Grand Valley State University Executive Chef Paul Mixa said cooking for Olympic athletes in London was the experience of a lifetime.

Mixa, a Chicago native who joined Grand Valley based in Allendale, Mich., in 2004, was part of a team of international chefs selected to prepare dishes for athletes who competed in the Olympics from August through September.

“It really was a great experience,” said Mixa. “I think the most amazing thing about it was that all these different chefs and people who never worked together came together to pull off a huge event. We were feeding 18,000 people a day.”

Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, cofounder of The French Pastry School of Kennedy-King College at City Colleges of Chicago, has been named many things in his exceptional career in pastry: Pastry Chef of the Year at the 2004 World Pastry Forum; Celebrity Pastry Chef of the Year at the 2005 Jean Banchet Awards; and a Kings of Pastry in the 2009 documentary, “Kings of Pastry,” to name a few.

In recognition of his achievements, the Chicago Culinary Museum inducted Pfeiffer into the Chefs Hall of Fame at its Seventh Annual Fundraising Dinner and Awards Presentation. Pfeiffer is the first pastry chef to be inducted into the Chefs Hall of Fame, joining ranks with Charlie Trotter, Rick Bayless, Carrie Nahabedian, Priscila Satkoff, Art Smith, Jimmy Banos and his fellow 2012 inductee, Graham Elliot. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel provided the metaphorical icing on the cake by proclaiming September 20, 2012, to be Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer Day in the City of Chicago, in commemoration of one of the chefs who is turning the town into an international hub for pastry arts.

New England Culinary Institute announced Sept. 10 the hiring of celebrity chef Jean-Louis Gerin as its new campus executive chef.

Fresh off his win as Food Network’s 2012 “Chopped” champion, the appointment of Gerin is a huge coup for New England Culinary Institute, Montpelier and the State of Vermont. He comes to NECI from Greenwich, Conn., where he and his wife, Linda, have enjoyed a successful 28 years with their own Restaurant JEAN-LOUIS. Since opening in 1985, Restaurant JEAN-LOUIS has earned a reputation as perhaps the finest restaurant in Connecticut, and one of the best in the United States. It has been recognized by Wine Spectator for more than 20 years for its excellent wine list and as one of the “most romantic restaurants for wine lovers in the country” for five years running. The restaurant has consistently earned top ratings by Zagat, and has received Zagat’s “Best in Value” accreditation for the past three years.

L'Academie de Cuisine, the original cooking school in the Washington, D.C., recently expanded its reach in partnership with The Hill School on Capitol Hill to hold recreational cooking classes in its new cultural center. The historical building is the Old Naval Hospital, a landmark of the Capitol Hill neighborhood that has been transformed into Hill Center, a vibrant, campus-like hub for cultural enrichment, lifelong learning and civic engagement. Chef and L’Academie founder François Dionot kicked off cooking classes on June 9 with a mouthwatering spring menu.

Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies (NCHS) in Louisville, Ky., honored Chef Paul Virant of Chicago’s Perennial Virant with the prestigious Distinguished Visiting Chef award on Aug. 9. As recipient of the award, Virant presented on-campus cooking demonstrations in addition to a question-and-answer session held exclusively for Sullivan University students. He also signed copies of his book, The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux.

Designed to connect today’s aspiring culinarians with industry leaders, the Distinguished Visiting Chef series has been recognizing three top chefs annually since its inception in 1988. Virant was the 52nd recipient of the award, joining an impressive roster of chefs that includes Bob Kinkead, Emeril Lagasse, Louis Osteen, Rick Tramonto and Marcel Desaulniers.

Virant is the chef and owner of Michelin-star restaurant Vie in Western Springs, Ill., and Perennial Virant in Chicago. His philosophy of local, seasonal eating stems from his childhood spent on his family’s farm in Missouri. He credits his grandmothers, both avid canners, for instilling in him a reverence for local ingredients and serving as the inspiring force behind his becoming a chef.

New England Culinary Institute alumnus Shawn Gawle has been named as a “Best New Pastry Chef 2012” by Food & Wine magazine.

Gawle graduated NECI in 1999 with an AOS degree in Culinary Arts. “For Shawn to have created such an impressive niche in the baking and pastry world with a culinary-arts background demonstrates how imagination, creativity and fearlessness—coupled with knowledge of ‘the basics’—can create unlimited possibilities,” says Fran Voigt, NECI founder and CEO. “Shawn will no doubt have many more culinary successes in what will surely be a long and illustrious career.”

Food & Wine attributed Gawle’s success to his combining “modernist and classic techniques to create thoughtful, elegant, French-inflected desserts that often highlight Asian ingredients, like yuzu and cardamom.”

Formally trained as a savory cook, Gawle has spent years working in some of America’s most highly regarded kitchens with world-renowned chefs from Chicago to Philadelphia and New York City. His mastery of classic French technique has freed him to channel his creativity and push boundaries with his desserts. Gawle has been serving as pastry chef at New York’s first-class restaurant, Corton, since 2010. This most recent award from Food & Wine is the latest of his many accolades.