Features

Mar 29, 2024, 13:20

CIA’s Culinary Bible Turns 50

Saturday, 03 November 2012 21:55

food1_nov12The Professional Chef continues to change the world of cooking.

The world was changing in 1962. John Glenn became the man to orbit the Earth and return home safely. The Beatles released their first single, “Love Me Do.” And The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) forever changed the culinary world with the publication of The Professional Chef®.

There had never been anything like it before. The Professional Chef was the first book dedicated to advancing the culinary profession. The 323-page text began by explaining that “knowing how to cook is only one part of the background a chef needs.” Chefs also needed to understand personnel, purchasing, nutrition, menu planning and kitchen layout. It was a guide for men—and it was almost exclusively men back then—who wanted to make a career of cooking: “Today’s chef is a business man … His knowledge and ability do not come overnight.”

Much more than a cookbook, its recipes and techniques were accompanied by sections about hygiene and sanitation, kitchen safety, tools and equipment, food cost, recipe conversions and even how to set up a buffet table. Recipes included Baked Hamburger Loaf, Chicken Cacciatore, Lobster Newburgh and molded salads—illustrated by stereotypical food photos of that era.

How to Teach Culinary Students to Balance the Palate

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 16:12

food3_oct12Demonstrating the importance of adding a little acidity to the final flavor of a dish is especially important when developing low-sodium recipes.

By Carrie Stebbins

In both culinary and dining classes I talk a lot about the balance of a food or beverage on the palate.

It seems like we teach our culinary students to add salt at many stages, but we only encourage them to add acidity on specific occasions. What I like to emphasize is that acidity can brighten a dish without making it taste sour.

A few years back I attended a wine and food pairing seminar given by Jerry Comfort of Beringer Wines. We tasted foods that represented the basic four flavors, plus umami, along with a variety of wines. The results were negative as often as they were positive! Some of the multiple combinations, however, were the best. I decided to try a similar technique with my culinary students at the beginning of a class to show how important adding a little acidity is to the final flavor of a dish. This is especially important for developing low-sodium recipes.

Integrated Course Design and Creating Significant Learning Experiences

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 16:08

Learning goals should be actionable, visible, measurable and developmentally appropriate and should lead to authentic, motivating tasks.

 

By Jean L. Hertzman, Ph.D., CCE

As educators, we are always looking for ways to engage students in our courses so that their effort results in significant and lasting learning, which adds value to them personally and professionally. This is exactly the purpose of using Fink’s (2003) model of Integrated Course Design (ICD) to create Significant Learning Experiences. This article will briefly discuss the principles of ICD and Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning and how to use them to develop learning goals, teaching and learning activities and feedback and assessment methods.

The Return of Butter

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 16:01

food2_oct12Just as Americans’ love affair with beef reignited in the 1990s, butter is coming back in a big way

Although butter has been vilified for decades as a “bad” fat best to be avoided, recent studies reveal that its negative profile was undeserved. That’s good news for anyone who cooks (and eats), because butter relies on a whopping 120+ unique compounds for its silky, incomparable flavor.

“There simply is no substitute for butter in cooking,” says Chef Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC, vice president of the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago and the Laureate Universities International Center for Culinary Excellence. “Not only does the pure, sweet-cream taste of butter complement and enhance the flavor of dishes, but butter provides a smooth and creamy texture that is especially important in sauces.”

Indeed, the days of banishing butter from the back of the house are ending, Koetke says. Because, just as Americans’ love affair with beef reignited in the 1990s, butter is coming BACK—and in a big way.

Collegiate Millennials Shape Culinary Trends of Tomorrow

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 16:00

This group’s need for powerful nutrition, flavorful food, comfort and indulgence, and speed and convenience are driving their food choices.

As incoming college freshmen packed their bags for school this fall, many said goodbye not only to family members, but also to existing eating habits. Thanks to innovative campus foodservice, adventurous global-cuisine restaurants and the influence of new acquaintances, impressionable students are exposed to new foods that quickly turn into favorites. They develop new eating habits and expectations that will stick with them long after graduation, impacting the food industry for decades to come, according to the recently released “Collegiate Gen Y Eating: Culinary Trend Mapping Report” by market research publisher Packaged Facts and San Francisco-based strategic food-and-beverage-innovation agency CCD Innovation.

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