For the first time, says Technomic, a majority of U.S. consumers prefers hot or spicy flavors. And sweet is the ultimate pairing partner when staying ahead of the flavor curve.

The most familiar, tried-and-true flavors might have impressive staying power on menus, but Chicago-based Technomic’s most recent flavor findings also signal the need for operators and suppliers to stay on top of flavor trends by reinvigorating classic offerings with new and unique twists.

Three-fourths of consumers (73%) say that if they try and like a menu item with an innovative flavor, they would be highly likely to return to the restaurant for the same menu item.

“In a competitive foodservice climate, flavor differentiation is a must-have for operators,” says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, Inc. “Because today’s foodservice consumers have such a strong expectation for innovative flavors, operators and suppliers have to help the menu stand out by staying ahead of the flavor curve. Knowing which flavors are up and coming and truly enticing to guests will be essential in gaining their dining-out dollars.”

The advantages of peer coaching include helping people realize they can solve their own problems while helping others. It also broadens their awareness of how many people they can call on for assistance.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed helping students take charge of their lives by using a technique called the three-legged conference. This month’s column is about peer coaching, and the rest of the fall will focus on other strategies for helping students learn to take charge of their education and their lives.

Coaching Explained
Coaching is the process of one person helping another person to clarify the coachee’s goals, jointly determining strategies to attain those goals, and providing support for reaching the goals. It differs from consulting since consultants provide advice based on their background knowledge and experience; coaches commit to help their coachees do what is important to the coachees. Coaching differs from therapy since therapists are interested in why, and they focus on the present and the past; coaches are interested in what and how, and they focus on the present and the future.

The challenge in coaching is really listening to the other person and not providing advice or judging what the other person says or wants to do. It is a full commitment to helping the other person in the areas where the other person wants to focus. Many teachers find coaching hard to do since it differs so radically from their normal work as teachers, dispensers of knowledge and evaluators. It is even hard to shift from facilitating learning to coaching; these functions draw on different sets of skills.

Using games to teach will get both you and your students out of a rut. A round of Hangman, anyone?

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

As teachers we get into ruts. If we are teaching one-month classes, one-semester classes or one-year classes, we tend to do the same thing every month, every semester, every year. Even if it works well, we get bored. When we get bored, the students get bored. When the students get bored, their education and our enjoyment of teaching both go downhill fast.

At the June Leadership Conference of CAFÉ I was able to attend a seminar entitled “You Can Lead Students to the Classroom, but Can You Make Them Think?” It was led by assistant professors Deet Gilbert and Sunil Atreya, both of Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte. The thrust of that seminar was that in today’s world, standing up and giving a lecture will not get the attention of most students, and even fewer will retain the material. In other words, lecturing to your students in the academic portion of your curriculum is dooming your students and yourself to failure. The seminar went on to cover at least 10 or more different games and formats you can use to liven up your class.

What really hit me like a bucket of cold water about this was that the second article I wrote for “The Gold Medal Classroom,” in March 2009, talked about creating word puzzles, crossword puzzles and other games to get the students thinking and interacting. I even listed a number of websites that had these items available for free. To my horror, I realized at the Leadership Conference that I had gotten myself into a rut and that I was not doing any of these games any more. It didn’t take more than a few moments of reflection to realize that my students absorbed and learned the material faster and more thoroughly when I was using the games. It was also clear that I was having less fun teaching the class.

“The Gold Medal Classroom” launches a new editorial department and forum for deans and directors in 2014: a leadership think tank.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

These are challenging times for culinary-arts programs. Administrators are faced with demands for measureable outcomes from various accrediting agencies, the cost of equipping and operating viable programs is increasing exponentially, and the price of education for students has increased far greater than other indexes (one leading culinary school reported that its yearly tuition alone increased from $8,490 in 1990 to $24,550 in 2010--or 290%) while financial aid and personal loans have become more difficult to obtain.

The ever-increasing number of culinary programs across the country has skewed conversions for admissions departments and increased their cost of identifying candidates (qualified or unqualified), and faculty are faced with teaching a student body that is oftentimes ill prepared for the rigors of a career in food. On the bright side, the restaurant industry in America is strong and growing and demand for qualified graduates remains high.

How do we sift through these challenges, face them head on, differentiate between cause and effect and prepare programs and students for a successful future? This is the most important task that faces program deans and directors. Too often we find ourselves dealing with the operational challenge of today and losing sight of the issues that will keep our programs viable and our students employable.

Courtesy of The Culinary Institute of America’s ciaprochef.com

Finally, Americans are getting the message: Some dietary fats are good for you and some fats should get the boot. Clearly, choosing fats wisely is the first step toward a more healthful diet, which is why canola oil is now in the limelight. No culinary oil has more nutritional merit ... or more potential to improve the quality of the American diet.

In this online educational segment produced in conjunction with www.canolainfo.org, your students can learn why canola has so much to offer the health-conscious chef and how to use it to replace less desirable fats in the professional kitchen. Recipes developed by the chefs at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone demonstrate canola oil’s many talents. And in several streaming videos, students can watch the chefs prepare these recipes and perhaps pick up some new cooking techniques.

Modules include “Canola Oil: For a Healthier Kitchen,” “Canola From Farm to Table,” “Canola Oil: Why It’s the Healthy Choice,” “Canola Oil Takes the Heat,” “Recipes and Videos” and resources for more information.

