always extracting and mixing their ideas together.

We need to remind our students that communication is an art that recognizes the dignity and importance of the receiver. In fact, have them consider taking the E-Mail Pledge.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we talked about social-media etiquette for students and listed the five recommendations of accuracy, brevity, consistency, directness and expansion. This month, during the holiday season, we will review some common e-mail practices and suggest some guidelines for students to adopt because they are important in personal, and especially in professional, circles.

First Principle for E-mail Etiquette
There are a few commonly accepted principles for using e-mail that most professionals practice; students who Twitter, Facebook and instant message may not be aware of them. The first principle involves recognizing and honoring the audience of e-mail messages. Sometimes that audience is clear in the “to” box, but students should be warned that e-mail messages are often forwarded to other people and, therefore, need to be written carefully with a sense that others might read them and they might be kept and used for a range of different purposes in the future.

A must list that students should review frequently so they might keep their jobs in commercial kitchens.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Happy holidays!

Those of you who read this column on a regular basis know that I preach the need to teach your students more than how to cook. Unless you teach a pure home-economics class, your ultimate goal is to have your students get jobs in the culinary field. If you don’t teach them how to work in a commercial kitchen, you are dooming them to failure.

So, in honor of the 12 Days of Christmas, and December being the 12^th month, I will recap the 12 things that your students must know to be able to keep their jobs in a commercial kitchen. Feel free to print them out and give them to your students. Tell your students to look at them frequently when they start working.