When are all salts created equal, and when do they have distinct culinary uses? Here’s a primer on teaching the qualities and characteristics of the world’s most common seasoning.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

I was recently asked to give a presentation at the San Francisco Exploratorium (a hands-on science museum) about salt. During three hours, I had more than 400 people stop at my display and taste salt, discuss different types of salt and question the difference between cooking with salt and finishing food with salt.

The next day, I was reading the March 2012 National Culinary Review, and on page nine it listed 12 food trends for 2012. Number 10 was: “Salt: premium finishing varieties and artisanal presentation.” Something was telling me to write about teaching SALT. 

The Culinary Institute of America now serves only Fair Trade coffee at its Hyde Park campus. Why?

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is now serving only Fair Trade coffee to students and staff at the Hyde Park, N.Y., campus. For years, the not-for-profit CIA has served Fair Trade-sourced coffee at the five restaurants on campus. Now a custom Fair Trade organic "Chef's Blend" coffee is being used in all the student and staff dining facilities, as well.

Fair Trade @ The CIA, a new student club on campus, raised awareness of the issue among fellow students, faculty and staff over the past few years. Through those students' efforts, the college's food-purchasing department sought out purveyors who could provide Fair Trade coffee in the quantities required on a college campus.

Tulane University School of Medicine and Johnson & Wales University recently announced a groundbreaking long-term collaboration that unites doctors and chefs in improving the nation’s health through the teaching of culinary medicine.

For the first time, a medical school and a major culinary institution plan to implement a fully integrated, comprehensive joint curriculum for doctors, medical students, chefs and the community focused on the significant health role that food choices and nutrition play in preventing and managing obesity and associated diseases in America.

Olson Communications, a full-service agency that specializes in delivering innovative marketing-communication strategy to its portfolio of select food-industry clients, announces the winning recipients of its fifth-annual Chefs of Tomorrow™ grant program for culinary educators.

Austin Yancey, a chef-instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts-Chicago, was selected among postsecondary culinary educators who teach in the City of Chicago to receive a $1,500 grant from Olson Communications’ Chefs of Tomorrow initiative based on juried review of his application and essay. Yancey used the grant to attend the American Culinary Federation’s recent Central Regional Conference in Detroit, at which he competed in two cook-offs against peers and also delivered a cooking demonstration and workshop for chefs and culinary students focusing on current menu trends featuring Idaho-grown potatoes.

The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, the operator of the Springs Cafe at the Springs Preserve, hosted the First Grade Food Critics, a movement to promote nutrition education, career awareness and academic development among children in at-risk schools, to taste-test two new menu items for the 2012 Summer Food Service Program.

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a federally funded program administered by Nevada’s Department of Education providing free nutritious meals to children in low-income areas Monday through Friday during the summer. The Academy, the largest SFSP sponsor in Nevada, provides meals to community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, housing developments, and churches in North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson. Last summer the academy prepared 2,300 meals a day (125,000 total meals) and delivered them to 33 sites. The academy has received two Western Region Sunshine Awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: in 2008 for Improving the Nutrition Quality and Appeal of Meals and in 2010 for Increasing Participation and Community Partnerships.

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City announces a co-venture with Russian-based Dve Palochki restaurant group to open a series of culinary schools under the name SWISSAM Hospitality Business School. The first school is scheduled to open in St. Petersburg in September 2012 and a second location in Moscow during 2013. The third partner in the SWISSAM venture is IMI, a hospitality college based in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Dve Palochki, which operates more than 35 pan-Asian eateries in Russia, believes that the culinary- and hospitality-education market is underdeveloped in its country. The SWISSAM schools are designed to address that need through training students using curriculum from ICE for careers anywhere in the world, from hotels and resorts to high-end restaurants, caterers and cruise ships.

Culinary Institute of America (CIA) students Aubrey King and Jose Frayre are the two most recent recipients of The Jones Dairy Farm Scholarship Fund at the CIA, said Philip Jones, sixth-generation president of Jones Dairy Farm and a professionally trained chef.

Established in May 2006, the Jones Dairy Farm Scholarship Fund supports three scholarships each year. CIA juniors and seniors pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Culinary Arts Management can apply for the scholarship by submitting a short essay and original recipe using a Jones’ product. Awards are restricted to students with a demonstrated financial need and G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher. More information about the program is found at www.jonesdairyfarm.com

Chef Johnny Hernandez inspires foodservice educators at the 2012 CAFÉ Leadership Conference in San Antonio.

By Brent T. Frei

“Teachers and educators are some of my favorite people in the world,” said Johnny Hernandez as he began his keynote and shared his career story at the 2012 CAFÉ Leadership Conference at The Culinary Institute of America-San Antonio on June 23. “It’s our responsibility to teach.”

A successful chef, restaurateur and caterer, Hernandez told the story of his love and passion for food that began at age 5 in his father’s restaurant and at home in San Antonio’s westside neighborhood. At 9, he sold tacos from the restaurant to fellow students at school. Later, his home-economics teacher in high school accompanied Hernandez to the Marriott to ask for a cooking job.

Based on Mintel research, as age increases, so does the likelihood that adults are maintaining a mostly healthy diet.

Healthy eating has come to the forefront of many minds over the past several years with help from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program and TV shows like “The Biggest Loser,” not to mention the extensive media coverage regarding the country’s growing obesity problem. Indeed, this increased interest in healthy eating is highlighted by new research from Chicago-based Mintel that reveals that just over two-thirds (67%) of Americans choose healthier foods to stay well.

Measuring digestibility, researchers find almonds provide 20% fewer calories than labels state. The results might have implications for other foods, as well.

A study conducted by scientists from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and released in the August issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) provides a new understanding of almonds’ calorie count, showing that whole almonds provide about 20% fewer calories than originally thought.

At first glance, the study results beg the question: How can a food’s calorie count suddenly change when the composition of the food itself hasn’t?

The answer is that David Baer, PhD, and his team from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) used a new method of measuring the calories in almonds, which built on traditional methods and allowed the researchers to determine the number of calories actually digested and absorbed from almonds. Resulting data showed a 1 ounce serving of almonds (about 23 almonds) has 129 calories versus the 160 calories currently listed on the Nutrition Facts Panel. The results might have implications for certain other foods, as well.