The Professional Chef continues to change the world of cooking.

The world was changing in 1962. John Glenn became the man to orbit the Earth and return home safely. The Beatles released their first single, “Love Me Do.” And The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) forever changed the culinary world with the publication of The Professional Chef®.

There had never been anything like it before. The Professional Chef was the first book dedicated to advancing the culinary profession. The 323-page text began by explaining that “knowing how to cook is only one part of the background a chef needs.” Chefs also needed to understand personnel, purchasing, nutrition, menu planning and kitchen layout. It was a guide for men—and it was almost exclusively men back then—who wanted to make a career of cooking: “Today’s chef is a business man … His knowledge and ability do not come overnight.”

Much more than a cookbook, its recipes and techniques were accompanied by sections about hygiene and sanitation, kitchen safety, tools and equipment, food cost, recipe conversions and even how to set up a buffet table. Recipes included Baked Hamburger Loaf, Chicken Cacciatore, Lobster Newburgh and molded salads—illustrated by stereotypical food photos of that era.

Moti Mahal Delux, a legendary high-end restaurant chain that is responsible for the invention of tandoori chicken, operates more than 100 locations throughout India, Nepal and London. This year, chef Gaurav Anand, a native of Punjab, India, has opened the restaurant’s first U.S. location, bringing the flavorful cuisine of the Mughal Empire to Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

By Lynn Schwartz

Gaurav Anand is no stranger to Mughlai food nor to Moti Mahal Delux. “I have been eating this food since my childhood,” he says. “There is nothing canned or frozen. It’s fresh, well-balanced and layered with spices.” Mughlai cuisine, known for its artful blending of spices, magical flavors, aromas and textures, dates back to the Imperial Kitchens of the Mughal Empire, when royal chefs composed the rich and exotic cooking style for Mughlai kings.

Good practices of social-media conversation honor five key principles just as they do within teams and in kitchens.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we talked about using social media in our classrooms; this month, we will start a conversation on social-media etiquette for students, something that many of us are concerned about, but not sure how to tackle.

Although some of us have talked to our students about being careful what they post on Facebook because it can make a difference to employers and potential internship and externship sites, some of our students have not heeded that advice. It might help to share with them the 2009 study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, which found that 45% of employers used Google and other social networks to check on the backgrounds of potential hires. And that number is increasing. While we should keep delivering that message, there are many other aspects to social-media etiquette and to communicating clearly and carefully. Given the importance of learning how to use social media thoughtfully, here are a few pointers to share with students.

Easy, free and completely impartial, an assignment board guarantees that everyone shares equally in the assignments over a few days. Say these educators, the system is beautiful in its simplicity.

By Windi Hughes and Chef Adam Weiner

One of the toughest set of problems facing all levels of culinary instructors is how to make sure that no one in a group takes over, no one is always stuck doing the dishes, and no one just sits back and watches everyone do the work. One of the toughest things for a high-school teacher to explain to parents is why their daughter or son comes home every day and says that they did nothing in cooking class.

An easy, free and completely impartial way to handle these problems is to set up an assignment board, which guarantees that everyone shares equally in the assignments over a few days.

Produced for only $0.88 a gallon to operate the college’s vehicles, the savings from converting cooking oil to fuel rather than purchasing regular diesel is huge.

The delicious smell of hot, freshly made doughnuts and French fries is wafting through the air at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, and it has nothing to do with the creations from the college’s culinary students. It’s the smell of cooking oil turned into biodiesel fuel being used in campus vehicles.

The biodiesel fuel is created on campus from used cooking oil gathered from the fryers in the college’s teaching kitchen and Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant. About 50 gallons of cooking oil is transformed into 45 gallons of fuel by putting the oil into the CIA’s biodiesel distiller. This machine removes the fatty acids from the oil and cleans out impurities. The oil is then heated to a high temperature to remove any remaining water in the mixture.