By Renee Zonka, RD, CEC, CHE, MBA

Just when we finally had our mouths wrapped around the fifth taste sense of umami, a newly discovered sixth taste, kokumi, emerges. How will this affect our teaching of flavor development?

After several years, umami has been firmly acknowledged as the fifth flavor profile, joining salt, sweet, sour and bitter. It has been described as the overall sensation of “savory meatiness” and is present in foods high in glutamic acid or the once-forbidden monosodium glutamate (MSG).

By Brian Campbell, CEC, CCE

Restaurants need students who can not only create and reproduce quality independent sauces (cold and hot), but also know how to use them properly.

I have taught several different classes over the years: Classical French, International, Stocks and Sauces, Traditional European, New World (Cuisine of the Americas) and, most recently, Garde Manger. It is in the latter that I have found myself settling for an extended stay. At our school, Garde Manger is a sophomore-level class that, more often than not, follows an externship in the industry that lasts a full term (about 12 weeks). I mention this only to put into perspective the experience level of the students when they enter my class. They have a year of freshman-level skill-based classes and at least some work experience (externship) that ideally placed them in a full rotation in the kitchen where they were able to put these skills into practice.

Courtesy of FoodChannel.com

Pie, sausage, nutmeg and moonshine top the list.

In the food business, everyone’s looking for the “next” this, or the “new” that. Here are the foods and flavors we see making noise in the new year.

1. Small Pies. Pie, of course, has been around forever, but 2011 could be the Year of the Pie. Some are already calling it the “next cupcake.” We say, yes, pies will be hot in the coming year, but look for smaller pies to make it big—in both sweet and savory varieties.

By Lynn Schwartz

David Guas, owner of Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery in Virginia, learned early on to shut up and listen.

David Guas has earned accolades from The Washington Post, The New York Times, Esquire and Food Arts. In 2003, Bon Appétit featured him as one of eight “Dessert Stars” in the country and Oprah Magazine’s May 2010 Tenth Anniversary issue cited Guas as one of the country’s best pastry chefs. Guas appears regularly on the “Today” show and joined RJ Cooper on “Iron Chef America.” His book, DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style (Taunton Press, 2009), was named one of Food & Wine’s “Best New Dessert Cookbooks” of the year, and was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award and an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Award. Despite the high praise, Guas describes himself as an “accidental pastry chef.”

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Using an evaluation form makes a difference in the way students work in small groups, encouraging them to provide feedback to each other.

Last month, we discussed using small groups in classes; this month, we will discuss peer evaluations as a way both to help students learn to work with other students and to assess their own work and the work of others.

Process
When I use small groups on long-term projects, one of the ways that I encourage students to work together more effectively is to require them to think about what contributions their fellow students make to the project work. An essential element of any final report is the submission, in hard copy, of a self evaluation and peer evaluations of each of the students in the small group.