The National Restaurant Association has issued “Bright Ideas,” its first-ever sustainability newsletter, which offers tips and tools to restaurant and foodservice operators on eco-friendly practices that save money, resources and help protect the environment.

The newsletter, produced by Conserve, the NRA’s sustainability initiative, features a variety of videos, best practices, case studies and personal accounts of chain and independent operators who have achieved success by practicing sustainability at their businesses.

Beef experienced significant volume growth in the past year and continues to be a mainstay on the menu, according to the 2013 Usage and Volumetric Assessment of Beef in Foodservice report, proprietary research from the Beef Checkoff Program.

The annual survey of protein purchasing executives showed that beef remains the No. 1 protein in foodservice—in volume, market share and the dollars it brings to operations. Specific findings include:

•  In the last year, the pounds of beef sold in foodservice increased by 79 million pounds to a total volume of 8 billion pounds.

•  Beef represents about one-third (32%) of the total protein market share in foodservice.

•  97% of restaurant operators feature beef on the menu.

And with power comes responsibility, says this Hoboken chef, restaurateur, author, businesswoman and Latin cuisines historian.

Dr. Maricel E. Presilla, a culinary historian, author and chef specializing in the foods of Latin America and Spain, reminded graduates of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) they are following a tradition of excellence, and with it carries responsibility. Presilla was commencement speaker at the college’s Hyde Park, N.Y., campus on July 3.

“Keep your sharp knives at hand, but hold onto the wooden spoon,” Presilla told 61 recipients of associate degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. “A wooden spoon becomes one with the food. It also represents the collective wisdom of grandmothers and home cooks everywhere.”

Presilla is president of Gran Cacao Company, a Latin American food research and marketing company that offers cacao educational programs and premium heirloom cocoa beans. She is also chef and co-owner of two restaurants—Cucharamama, featuring artisanal South American cooking, and Zafra, a pan-Latin restaurant with an emphasis on the cuisine of Cuba, both in Hoboken, N.J. In 2010, she opened Ultramarinos,a gourmet Latin American market, bakery, chocolate shop and cooking atelier in Hoboken. 

Pastry-chef instructors from Joliet Junior College, SAIT Polytechnic and The Pennsylvania School of Culinary Arts hope to become the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th CMPCs in the United States.

Four pastry chefs from across the nation will gather at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C., Aug. 16-23, for the ultimate test—the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) Certified Master Pastry Chef® (CMPC) exam. The eight-day long exam gives candidates the opportunity to earn the highest professional distinction available and join the elite group of only 11 CMPCs in the nation.

The Certified Master Chef® (CMC) program was initiated in 1981 and granted official recognition by the World Association of Chefs Societies the next year. The CMPC examination, first held in 1993, requires exacting familiarity and proficiency in a broad range of pastry styles and techniques. The most recent CMPC exam was held in 2005 at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Frank Vollkommer, CMPC, corporate executive chef at Hillcrest Foods in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was the only candidate to pass the exam and receive the master-chef certification. Currently, there are 67 CMCs and 11 CMPCs in the United States, with a CMC exam scheduled for late 2014.

“How are you today?”, though arguably better than nothing, is so overused and insincere that it fails to distinguish the service culture of your retail foodservice outlets. To employ an effective interaction strategy (and increase sales), understand that customers respond on conscious and unconscious levels to every aspect of their engagement with your instructors and student employees.

By Renee Zonka, RD, CEC, CHE, MBA

Last month, I wrote about how an “interaction economy” is replacing the “experience economy” with which the United States has identified since 1999 upon the publication of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage by B. Joseph Pine, II, and James H. Gilmore. As I stated, everyone can identify with the basic premise of an experience economy, in which companies state an “experience” when they engage customers in a memorable way.

In the candy and chips aisles, Sriracha is undoubtedly the pepper of the year, as evidenced at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in May. And “free from” claims reign supreme in this industry. A foremost food-trends expert surveys the landscape of cross-over flavor demands between the snack shop and restaurant.

