Courtesy of Dow AgroSciences LLC

A Guide to Choosing What’s Right for Your Kitchen

Educators today often lack three key ingredients to a successful program: time, energy and resources. Each school year and curriculum offers a host of opportunities to discuss a variety of topics, but educators are charged with presenting students with the most important, useful and applicable information in a short period of time.

Today, some foodservice and food-processing companies are recognizing these needs and are investing their time, energy and resources to supporting culinary educators with the tools needed to provide their students with current and applicable information as they enter the workforce. One such company, Dow AgroSciences, saw a need for these tools and decided to help culinary educators provide their students with information and expertise from Dow AgroSciences’ Omega-9 Oils team.

By Adam Weiner

Says Chef Weiner, using firm-cooked sausage to teach the technique of braising can be accomplished within a short class time and brings the concept home to students.

When you think of braising you think of comfort food. From the wafting of the aroma as it cooks and as the plates are carried to the table to its savory down-home “stick to your ribs” flavor, braising has long been popular with families and customers. Pot roast is perhaps the most famous of all braised dishes. For years, osso buco and coq au vin were the most famous restaurant version of braising. Nowadays short ribs seem to have taken their place.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE

Defining “sustainable food” is not a black-and-white issue like water and energy conservation or waste-stream reduction. The decisions are value judgments that are unique to each individual.

What is sustainably farmed food? Is it organic? Is it biodynamic? Is it local? Dr. Fred Kirschenmann, sustainable-agriculture pioneer and distinguished fellow with The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, says the answer to those questions is, “Sometimes, but not necessarily.” Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with him about this subject and came away with a new understanding of the complexities.

Organic
Kirschenmann served on the USDA National Organics Standards Board, which developed the rules for implementing the National Organic Program. According to those standards, organic means that producers can use any natural inputs as long as they aren’t on the “prohibited list” (e.g., elemental sulfur or copper as a plant or soil micronutrient). The only synthetic inputs allowed are those on the “allowed list” (e.g., certain chlorine materials related to food-safety concerns).

By Lynn Schwartz

As we enter new positions, many of us (including graduates just starting out) will want to hurry to implement our passions and agendas for change. Dr. Linda Schaumann Reese explained at CAFÉ’s recent Leadership Conference why this common approach is NOT a recipe for success.

Businesses spend millions of dollars investing in new leaders, but research shows that many of these enthusiastic, qualified leaders will fail. With the hospitality industry expanding and diversifying, higher levels of education and expectations are required. Chefs need to be more than cooks; they need to be strong, effective leaders. What keeps leaders from succeeding and what can you do differently to avoid failure?

Winners of a recipe contest developed by CAFÉ and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board will enhance chef-instructors' cheese knowledge in August to better prepare tomorrow’s chefs to meet diner demand for healthier, flavorful fare.

Following a call-out “To Honor the Healthy Menu” in a joint recipe contest created by CAFÉ and Madison-based Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), winners will participate in an all-expenses-paid “cheese immersion” August 15-18, 2010.