Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas was proud to host the inaugural Marukan Cup of Culinary Excellence sponsored by the Marukan Vinegar Company in October. Teams from four Le Cordon Bleu schools participated in the competition, including a student and a chef instructor/coach from each of the Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles schools.

The winning team was Geoffrei Taylor and his coach, Chef Austin Yancey, from the Chicago campus. Geoffrei was awarded $2,250 in scholarship dollars along with the Grand Trophy appropriately named the “Marukan Cup of Culinary Excellence.” Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago will now hold the trophy until the 2013 competition.

Building on its reputation for offering a professional culinary-arts program that is forward looking from the foundations of classical technique, Kendall College officially opened the doors to its new kitchen—the Cuisine Solutions Sous-Vide Training Kitchen—on October 19. The ribbon-cutting ceremony and dedication event was presided over by Kendall College President Emily Williams Knight.

The 1,300-square-foot kitchen showcase the latest in state-of-the-art sous-vide equipment, including Multivac vacuum-sealing machines and PolyScience immersion circulators. Training is delivered by skilled faculty in the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts.

Twenty-eight Monroe culinary students set off October 19 in a downpour headed upstate to Delhi, N.Y., to compete at the Annual ACF Catskills Regional Competition. When they returned to the Monroe campus they had 27 shiny medals to add to their collection, which is now toppling 300!

The top awards in the hot-food competition went to Kencito Vernon, who took home a gold medal and the honors of “Best in Show.” Laura Sanchez, a freshman, also took home a high-scoring gold medal that earned her the title “Most Improved.” Brenda Lara, Sade Aguila, Rossella Cangialosi, Stephanie Cardenas and Yocary Luna also earned gold medals.

The word “potato” conjures up different images for different chefs—and with good reason! There are more than 4,000 potato varieties worldwide with more than 100 varieties sold in the United States. So, it’s no wonder that one of the most frequently asked questions we hear from chefs is: Which potato should I use for best results?

To help you answer that question and get the most out of today’s most popular potatoes, the United States Potato Board is pleased to present our newest tool: The Perfect Potato: A Foodservice Guide to Fresh Potato Types.

Gaylord Industries, commercial kitchen-air-management experts, and Niagara County Community College (NCCC) recently celebrated the opening of the new Niagara Falls Culinary Institute. The state-of-the-art facility, with 25 teaching kitchens and labs, opened in September 2012 with 350 undergraduate students who seek a future in the hospitality and tourism industries.

When designing the new 90,000-square-foot institute, NCCC’s goal was to create culinary environments that were productive and efficient and leveraged cutting-edge equipment. At the top of the “wish list” was finding an opportunity to better facilitate interaction between the chef instructors and students.

“The cornerstone of success for education is communication. With students working and talking and equipment running, we found the noise level of our previous ventilation hoods was a big problem,” said Dr. James P. Klyczek, president of NCCC. “By using Gaylord throughout the new institute, we changed the dynamic of the room with a much quieter system, plus we get the added benefit of energy conservation due to the automatic air modulation.”

Cameron Whitlock had only taken three courses in the Salt Lake Community College culinary-arts program when he volunteered to take part in a public cooking competition. The competition was part of an event at the college’s main campus announcing a $30,000 grant from the The Dannon Company, Inc. Three students from the program were paired with local celebrity chefs to see who could prepare and present the best dish for a college audience.

Of course, the chefs had to use yogurt in each of their dishes.

Sarah Lowe had no experience in cooking competitions of any kind prior to the Dannon event. “I have never competed before; it sounded fun,” she said. “This event was a great way to get some experience competing.”