
August 2025 Issue
Gold Medal Classroom:
The official ezine for CAFE | August 2025 issue
FEATURES:
The 2025 Culinary Education Award Recipients:
Postsecondary Educator of the Year Award: Tracy Figueroa winner and Amanda Weber runner up
Secondary Educator of the Year Award: Phil Cropper
Student of the Year Award: Seda Raspotnik, Nicolet College
Entrepreneurship Award: Mary Levinski
Green Award: Russ Zito
Community Outreach Award: Tracy Carter
Technology Award: Elizabeth DeRose
CAFÉ Champion Award: Megan McKenna, National Watermelon Board
Understanding and applying the power of the egg: Teaching the functional (and unexpected)benefits of eggs including mouth feel, viscosity and richness.
Guiding principles to incorporate now: Commit to these guidelines and observe how your program changes the world – one student at a time.
David Edgar, CEC
Operations Supervisor and Executive Chef
Vacaville Unified Schools
Vacaville, Calif.
BREAKING NEWS:
CAFÉ Talks Podcast moderator Paul Sorgule earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ACF national convention.
ADDITIONAL ARTICLES FROM THE GMC ARCHIVES:
Foodservice careers exist beyond restaurateurs, which may surprise your students. Read Chef Profiles: Career Path Insights articles highlighting career areas such as culinary business development, foodservice consulting, manufacturing product development, dietitian, protein specialist and more. Here are just a few foodservice professionals in this surprising collection of careers beyond restaurant owner:
Taylor DeVries
Senior Account Supervisor
Blaze PR (foodservice public relations)
Jim Churches
Senior Executive Corporate Chef
Land O’Lakes (leads culinary sales team focusing on restaurant chains, c-store and commissary operators)
Christopher Tanner
Research Chef
Rubix Foods (responsible for the culinary application of products and creating on-trend concepts)
Anna Rosales
Registered Dietitian
Barilla America (works in nutrition and science communications translating nutrition information to culinary professionals and developing delicious healthy recipes)