The National Restaurant Association has issued “Bright Ideas,” its first-ever sustainability newsletter, which offers tips and tools to restaurant and foodservice operators on eco-friendly practices that save money, resources and help protect the environment.

The newsletter, produced by Conserve, the NRA’s sustainability initiative, features a variety of videos, best practices, case studies and personal accounts of chain and independent operators who have achieved success by practicing sustainability at their businesses.

Beef experienced significant volume growth in the past year and continues to be a mainstay on the menu, according to the 2013 Usage and Volumetric Assessment of Beef in Foodservice report, proprietary research from the Beef Checkoff Program.

The annual survey of protein purchasing executives showed that beef remains the No. 1 protein in foodservice—in volume, market share and the dollars it brings to operations. Specific findings include:

•  In the last year, the pounds of beef sold in foodservice increased by 79 million pounds to a total volume of 8 billion pounds.

•  Beef represents about one-third (32%) of the total protein market share in foodservice.

•  97% of restaurant operators feature beef on the menu.

August is National Sandwich Month, and a new series of recipes from the National Onion Association features signature sandwiches with onions. Onions are the most frequently listed vegetables on menus, and one of the most popular uses is on sandwiches.

From an Onion Bleu Cheese Spread on a Chicken Cobb Club Sandwich to Pickled Ginger Onion Relish on a Wasabi Tuna Bun, this booklet includes recipes for classics as well as globally inspired sandwiches.

To receive your free booklet, visit www.onions-usa.org/foodservice.

After nearly 12 years with Sullivan University, Chef David Dodd has been named executive director of the National Center for Hospitality Studies (NCHS) at the Louisville-based culinary school. Previously director of NCHS, Dodd will now oversee all food and beverage operations at both Louisville and Lexington campuses as well as all aspects of NCHS including The Bakery at Sullivan University retail and wholesale operations, Juleps Catering and Winston’s Restaurant.

“I’m delighted for this new opportunity and challenge,” says Dodd. “Having spent more than a decade working with students at NCHS, I look forward to enhancing their experience and getting more involved with the business side of the program with The Bakery, Juleps and Winston’s.”

Prior to joining NCHS in 2002 as the chair of the weekend and evening program, Dodd worked as the corporate chef for Gourmet Kitchens, Inc., overseeing quality standards, menu writing and recipe compilations for the company’s five Chicago divisions. He spent eight years as the manager and technical advisor for Unilever’s Van den Bergh Foods Company and has consulted for numerous outlets including Starbucks, Lipton Tea and Papa John’s Pizza.

Dodd received his Master Chef and Master Pastry Chef Diplomas from the City and Guilds of London Institute. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded Dodd membership in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his laudatory services to the culinary profession. He served more than 20 years in the British Army with eight of those assigned as Special Commitment Chef to the Royal Household, which included designing and creating Princess Anne’s wedding cake and her children’s christening cakes, as well as other assignments at Windsor Castle.

It was a familiar sight at the recent 2014 National ProStart Invitational Awards Dinner in Austin as the teams from two Texas high schools waited to hear the results after demonstrating their mastery of restaurant-leadership skills in a fast-paced culinary and restaurant-management competition.

For the second year in a row, the culinary team from The Academy of Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management at Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, Texas, and the management team from Rockwall High School in Rockwall, Texas, won their competitions at the Texas ProStart Invitational and represented the Lone Star State at nationals, where ProStart champions from 46 states, territories and Department of Defense bases competed for their share of a total of $3.75 million in scholarships.

The Rockwall team (pictured) repeated its state success and took first place in the management competition at the 2014 National ProStart Invitational!

Every dish we cook, every meal we eat represents the convergence of head, heart and hands. reThink Food: Mind, Behavior, and Culture, is a new conference series co-presented by The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the MIT Media Lab to explore how we experience food—from the workings of our sensory systems, to the impact of new technologies on our food systems, to the habits and rituals that bind us.

In its first year, reThink Food will bring an audience of 300 from the science, marketing, technology, food and media industries to the CIA’s Napa Valley campus, November 7-9, 2014. The three-day program will include research presentations, panel discussions, tastings, culinary demonstrations and a variety of sensory experiences led by world-class experts who include behavioral economists Dan Ariely (Duke University) and Michael Norton (Harvard University), scientists Stuart Firestein (Columbia University) and Howard Shapiro (Mars, Inc.), chefs Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood), Daniel Patterson (The Daniel Patterson Restaurant Group), and Maxime Bilet (Art for Food), Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Moss (The New York Times), inventor and author Nathan Myhrvold (Intellectual Ventures), along with CIA President Tim Ryan, CMC, and MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito.