Mary Petersen, founder and executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education (CAFÉ), has been named Chef Educator of the Year in the 2009-2010 Cordon d’Or - Gold Ribbon Annual International “Cookbooks & Culinary Arts” Culinary Academy Awards.

Noreen Kinney, founder and president of the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Cordon d’Or - Gold Ribbon Culinary Academy Awards—The Accolade of the 21st Century, will honor Petersen and recipients of other award categories at a reception on April 30 at the Don CeSar Resort in St. Pete Beach.

“The Academy was impressed with Mary’s long history of contributions to the culinary-educational field, and felt she definitely deserved recognition on both the national and international culinary stage,” Kinney says. “We are very pleased to present her with a Cordon d’Or - Gold Ribbon Culinary Academy Award.”

Delmar, part of Cengage Learning and a leading provider of learning solutions for ongoing career development and education, announces the March 2010 release of Modern Food Service Purchasing: Business Essentials to Procurement, a resource guide by award-winning author Robert Garlough of The Secchia Institute for Culinary Education at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan.

Modern Food Service Purchasing (ISBN 10: 1418039640; ISBN-13: 978-1-4180-3964-6, $75.00) is designed specifically to provide culinary and purchasing professionals with current, in-depth coverage of the essential concepts of purchasing, store-room operations and financial stewardship. This resource provides practical information from experienced professionals on how to set up and manage a foodservice-storeroom operation and examines the fundamental considerations that must be taken into account when purchasing food, such as cost-control measures and mastering the storeroom; measuring and packaging for preservation, sale and distribution; and security issues with vendors, employees and customers.

For those who have an interest in the art of cocktails or an appreciation for fine wine and beer, Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies (NCHS) now offers an associate-of-science degree in beverage management. Courses for the beverage-management degree are administered online, making the program accessible for students all over the country, and the entire curriculum can be completed in as little as 18 months. The program is directed by Albert Schmid, M.A., CCP, CHE, CFBE, MCFE, CCE, CEC, COI, author of The Hospitality Manager’s Guide to Wines, Beers and Spirits (Prentice Hall) and The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook (University of Kentucky Press)

Fifteen of 26 chefs have qualified to compete in the second of two culinary competitions to determine who will be selected to represent the United States on ACF Culinary Team USA at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg this November and the 2012 International Culinary Art Exhibition (IKA), commonly referred to as the “culinary Olympics,” in Erfurt, Germany.

Starting in Fall 2010, sophomore Baking & Pastry Arts majors at Johnson & Wales University will have the opportunity to fulfill their internship requirement in an intensive baking and pastry-arts program offered by France’s leading pastry-arts school, L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie (ENSP).

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) has released a new resource to help navigate the waters of sustainability titled "Alaska Seafood Sustainability In Plain English."

With the seafood sustainability trend sweeping the world, it’s important for foodservice operators to provide consumers with transparent information about the seafood they source.

As consumers have been inundated with eco-labels and color-coded ‘eat-this-not-that’ seafood sustainability messages, ‘Sustainability In Plain English’ offers a holistic perspective looking at what really constitutes sustainable seafood in Alaska.