How many digital learning resources can one culinary instructor find and fit into a single lesson plan? It might be easier to ask how many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? (The answer is at the end of the story.)

The answer to the resource question is a lot! Culinary instructors can search, leaf through, watch and read resources from websites, social media posts, textbooks and their associated digital resources in addition to numerous other informational outlets. A plethora of digital culinary resources exist and an instructor can quickly become overloaded with all the options. And then one must verify the source and its appropriateness for a culinary classroom, which can take additional time and energy.

Avoid information overload and lost precious time by looking below at a sample of CAFÉ resources grouped by topics curated for culinary educators. Instructors teaching baking, beverages and global cuisines can discover Gold Medal Classroom stories, CAFÉ Talks Podcasts, and additional information on the topics. The searching and sifting are already done. Teachers looking for updated resources on food waste reduction, the nuances of fiery spices and how seemingly simple pizza can cover a plethora of culinary skillsets, need to look no further than down the page.

CAFÉ is a culinary instructor’s partner in updating lesson plans with quality information, enlightening podcasts and on-point PDFs. These resources facilitate learning acquisition without overloading an instructor with irrelevant information.  

Also included, and not to be missed in the informative list, are articles helping an educator’s continued evolution into becoming a better instructor next year than that person was this year.  

Baking
Bread and flour

• Learning proper measuring techniques helps perfect baking formula accuracy and finesse.
• Understanding the functionality of flour opens so many baking doors – there won’t be anything a baker cannot make.
• Flour, salt, water, yeast by Master Baker/Proprietor Randy George.
• Breaking bread by Artisan Bread Baker Matt Funiciello.

Desserts

• Dessert bar customizations: Small portions of beautifully decorated custom desserts are changing the end-of-the-meal options in high-volume catered events.
• A real showstopper: Dessert sushi so life-like it’s hard to believe it’s not real.
• Dessert – the last impression – The Best Impression by Chef Nathaniel Reid
• A Pastry chef’s last impression by Pastry Educator Susan Notter
• Strudel history swirls like an eddy.

Ingredients

• Frozen raspberries add flavorful pop and brightness to baked items.
• Chocolate differentiation and developing students’ palates.
• Resources related to teaching chocolate.

Beverages

• Food-inspired cocktails blend kitchen and bar ingredients into delicious, sustainable beverages.
• Spiritless spirits are more than just a dream.
• Beverage educators schooled on wine trends: From turmoil to opportunity.
• The art of crafting beverages with flavorful spirits and spiritless ingredients is driving a beverage consumption increase.
• The Wine Experience with Wine Artisan Donald Patz.
• 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall by President of the New York State Craft Brewer’s Association Chris Ericson.

Global Cuisines

• Melding Latin American and Chinese cuisines becomes a labor of love and example of successfully merging seemingly divergent flavors into one concept.
• Global flavor fusion teaching fundamentals.
• The intersection of cartography and cooking: Identifying world flavors by understanding ingredients and regions. 
• Building the “why” behind global cuisine flavor harmony.

Spicy flavors

• Heat and hot are not synonymous.
• Instructors don’t have to be acrobats teaching the sweet/heat flavor balance.
• McCormick For Chefs® releases Flavor Forecast® 23rd Edition: Beyond Heat

Pizza

• A tutorial on all things pizza.
• The life of a Pizzaiolo by Master Pizzaiolo Leah Scurto.
• Classroom exercises help teach students about savory ingredients that add depth and complexity to an application.

Waste Reduction

• Upcycling food waste by creating coproducts.
• Waste not want not: an Earth Day initiative.
• Upcycling pineapples to create an over-the-top effervescent tepache.
• Rethinking waste by CEO Dan Kurzrock.
• James Beard Foundation: Waste Not Curriculum. An online program designed to introduce food waste reduction to culinary educators.

Teaching articles  

• Driving the learning cycle through connection and communication.
• Deciphering learning styles and unlocking education.
• Deciphering learning styles and unlocking education: Part two.
• Better teaching skills: Engaging in the transfer of knowledge.
• Engaging in different actions to enhance student learning. Are you ready for it?
• Nothing in life stays the same, so why should you?
• A cultural lesson in empathy helps tackle the real empathy decline in the American public.
• Review helpful culinary math teaching techniques from a talented math culinary arts instructor.
• Teaching cake decorating during Halloween: Turning a devilishly tricky topic into a tantalizing treat.
• Teaching soup building block basics.
• Teaching the uncommon with common ingredients.

Joke: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
The answer: It depends on how much money you have.