The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation unveils the most comprehensive restaurant-industry workforce study in decades. Among findings were average annual salaries for chefs and cooks and restaurant managers.

Nine out of 10 restaurant employees say they are proud to work in the restaurant industry, while three-quarters believe the industry offers them a strong career path and upward mobility, according to a new workforce study released in August by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF).

As the most extensive research of the restaurant sector workforce in decades, “Who Works in the U.S. Restaurant Industry” details the opinions of nearly 5,100 Americans who currently work or formerly worked in the industry, as well as those who own or operate restaurants.

“This landmark research finds that employees and owners/operators have a decidedly positive perception of our industry and believe extensive career choices and opportunities for advancement are readily available,” said Dawn Sweeney, president and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and NRAEF. “This study offers fresh and compelling insight into why so many Americans choose to chart their careers in the restaurant industry, how they advance and why so many plan to stay until they retire.”

Hosted by Le Cordon Bleu North America and taking place on the West Coast for the first time, successful candidates will join an elite group of only 67 chefs in the United States.

Eleven chefs from across the nation are preparing to take the ultimate culinary test—the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) Certified Master Chef® (CMC) exam. The eight-day exam will be held Oct. 26-Nov. 2 at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Calif.

Among the 11, four are foodservice educators. They are

• Timothy Bucci, CEC, CCE, CHE, culinary-arts instructor, Joliet Junior College, Joliet, Ill.
• Kevin Quinn, CEC, lead chef instructor, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas
• Daryl Shular, CEC, director of education/executive chef, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta, Tucker, Ga.
• Randy Torres, CEC, AAC, chef instructor, Oregon Coast Culinary Institute, Coos Bay, Ore.

As Tater Tots® hit the Big 60, the Idaho Potato Commission celebrates six decades of tot-inspired menu creativity.

When Tater Tots® began arriving in grocery stores in 1954, they quickly caught on as a snack food, a side dish and the foundation for casseroles at dinner tables across America. (Tater Tots are a registered trademark of Ore-Ida, a division of the H.J. Heinz Company).

Across the next 60 years, foodservice operators capitalized on tot popularity, enthusiastically integrating them into menus ranging from quick service to white tablecloth. As these bite-sized potato croquettes officially move into middle age, the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) salutes the tot as both an inspired potato product and a springboard for potato creativity.

This second installment in a four-part series on assessment methods focuses on oral presentations and class participation.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed several assessment methods: attendance, open-book tests and take-home examinations. This month, we will discuss two complicated areas: oral presentations and class participation. Next month, we will examine evaluating food preparation, dining-room service and teamwork, and in December, we will discuss the topic of assessment criteria and rubrics.

Details of Oral Presentations
In many of our classes, we ask students to develop and deliver oral presentations, which are a great strategy to help students learn material and build public-speaking skills. Sometimes, the presentations include PowerPoint or Prezi slides and other times they only include talking and gesturing.

While these assignments make sense as teaching strategies, they can be extra hard for students if we do not provide details about the assignment and the ways in which it will be evaluated. Simply asking students to make a presentation does not give them enough information to do it well. Therefore, tell them what you expect in the format of the presentation: a 10-minute talk with handouts, a presentation with 9x9 presentation (nine slides with nine lines per slide and no paragraphs), or a 15-minute presentation without notes or slides.

Does anything scare new cooks more than gravy? And what to do when faced with a sweet potato AND a yam? Chef Weiner explains how educators can assuage students’ fears of preparing traditional Thanksgiving sides from scratch—and teach it all successfully in 50 minutes.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Hard to believe, the holidays are upon us. For many of your students, they learned from a young age the important lesson that love must go into the food. However, they probably watched their parents “freak out” about Thanksgiving dinner or, worse yet, watched their parents purchase canned and packaged food.

So it is your job how to teach them to make great-tasting, healthy, homemade side dishes. Here are five items that can all be easily made in one class day, or prepped on one day and finished the next.

1. Cranberry Sauce. There is absolutely nothing easier to make than cranberry sauce. Yet, almost everyone resorts to cans. If your student can boil water, he or she can make homemade cranberry sauce in under 15 minutes.

Rinse a 12-ounce package of cranberries. Add 1 cup water and ¾ cup to 1 cup sugar into a heavy pot. (Amount depends on how sweet you like the sauce.) Simmer for about 10 minutes. The longer you simmer, the thicker the sauce. If you want the sauce smooth, just push the mixture through a strainer while it is still hot. Want to kick it up a notch? Add in diced dried apricots, lemon zest or a pinch of cinnamon, or let your mind be creative.