More than 850 Chicagoans looking to warm up their winter blues helped make things hot at the 9th Annual For the Love of Chocolate Gala on Feb. 22.  The event brought the 1920s roaring back to life at the 130-year-old Union League Club of Chicago in the name of raising scholarship funds for students of The French Pastry School of Kennedy-King College at City Colleges of Chicago.

In the lobby alone, newsies hawked headlines, menacing gangsters and their carefree molls lined the marble staircase, a Madame bedecked guests for an old-fashioned photo booth, and a down-on-her-luck moonshiner from Redmoon Theater made bootleg gin in her bathtub.

A sea bass, a chicken and a mousse—that’s the menu that sealed the third straight ProStart state championship for the culinary team from Technology Center of DuPage (TCD) in Addison, Ill. The team competed Feb. 8 at the 13th Annual Illinois ProStart® Student Invitational for high-school culinarians, hosted by the Illinois Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (IRAEF) at Kendall College in Chicago.

The champion culinary team includes: Kristy Fogle, senior (Aurora); Mary Hoare, junior (Wheaton); Courtney O'Neal, senior (Glen Ellyn); and Julio Valeriano, senior (Wood Dale). Jacob Stellmach, another senior from Aurora, is the team alternate. Their first-place state win includes thousands of dollars in scholarship awards. As the state champ, the TCD team has the honor of competing as “Team Illinois” in the culinary competition at the National ProStart® Invitational, May 3-5 in Minneapolis. 

All team members are enrolled in TCD’s Culinary, Pastry Arts & Hospitality Management program as an elective part of their respective high schools. Fogle and Stellmach attend Waubonsie Valley; Hoare, Wheaton North; Valeriano, Fenton H.S.; and O’Neal, Glenbard West. Technology Center of DuPage (www.tcdupage.org) offers 20 advanced career and technical education electives to DuPage-area juniors and seniors through a partnership among 14 high-school districts.

Beef University boosts beef knowledge of educators and students.

Last month, the Beef Checkoff Program unveiled a new web-based platform for its popular training program, Beef University. For nearly a decade, foodservice professionals have relied on checkoff training tools to educate staff on how beef is brought to market, from farm to fork.

Beef University educates on all facets of beef—from production and product quality to marketing and merchandising. Downloadable tools include PowerPoint presentations, fact sheets and videos, all of which can be used for customized training in the classroom. 

Change is challenging, but necessary for growth. When striving to be the instrument of positive change, a successful, simple way to intercept every reason given for resistance is to utter the single word, “Why?”

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

Understanding that students learn differently today, the industry we serve requires evolving skill sets, and the impact of technology provides interesting alternatives to our established methods of delivery places educators in a position to think change.

Change is a concept that draws a good deal of conversation and a multitude of “how to” theories. When I checked in with amazon.com, there were more than 17,000 titles listed regarding the concept of change management. Everyone talks about change, yet the reality is that no one truly embraces the concept.

Below are some delicious small plate recipes featuring almonds as an essential ingredient. Click on a recipe below to watch a video demonstration by a chef from The Culinary Institute of America.

• Andalucían Cold Almond Soup (Ajo Blanco)
• Fromage Blanc with Toasted Almonds, and Popped Aromatic Spices and Fresh Mint Chutney
• Spicy Merguez Sausage Meatballs with Toasted Almonds and Pomegranate Syrup, Served with Almond Tabouleh
• Malaysian Barbecued Almond Chicken
• Pan-Roasted Salmon with Aromatic Green Pipán
• Trio of Dips: Smoked Trout and Almond Dip
• Roasted Honey-Orange Almonds with Aged Cheddar
• Green Bean Salad with Almonds and Goat Cheese
• Chocolate Baklava with Almonds and Figs
• Almond Frangipane Pound Cake with Apricots

Chef Weiner’s dad has chemical-engineering degrees all over his wall, written hundreds of articles and flown around the world to advise companies, yet his cooking was never as good as that of Weiner’s grandmother, who only made it through the second grade.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

“Food is love.”
—Culinary instructor Adam Weiner

“Cooking is a mistake, baking is a science.”
—Elihu Kittell, chef for the County of San Mateo and longtime friend of the author

“Cooking takes advantage of many basic science principles that apply in the kitchen and throughout the universe. Knowing these principles will enable you to perform endless culinary experiments, and to view the world through the eyes of a scientist.”
—Page 7 of The Epicurean Laboratoryby Tina Seelig,1991

In January 2013 I tackled the controversy of whether culinary instructors need to emphasize technique or recipe. Please see my 50-Minute Classroom articles on Reading and Writing Recipes, Braising, Baking, Sauté, Steamingand Grilling.

