December 2020 Issue
Gold Medal Classroom:
The official ezine for CAFE | December 2020 issue
EDITOR'S LETTER:
In 2020 Cs that weren’t average: Covid-19, Change and Culinary Education
Dear Educators and CAFÉ Partners,
Traditionally, the December Gold Medal Classroom (GMC) edition has a culminating year-in-review air to it. And, like everything else, the year 2020 has changed even this traditional issue.
Stop. What is your immediate reaction to the sentence: 2020 has changed everything? Are you smiling at the thought of the changes? Are you cringing at what has transpired? Are you ambivalent? (And, if you are the latter, I’d like to know as I have not interacted with anyone who is so-so about 2020.) Remember your reaction as I will return to it.
GMC began 2020 with the second in a two-issue series on how to create and adapt to change.
FEATURES:
2020 Gold Medal Classroom article index. The complete listing of all GMC stories from features to columns.
Budding culinary business owners encounter a personal chef partner: US Personal Chef Association teaches specific business skills to culinarians striking out on their own.
Time is running out for free ACF continuing education hours in the American Egg Board’s Egg Foundation courses. Free registration ends Dec. 31, 2020.
COLUMNS:
Thank you to Dr. Fred Mayo for his more than 10 years as the whit, intelligence and inspiration behind GMC’s Mayo’s Clinic.
Mayo’s Clinic: Parting thoughts as Mayo’s Clinic publishes the last monthly article.
Think Tank: Putting 2020 to bed by learning from experiences throughout last year that will help us prepare and plan for our future.
50 Minute Classroom: Virtually teaching student-led international holiday food with lessons based on their own culture.
ONLINE CULINARY EDUCATION:
Florida International University’s John Noble Masi offers Zoom teaching tactics, options for video resources and shares his students’ first-place award in virtual restaurant competition.
Culinary online teaching resources with articles in these categories: culinary instructors’ best-practice suggestions; online instruction guidance; lessons, projects and resources; and online education instructor observations. Updated for December 2020.
A TOWERING CAFÉ TALKS PODCAST:
Listen to legendary Chef Jeremiah Tower describe the lessons he learned moving from chef to restauranteur to ring master. Also, hear his ideas on the need for an “Einstein moment” in the restaurant industry on CAFÉ Talks podcasts.
DID YOU KNOW?
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. Featured industries include meat, poultry, seafood, produce and dairy to name a few.
CAFÉ Lesson Plan:
This instructors’ resource helps teach the benefits of US farm-raised seafood. Sustainable seafood is a hot topic for all chefs. Utilize this web site and its lesson plan as a go-to resource when teaching seafood preparation.
CAFE Industry Resource Center Feature:
California Prunes
There’s no better place on earth to grow prunes than the lush valleys of California. And the wonders of prunes include low glycemic index, gut effective, bone protective, a polyphenol powerhouse, always in season and convenient. The California Prune website offers cooking and recipe tips, history and farming information and pairing guides. Additionally, the site lists Chef tips from cooks all over the world and their suggestions for cooking with prunes.