The U.S. restaurant industry continues to recover after several economically challenging years. During this time in which many culinary professionals are seeking work or are striving to validate their skills to employers, many find that professional certification is key to maintaining a competitive edge in the industry. Now, professionals who hold the Certified Executive Chef® (CEC®) designation through the American Culinary Federation (ACF) can boast that their certification is accredited by Washington, D.C.-based National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).

The American Culinary Federation’s 2011 Chef Educator of the Year says success and failure through solo and team competitions helps prepare students for the real-life rigors of the workplace.

By Dina Altieri, CEC, CCE

Maybe I have always been competitive. I can remember wanting to hit a home run every time I got up to bat on the tee-ball field. I can remember my first softball coach encouraging me to be the best I could be at 7 years old.

Coaching is something we do every day as chef educators. We push our students to excel in ways they never thought possible. We have conversations with them about mise en place, professional etiquette and, of course, cooking ability. I vote we take it a step further and encourage them to compete in extracurricular competitions to whet their appetites for what lies ahead in the foodservice industry.

Big shifts in U.S. foodways emerging at this year’s conference included “clean” menu descriptions, Korean influences, strategic use of salt and black pepper and “invisibly healthy” indulgence.

Courtesy of Olson Communications

. The sponsors-only event presents the latest research, trends, menu ideas and hands-on flavor experiences that are relevant to more than 100 leading foodservice operators.

The seventh conference, August 1-4 in Newport Beach, Calif., brought flavor front and center for all conference attendees.

Numerous techniques exist to encourage students, convincing them that they can achieve success if they invest time and effort, and that their work has value.

By Bradley J. Ware, Ph.D., and C. Lévesque Ware, Ph.D.

Students are at times already highly motivated when they enter the lab/classroom due to past successes or an interest in the course topic. There are also those individuals who have not experienced the same positive results or who have a preconceived dislike for a course based on a perceived degree of content difficulty. It is precisely in the interest of both these groups that motivation and student engagement should be of primary importance for the chef/instructor from the very first day of lab/class. It is imperative to retain and foster the enthusiasm of highly motivated students and of dire necessity to help motivate others to achieve success.

Most consumers who have enjoyed dining from a food truck say they’re not a passing fad. But many non-users are still hesitant to try one out.

A new study by Chicago-based trend-tracker Technomic reveals good news for mobile food vehicles, as 91% of consumers polled who are familiar with food trucks say they view the trend as having staying power and not a passing fad. Only 7% of consumers who use mobile food vehicles (MFV) say they expect their frequency of visits to food trucks to decrease over the next year.

As you plan your goals and desires for your courses, student activities and department, here are three useful tools to inspire.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

This past summer, we discussed pursuing the ABCs and DEFs of your professional development and I indicated that September’s “Mayo’s Clinic” would be about planning for the fall and the year. It is something that we all do when we write syllabi, create new materials for our students and consider what we want to happen during the term. (In fact, I was just revising my MLA guidelines sheet for undergraduates. If any of you want a copy, just send me a note at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. asking for it, and I will be pleased to send you a copy.)

If we are involved in leading committees or task forces, it is time to refocus the agenda for the year, get the individuals engaged again and invite new members. It is also a time of dreaming about what you want to happen in your courses, your student activities and your department. I hope that the three points—Categories of Goals, Limited Goals and Mottos—in this “Clinic” provide you with some new things to try.

Take a 50-pound bag of carrots and peel and chop 40 pounds of them. What percentage is that? The following 25 questions not only indicate math areas where students might be weak, but also teach basic culinary and management skills.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

At the June, 2011 CAFÉ Leadership Conference in Providence, one of the hot topics during roundtable discussions at the best-practices seminars and social meetings was the problem of students of all levels (high school, vocational and college) not knowing basic math skills. Surprisingly, the most consistent comment was that new culinary students cannot read an analog clock.

I had the honor of leading a roundtable discussion, and one of the questions posed was: “How do you assess culinary math skills?” In my vocational program, I give the students the test below, and then we go over each answer in detail. If most of the students missed a particular problem or problems, I create extra examples using the same type of math skills. It takes more than one class to do this, but I find it is time well spent.

Many foodservice students today have yet to experience fine dining. But it’s just as important to expose them to the several other service styles in the marketplace so they may excel in their careers.

By Wendy Gay, CHE

When I attended The Culinary Institute of America in the early ʼ80s, the restaurant business was divided into four types of dining: quick-service restaurants (QSRs), casual dining (brass & fern bistros), institutional dining and formal dining or “white tablecloth restaurants.” We were required to work in each of these environments. We had the diner for training in QSR and casual dining, instruction on institutional dining and three other restaurants to expose us to formal dining. By rotating through these four environments, we gained experience in each area.

Courtesy of CIAprochef.com

You don't have to get on a plane to taste one of the glories of Brazilian cooking ... or a bubbling cassoulet from Southwest France ... or a Tuscan soup that tastes like somebody’s grandmother made it. Beans can take you there.

Through The Culinary Institute of America’s ProChef e-learning, “The World Bean Kitchen: Passport to Flavor,” presented by the Northarvest Bean Growers Association, debunks some of the myths that surround the cooking of dry beans. Learning segments include “Beyond Bean Basics,” “Bean Nation: The American Experience,” instructional videos and more.

Many free materials are readily at your disposal to teach the “3 Rs” of handling excess prepared food, food scraps and used oil more sustainably.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE

Many of us grew up with that wise adage, but it’s even more true today. In sustainability, when we talk about waste, the focus is usually on recycling and composting—basically, how to divert our waste from the landfill. However, that’s not the most sustainable solution. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have developed a program that advocates use of its “Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy.” We often talk about the “3 Rs”—reduce, reuse or recycle—and this program prioritizes those options.

Reduce. The most sustainable waste option is to not create it in the first place. According to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), Americans routinely toss out 40% of all the food produced each year. And it’s important to keep in mind that along with the wasted food, we also wasted the water, energy and other resources used to produce, harvest and transport it to our kitchens.