By Sharon Olson, courtesy of Olson Communications

It might seem simply a sweet indulgence to attend the annual Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago, but there is a refreshing perspective and much to be learned from a show that is centered on candy and snacks. The energy at the 2014 Sweets & Snacks Expo, May 20-22, was a remarkable contrast to the National Restaurant Association Show on the other side of McCormick Place.

Here, business professionals are scurrying around the show with bags of samples and the sparkle of excitement in their eyes at almost every booth. A curated display of couture style made completely of candy wrappers tells the visitor that this show is a world all its own.

This report explores some of the parallel perspectives on the trends seen at the candy show that have relevance to the food business and not just the sweet side of foodservice.

Since graduating in May, alums have already earned esteemed jobs, including at the “world’s best restaurant,” located in Denmark, and the world’s largest privately owned flavor and fragrance developer in Switzerland.

Ushering in a new era of advanced techniques and innovation for chefs, the first group of students to graduate with bachelor’s degrees in culinary science from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) received their diplomas in May. The students entered the program in February 2013 after earning their associate degrees in culinary artsor baking and pastry artsat the college.

“The culinary science majoroffers a unique perspective into the world of food,” says new graduate Kristin McGinn from Hackettstown, N.J.,who accepted an internship with McCormick & Company. “The program uses a dual teaching style with both a scientist and chef in each class. Because of this, we learned the in-depth science behind food while getting lessons on how to create and balance flavors at the same time.”

While beginning a professional journal can be rewarding on several levels, maintaining a journal requires commitment. Here, Dr. Mayo offers tips and ideas for making the process of recording more valuable over time, as well as less taxing.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we reviewed some of the reasons for keeping a professional journal—for us as administrators or faculty members and for students who are learning to become professionals in our field. This month, we will discuss the challenges of maintaining the journal and making it alive and useful.

Starting a journal can be an exciting venture. Finding a new notebook or appropriate bound journal to record items in, delighting in the prospect of recording all kinds of good things, and imagining how much fun the activity will be all contribute to the prospect of an exciting adventure. However, remembering to keep adding items to the journal and sticking with that practice can be challenging. The following sections offer helpful ideas about maintaining a professional journal that is useful to you.

Chef Weiner lists his first 50 articles written for CAFÉ’s “The Gold Medal Classroom,” for the benefit of readers.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

This article is dedicated to Ms. Terry Jones of Gallup high School in New Mexico. At the June 2014 CAFÉ Leadership Conference in Salt Lake City, she sat down next to me and said, “Adam, I print out each of your articles and keep them in a notebook on my desk. I made an index, and before I teach a new subject I re-read the appropriate article.”

Could anything be more musical to my ears?

Toward the end of 2008 I was contacted by Brent Frei and Mary Petersen asking if I would be interested in writing the regular editorial department, “50-Minute Classroom,” for CAFÉ’s “The Gold Medal Classroom.” I told them that I would do it temporarily for a few months until they found a permanent columnist.

Crossword and word-search puzzles can be fun, effective tools for familiarizing students with important terms.

By Adam Weiner, JobTrain and the Sequoia Adult School

We all get in a rut. Line cooks start turning out dish after dish, caring less for the quality because they have done it over and over again. Customers go to the same places and order the same thing, not because they are afraid to try something new; they are just stuck on their tracks like a street car. Teachers have the same problem, and when we do, the students turn on their I-pods and tune us out.

I am always looking for new ways to teach the same old thing. New tricks to pull out of a hat. One of the things that I have found is the very effective use of puzzles in teaching.

Occasionally, I start a class with a word- search puzzle with all of the terms I am
going to cover in the class. I end the class with a “test” of a crossword puzzle using the same terms. It is, I have found, incredibly effective. The best part is that there are many places on the Internet where you can create puzzles for free.