EDITOR'S LETTER

Dear Educators and CAFÉ Partners, 

Traditionally, the December Gold Medal Classroom (GMC) edition has a culminating year-in-review air to it. And, like everything else, the year 2020 has changed even this traditional issue. 

Stop. What is your immediate reaction to the sentence: 2020 has changed everything? Are you smiling at the thought of the changes? Are you cringing at what has transpired? Are you ambivalent? (And, if you are the latter, I’d like to know as I have not interacted with anyone who is so-so about 2020.) Remember your reaction as I will return to it. 

GMC responds to 2020’s unique challenges with three new sections and a plethora of ingredient articles ripe and ready for the culinary classroom.

By Lisa Parrish, GMC Editor

US Personal Chef Association teaches specific business skills to culinarians striking out on their own.

By Lisa Parrish, GMC Editor

Free enrollment in the American Egg Board’s Egg Foundation courses with partner Rouxbe will end Dec. 31, 2020.

Thank you to Dr. Fred Mayo for his more than 10 years as the whit, intelligence and inspiration behind Gold Medal Classroom’s Mayo’s Clinic.

Editor’s Note: Mayo’s Clinic has been a Gold Medal Classroom staple and source of interesting information and thought-provoking teaching strategies for more than 10 years. As his columnist tenure comes to a close, Mary Petersen and I would like to say thank you to Dr. Fred Mayo for your years of service and dedication to the culinary arts education industry. Your contribution to CAFÉ and GMC has been immeasurable and appreciated. Thank you.  

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Learning from experiences in 2020 will help us prepare and plan for the future.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

Students lead holiday cooking lessons based on their own culture or one assigned by the instructor.

By Adam Weiner, JD, CFSE

Florida International University’s John Noble Masi offers Zoom teaching tactics, options for video resources and shares his students’ first-place award in virtual restaurant competition.

By Lisa Parrish, GMC Editor

The Gold Medal Classroom continues to highlight culinary instructors who are achieving success during online culinary instruction. These educational best-practice ideas are designed to help culinary colleagues in their search for what works best in this new and challenging environment. 

Read on to discover the best evaluation criteria for home-cooked lessons, where to find video content and see how instructor John Noble Masi helped steer his student team to a first-place finish in the virtual Redesigning the Restaurant of the Future competition sponsored by Restaurant Finance Week.

Listen to legendary Chef Jeremiah Tower describe the lessons he learned moving from chef to restauranteur to ring master. Also, hear his ideas on the need for an “Einstein moment” in the restaurant industry.

By Lisa Parrish, GMC Editor

The food industry provides limitless opportunities for careerists – opportunities that are incredibly diverse. As you walk through your local grocery outlet or browse through that vendor’s catalog of ingredients at a chef’s disposal – it is enlightening to note that there is a product development person behind each one of those ingredients on the shelf or in the catalog. Each product is the result of tireless ideation, testing, tasting, scaling for production, subjected to a finely tuned marketing strategy, named, packaged, and distributed through numerous channels before it gets to your cart or your back loading dock. Join us for a fascinating discussion with Kirsten Schimoler Sutaria – the creative energy behind Wonderlabs Doozy Pots – a plant based ice cream substitute that is nutritious and delicious. Kirsten talks with us about the creative process, the challenges, and the opportunities for a career in food that blends art, science, and loads of problem solving.