For the first time, researchers and campus visitors can now schedule appointments to view.

After years behind closed doors, The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) archives and special collections is now available for public viewing. The Archives and Special Collections room is located in the Conrad N. Hilton Library on the CIA’s Hyde Park, N.Y. campus. It houses materials from the college’s history, a collection of more than 30,000 menus from 80-plus countries dating back to 1855, and a rare books collection.

The treasures include a history of the college written by cofounder Frances Roth, handwritten recipes by famous chefs given to Craig Claiborne on his 70th birthday, and a menu signed by legendary late 19th/early 20^th-century chef Auguste Escoffier. These and other items, along with a selection of rare books, were on display at a grand opening held at the library on Jan. 21.

The archives and special collections are available to researchers and campus visitors by appointment. Learn more about the archives at ciachef.libguides.com/archives. To schedule an appointment, contact Nicole Semenchuk at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or 845-451-1270.

Robert Garlough’s goal is for graduates to become a source of intense pride to the Middle-Eastern kingdom’s foodservice and business communities and the college’s programs to be respected worldwide.

Laureate International Universities (LIU) announces longtime hospitality educator Robert Garlough, MS, HGT, has been appointed founding executive director of the new Laureate Tourism & Hospitality College of Excellence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was most recently president of The Culinary Group, a consulting firm to the foodservice and culinary-education community. Prior to that, Garlough served as the founding program director for the Hospitality Education Department (renamed the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education) at Grand Rapids Community College, where he worked for more than 30 years.

Garlough assumes his position during a time of great expansion and investment by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has instituted a multi-billion-dollar plan to build and operate “Colleges of Excellence” for Saudis seeking vocational-technical educations in a variety of skill areas. The KSA is embarking on one of the largest vocational and technical education reforms in the world, increasing its capacity from currently 110,000 students to more than 400,000 students by 2020.

A multi-stage tender process has been launched to select the best training providers for setting up and operating 26 new colleges in the kingdom. These colleges will be independently run by international providers and regulated, funded and overseen by the Colleges of Excellence Corporation on behalf of the Saudi government. New college buildings are provided, built with state-of-the-art designs and providing space for up to 2,000 students.

Yellow, red, white and sweet onions all bear different qualities and thus require different approaches to maximize their exquisite flavor and texture contributions to a dish.

By Robert Danhi

Many dishes begin with cooking an onion, but why? Because no other ingredient adds subtle sweetness and bolsters other flavors at the same time quite like an onion. In fact, the type of onion, the way it’s cut and the way it’s cooked all affect the flavor and texture of a finished dish in dramatically different ways. So, when you set out to create a new dish or you just want to tinker with an old favorite, pay special attention to the onion.

Types of Onion
While leeks and scallions can play a delicious role in cooking, globe onions of all kinds—yellow, red, white, sweet—and shallots are more assertive and versatile in cooking.

Yellow onions are all-purpose. Readily available and inexpensive, I use them more than any other type. They have the strongest flavor of all globe onions, so they are best when cooked. They’re usually my first choice for stocks and broths.

White onions retain their firm texture. They're a bit milder than yellow onions, so they can be eaten raw (in a salsa or on a hamburger), but they're also strong enough to hold up under heat. I especially love how white onions hold their shape and texture when sautéed.

Healthy whole grains are hot all over the menu. But what diner wants to consume a simple bowl of them? Chef Renee Zonka explains how to teach students to look beyond oatmeal at breakfast to showcase whole grains in dish development in a whole new light.

By Renee Zonka, RD, CEC, CHE

March is National Nutrition Month, and everyone’s talking whole grains these days as consumer interest in them soars. Many foodservice establishments, however, are still challenged with making whole grains not only palatable, but craveable.

Here are five flavorful ways you can teach students to incorporate whole-grain goodness into menus and elicit guest delight.

Brown: the New White
Brown rice is one of the most familiar whole grains to diners. Diehard white-rice lovers might rate brown rice as second fiddle, but they like the healthy halo brown rice carries. So here’s a tip for students: Replace part of the white rice in a pilaf or other side dish with brown rice. Doing so not only adds flavor and nutrition (such as fiber and magnesium, which are stripped from white rice during processing) to a dish, but also contrasting color.