To access the segment online, visit www.ciaprochef.com/canola/index.html.

$1,000 Grand Prize and $500 Runner-up prize, instructor incentives. Sponsored by the National Honey Board (NHB) in partnership with “The Gold Medal Classroom.”

• Contest period: Sept. 16 - Oct. 29, 2013. Deadline for all entries: Oct. 29, 2013.
• Entries must include one (1) small plate or dessert recipe AND on (1) beverage recipe. Both recipes must include honey.
• Contest entrants must be currently enrolled in a postsecondary culinary school/program in the 50 United States. Please include with entry: Name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, name of culinary school/program and name of referring culinary instructor.
• Entries must include at least one (1) digital photograph of the food and beverage pairing.
• Eligible entries will be evaluated by a panel of NHB judges on prominence and appropriate use of honey, taste, originality, appearance and practicality.
• Contest entries become property of NHB and may be used in marketing/public-relations activities. Entries must be the original work of the entrant, may not have won previous awards, may not have been published previously, and must not infringe third-party intellectual property or other rights.
• Email entries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with Honey Recipe Contest in the subject line.

PRIZES

• One grand prize of $1,000 and one runner-up prize of $500.
• Referring instructor of each winner will receive a $250 prize and one (1) FREE registration to a 2014 CAFÉ conference or workshop.
• Winners will be notified on or around November 15, 2013, via phone and/or email. Winning students may be featured in a press release and/or on NHB social-media sites.

Peter Lehmuller, Ed.D., has been appointed dean of the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University (effective July 1, 2013). He was most recently the dean of Academic Affairs at the university’s Charlotte campus and has relocated to the university’s flagship campus in Providence, R.I.

Lehmuller assumes his new position at a time when culinary-arts education is undergoing a profound assessment by both its peers and critics. The field is increasing in scope, requiring both experiential education and a more extensive college education to succeed. JWU is at the forefront of this turning point as it advances its academic programs to reflect the trends and demands of the industry.

During the past three decades, JWU’s culinary academic programs have evolved from an associate-degree program to include bachelor-of-science degrees in Culinary Nutrition, Culinary Arts and Foodservice Management. Currently, JWU culinary faculty and administration are developing a new curriculum expected to deepen a student’s knowledge required by the foodservice industry, as well as the fields of science and health. The university is also exploring post-graduate programs that will raise the level of a graduate’s value in the workplace.

In his role as dean of the College of Culinary Arts, Lehmuller says, “This is a phenomenal time to be in the hub of culinary academics. I am looking forward to the changing direction that JWU has set to achieve in the near future. We are at a crossroads where the demands of the industry and the betterment of society require graduates to have more complex set of skills and knowledge in order to succeed.”

Entries in the 2013 Discover Duck Recipe Contest prove great tastes come in small packages. Sponsored by Maple Leaf Farms, the annual contest challenged professional chefs and culinary students to produce an original appetizer or small plate recipe showcasing Maple Leaf Farms duck. Nearly 250 entries from across the country were submitted, competing for more than $15,000 in cash prizes.

Duck Doughnuts with an Apple Honey Sauce captured the Chef Category Grand Prize, earning Chef Geoff Kelty of Eddie Merlot’s Steakhouse in Columbus, Ohio, $5,000. Chef Keoni Chang, corporate chef and director of prepared foods for Foodland Supermarket in Honolulu, Hawaii, claimed the second-place prize of $3,000 with his Duck & Lemongrass Skewers with Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce recipe. Duck Liver Crème Brûlée took the $1,500 third prize for Chef Barry Greenberg, executive chef for the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Open Faced Duck Pastrami Sliders Deconstructed and Smoked Duck Arancini with Hazelnuts and Truffles (pictured) each captured $500 for Gary Ullman, commissary chef of Barnies Coffee Kitchen in Orlando and Eric Stein, RD, CCE, former chef-instructor at Kendall College, Chicago, respectively. 

Thomas Recinella, CEC, ACE, AAC, program director for Baker College of Port Huron’s Culinary Institute of Michigan, has been inducted into membership of the prestigious Disciples Escoffier International-USA. 

This premier gastronomic society was founded to honor renowned French chef Auguste Escoffier (1847-1935). Its members are culinary professionals who maintain French haute-cuisine standards, promote relationships between professionals and students, organize culinary events, collaborate closely with schools, and unite all Disciples Escoffier from around the world in the true “Esprit Escoffier.”

“Chef Recinella’s induction into Disciples Escoffier honors his dedication to the culinary arts and his vast contributions to our culinary-arts program,” said Dr. Connie Harrison, Baker College of Port Huron president. “We are proud of his accomplishments and are excited about what his association with this elite gastronomic society will add to our students’ experience while at the Culinary Institute.”

The American Culinary Federation (ACF) is proud to announce that its Certified Executive Pastry Chef® (CEPC®) credential received accreditation through the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) under the Institute of Credentialing Excellence. This is the third ACF certification program accredited by NCCA.

Accreditation by NCCA provides independent validation that the CEPC® program meets or exceeds 21 standards concerning various aspects of the certification program. Accreditation validates the integrity of the program and is a sign of quality. The additional certification programs accredited by NCCA are Certified Executive Chef® (CEC®) and Certified Sous Chef® (CSC®).