Chefs face conundrum determining seafood’s sustainability and origin: Imported seafood consumption is rising in the U.S. Asking distributors important questions assists chefs sourcing seafood. One sustainably harvested, imported seafood example: Norwegian Seafood

Food safety standards – worth all the effort? A group of MSU Denver students and their adviser traveled on a study abroad trip to Mexico and discovered just how varied food safety standards are around the world.

The culinary arts discipline of the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics provides an opportunity for underserved students to pursue dreams of becoming a professional chef.

COLUMNS:

Mayo’s Clinic: Dr. Fred Mayo discusses evaluating students’ customer service skills by determining precise skills to assess, evaluation approaches, and methods to effectively communicate feedback. An added bonus: an online rubric.

50 Minute Classroom: Teaching cooks about chefs. Provide budding cooks with a reality check about how becoming a chef is more than just cooking well.

Think Tank: Create a compelling brand that adds tangible value by offering students a culinary education that is inspiring, unique, current and future-oriented.

Non-profit Citizens Inn Haven from Hunger and North Shore Community College, Danvers, Mass., partnered to create a program teaching food service skills to low-income adults who are experiencing homelessness. See the story from the Salem News newspaper.

Dr. Beth Forrest elected president of the Association for the Study of Food and Society.

CAFÉ’s Industry Resource Center lists more than 80 commodity boards, associations and growers with links to their foodservice web sites. Educators can find classroom visual aids, downloadable materials, blogs, videos and research. Industries featured include meat, poultry, seafood, produce and dairy just to name a few.

CAFE Teaching Tips
Click here to gain valuable classroom teaching suggestions such as creating a power point Jeopardy-like game to partnering with a French instructor to teach culinary students how to properly pronounce French applications and techniques. Culinary instructors can reciprocate by teaching French students how to make quiches and fondues. Another partnering suggestion is to work with agriculture students to plant herb gardens.

CAFE Industry Resource Center Feature: California Walnuts
Discover videos that explain unexpected ways to use California walnuts as a nutritious meat alternative, dairy and gluten-free cream, and compound butter. The site also features instructions on the selection, care and storage of the nuts for maximum flavor and freshness. Don’t miss the section on surprising flavor pairings with walnuts listing how different sweet, savory and spicy flavors combine with the nuts.