If students can think of networking as a process of giving, not taking, it can be less overwhelming for them and often interesting and even positive.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

At this time of year, students who are looking for summer jobs or permanent jobs at graduation are probably involved in networking, a great way to meet people, expand connections, find jobs and increase professional connections. However, some students are scared to network, some don’t understand it, and some have no experience, while others are excellent at it. This column might provide some advice for the first three groups and a reminder to the fourth group. As a faculty member, you are probably good at it; maybe this column will help suggest some new ideas.

March is National Nutrition Month. And as the general rules of nutrition keep changing, students are mentally tuning out. Here, Chef Weiner explains how to emphasize the first four of 10 unchanging basic facts.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Culinary teachers at all levels tend to be uncomfortable teaching nutrition because:

• we are expected to be experts in the field, but have spent very little time being trained about nutrition,

• when we started cooking, “healthy food” was basically food that people wouldn’t want to cook or eat, our students have heard so much about nutrition and obesity they mentally turn off when we start talking about “healthy,” and
• most importantly, THE RULES KEEP CHANGING. Just when I figured out how to use a “pyramid” they switched me to a “plate.”

The Pork Checkoff honors 2011 Pork Industry Environmental Stewards

The National Pork Board honored four farm families as recipients of the 2011 Pork Industry Environmental Stewards Award at the annual National Pork Industry Forum recently held in Denver. The award, now in its 18th year, recognizes producers who demonstrate a firm commitment to safeguarding the environment and their local communities.

The 2011 award recipients are:

Golden Circle Pork, Woodward, Iowa
Rod and Missy Bice produce 6,600 wean-to-finish pigs annually on their farm set amid 1,400 acres of corn and soybeans. They and their children continue the farming tradition that began more than a century ago by both sides of the family. The Bices were also named Environmental Stewards for Iowa in 2010.

An e-learning module focusing on the importance of soy sauce as a flavor-enhancer not limited to Asian-style dishes.

Courtesy of CIAprochef.com

These days, big flavor is big news. From Asian to Latin to Mediterranean cuisine, Americans crave intense, authentic flavors. And chefs are looking for new ways—and rediscovering old ways—to enhance flavors and bring depth to their dishes by adding umami, the “fifth taste.”

Naturally brewed Kikkoman Soy Sauce—one of the most umami-enriched ingredients—is a pantry staple and a fixture on Asian tables, and a condiment most of us know as well as salt and pepper. In fact, it’s so familiar today that it hardly seems foreign.

But how much do your students really know about this ancient Asian sauce?

A student club at The Culinary Institute of America serves to enlighten and call to action on global social issues.

By Fareez Dossani

What an exciting time to be a part of the hospitality industry! Chefs are revolutionizing the way the entire world is eating. Never have we, as a society, been so conscious of our food. It’s great that Americans are beginning to question where there food is coming from, but we must become more well-informed and ask if the food we purchase is fairly traded.

The local food movement has made great strides in reducing carbon footprints and teaching civil society to take advantage of the resources available at our fingertips. But we thrive on those commodity products that cannot grow on American soil, such as coffee and chocolate. This is where the notion of fair trade comes into play. Generally speaking, the global population is unaware of the labor-intensive process that takes place in order to produce that sweet cup of morning joe, which fuels our groggy mornings and those midday slumps.