Twenty-eight Monroe culinary students set off October 19 in a downpour headed upstate to Delhi, N.Y., to compete at the Annual ACF Catskills Regional Competition. When they returned to the Monroe campus they had 27 shiny medals to add to their collection, which is now toppling 300!

The top awards in the hot-food competition went to Kencito Vernon, who took home a gold medal and the honors of “Best in Show.” Laura Sanchez, a freshman, also took home a high-scoring gold medal that earned her the title “Most Improved.” Brenda Lara, Sade Aguila, Rossella Cangialosi, Stephanie Cardenas and Yocary Luna also earned gold medals.

The word “potato” conjures up different images for different chefs—and with good reason! There are more than 4,000 potato varieties worldwide with more than 100 varieties sold in the United States. So, it’s no wonder that one of the most frequently asked questions we hear from chefs is: Which potato should I use for best results?

To help you answer that question and get the most out of today’s most popular potatoes, the United States Potato Board is pleased to present our newest tool: The Perfect Potato: A Foodservice Guide to Fresh Potato Types.

Gaylord Industries, commercial kitchen-air-management experts, and Niagara County Community College (NCCC) recently celebrated the opening of the new Niagara Falls Culinary Institute. The state-of-the-art facility, with 25 teaching kitchens and labs, opened in September 2012 with 350 undergraduate students who seek a future in the hospitality and tourism industries.

When designing the new 90,000-square-foot institute, NCCC’s goal was to create culinary environments that were productive and efficient and leveraged cutting-edge equipment. At the top of the “wish list” was finding an opportunity to better facilitate interaction between the chef instructors and students.

“The cornerstone of success for education is communication. With students working and talking and equipment running, we found the noise level of our previous ventilation hoods was a big problem,” said Dr. James P. Klyczek, president of NCCC. “By using Gaylord throughout the new institute, we changed the dynamic of the room with a much quieter system, plus we get the added benefit of energy conservation due to the automatic air modulation.”

Cameron Whitlock had only taken three courses in the Salt Lake Community College culinary-arts program when he volunteered to take part in a public cooking competition. The competition was part of an event at the college’s main campus announcing a $30,000 grant from the The Dannon Company, Inc. Three students from the program were paired with local celebrity chefs to see who could prepare and present the best dish for a college audience.

Of course, the chefs had to use yogurt in each of their dishes.

Sarah Lowe had no experience in cooking competitions of any kind prior to the Dannon event. “I have never competed before; it sounded fun,” she said. “This event was a great way to get some experience competing.”

An English professor expresses his hope for the culinary-arts students he teaches: that they will see how public speaking translates to everyday interactions.

By Scott Palmieri, Ph.D.

With dreams of becoming the next Thomas Keller or Alice Waters, freshmen who must enter my Communication Skills class at Johnson & Wales University are often far from enthused. As my colleague, Bill Lenox, reminds me, when they go home for Thanksgiving and are asked by their loved ones to wow the family in the kitchen, they are left to explain that they were behind a desk or podium for most of the fall.

For the university, this is a source of pride, as they receive a well-rounded education. However, how do I, an English professor, relate my subject to future culinarians? After 11 years teaching English courses to culinary and baking-and-pastry students, I have learned to speak their language better while bringing them into my world.

From a veritable vegetable harvest to liquid luxuries to 24/7 snacking, a noted trend-tracker is among the first to predict what will be hot on menus next year.

Courtesy of Culinary Visions^® Panel

Culinary Visions^® Panel collected insight from foodservice professionals, scoured more than 20 trade conferences and surveyed more than 3,000 consumer foodies to get their take on the foods and flavors most likely to captivate consumers this coming year. This year the conversation was about the cultural significance of food and the role consumers play as curators.

Curation has become the new art form practiced by opinion-leading chefs who are among the important cultural curators of our time. Consumers, who have been digitally enabled, have become enchanted with the idea of becoming the curators of their real or imagined lives. Following are highlights from the insight collected that includes both food-professional and consumer-foodie perspectives, and what it suggests for the coming year:

When teaching the development of successful children’s menus, emphasize to your students that all five human sensory perceptions (and an arguable sixth) must be put into play.

By Eric Stein, RD, MS, CCE

Getting kids to eat a nutritious meal doesn’t have to be a challenge. Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all learning style in the classroom, kids don’t respond to food stimuli the same way, either. Each child is born with a dominant sense that guides his or her food choices.

Appealing to the senses has a direct bearing on parents’ success getting kids to eat enough of the right foods. And while it is commonly perceived that we eat with our eyes first, aroma and sound also play vital roles in building hunger.

The following recipes are not only visually striking and flavorful, but also appeal to the senses of smell, touch (including texture and mouthfeel) and/or sound:

For millennia, specific ingredients indigenous to traditional sheep-growing regions have influenced the types of dishes made using lamb, and today, popular techniques cross global frontiers for many cuts to yield eminently flavorful and satisfying dishes.

By Priscilla Martel

Lamb is among the most common livestock consumed throughout the world, linked to feasts and religious observances. Christians, Jews and Muslims celebrate with lamb, an essential part of the cuisine on Easter, Passover and Ramadan. Lamb is symbolic of spring, sacrifice, fertility and it unites people around a table of delicious food. For centuries, in humble homes, on the street and in the finest restaurants this versatile meat has been grilled, seared, braised, roasted, stewed and served everywhere. The lore and tradition that surrounds the way lamb has been served around the globe is a source of inspiration for new ways to prepare it.

The “healthful” food label gets taken to new levels through nationwide cooperation, resulting in up-and-coming heirloom whole-grain breads and leafy breakfast salads and the well-established veggie-burger revolution.

A health-food renaissance is upon us, as the notion of “healthful” is being redefined nationwide, according to the recently released “The New Healthful: Culinary Trend Mapping Report” by market-research publisher Packaged Facts and San Francisco-based strategic food-and-beverage agency CCD Innovation.

As part of our country’s renewed emphasis on promoting good health comes the focus on the presence of beneficial nutrients and the use of inherently nutritious foods, as opposed to simply eliminating or avoiding certain ingredients that might negatively affect health when over-consumed. As discussed in the report, the New Healthful is also about growth of new distribution outlets, new places where healthful foods can be found. As these increase, the existence of healthful food-and-beverage options alongside more indulgent ones will become an everyday occurrence.

The Professional Chef continues to change the world of cooking.

The world was changing in 1962. John Glenn became the man to orbit the Earth and return home safely. The Beatles released their first single, “Love Me Do.” And The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) forever changed the culinary world with the publication of The Professional Chef®.

There had never been anything like it before. The Professional Chef was the first book dedicated to advancing the culinary profession. The 323-page text began by explaining that “knowing how to cook is only one part of the background a chef needs.” Chefs also needed to understand personnel, purchasing, nutrition, menu planning and kitchen layout. It was a guide for men—and it was almost exclusively men back then—who wanted to make a career of cooking: “Today’s chef is a business man … His knowledge and ability do not come overnight.”

Much more than a cookbook, its recipes and techniques were accompanied by sections about hygiene and sanitation, kitchen safety, tools and equipment, food cost, recipe conversions and even how to set up a buffet table. Recipes included Baked Hamburger Loaf, Chicken Cacciatore, Lobster Newburgh and molded salads—illustrated by stereotypical food photos of that era.