Braised lamb is economical and efficient. A successful lamb braise intermingles the flavors of foods being cooked, the aromatics employed and the cooking liquid—performing a magical transformation of lamb while adding body to the braising-liquid-turned-sexy-sauce.

By Robert N. Corey, BA, AOS, CEC, EWS

Braising is for meat lovers. I have a passion for braised lamb shanks, an infatuation for sous-vide lamb necks, a serious affair going on with braised stuffed lamb breast and, from my very first taste of lamb, I have leg-of-lamb ecstasy.

While lamb is often considered an expensive meat for classroom use, braising allows me to focus on economical cuts of lamb. Thanks to the braise, I can find plenty of economical cuts for the long-simmered, wait-until-you-taste-this, top-of-a-heap goodness. My students will learn that dinner can be less expensive, and in all cases much more flavorful, when American Lamb meets a cook who can braise. This article will discuss the critical points of braising as related to utilizing, and enjoying economical cuts of American Lamb.

A new foodservice study shows that among all pork categories, bacon consumption grew the most per pound between 2011 and 2013, while carnitas meat grew fastest by percentage.

With a growth rate outpacing all other proteins in the foodservice industry, pork is hot. According to Technomic, Inc.’s 2013 Volumetric Assessment of Pork in Foodservice, pork is sustaining its popularity, having become the foodservice industry’s fastest-growing protein in each of the past two years.

This most recent study noted that total pork sold through foodservice outlets reached a record-breaking 9.25 billion pounds, reflecting a volume increase of 462 million pounds over 2011 when the survey was last undertaken. The 2.6% increase outpaced the total protein growth average of 0.8% and the 1.5% total growth of the foodservice industry itself.

“We are pleased to see such positive growth in foodservice, especially carnitas meat, shoulder/butt and pulled pork,” says Stephen Gerike, director of foodservice marketing for the Pork Checkoff. “The volumetric study shows that operators are leveraging pork’s versatility.”

Since 2011, fresh pork has driven growth of the total pork category, increasing by 3.5% on an annual basis. Sales of processed pork also grew 2.3%, largely driven by sales of ham, breakfast sausage and bacon. Sales of these traditional breakfast meats represent 56% of the carcass-weigh equivalent. Other study highlights include:

Alex Stupak returns to his alma mater to deliver a commencement address, citing Grant Achatz and Ken Oringer as role models.

Alex Stupak, one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs for 2013, delivered the keynote address at commencement ceremonies at The Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park, N.Y., campus on Sept. 6. Stupak is the executive chef and owner of Empellón Taqueria and Empellón Cocina in New York City.

The 2000 graduate of the CIA first made a name for himself as a pastry chef before returning to the savory side of cooking three years ago with his Mexican concepts. He was named Best Pastry Chef by Boston magazine in 2003 and one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design in 2008 and by Dessert Professional in 2009.

The value of a three-legged conversation is that you can make some statements or ask questions that prompt students to think about the topic they are raising, and you do not have to completely answer the question in one meeting.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed ways to begin a semester by making our students feel special; this month and for the rest of the fall, we will talk about ways to help them learn to take charge of their education and their lives. This month will focus on the strategy of the three legged conference.

Students Taking Charge of Themselves
One of the important goals of any teaching situation is promoting creative and critical thinking. However, we often apply it only to the subject matters that we formally teach and not very often to helping students become better industry professionals and better persons for several reasons: There is not enough time in class, these subjects are not part of the curriculum, and most of us never learned how to teach about professional and personal development.

When you stop to think about it, helping our students to build their decision-making skills is a great goal, and one that many of us in culinary and hospitality education have adopted, even if only on the edges of our teaching. After all, helping our students to become better professionals is an important part of our commitment to them and a unique aspect of culinary and hospitality education; other fields do not care so much about that aspect of their students’ lives. If you want to commit to this goal, there are several strategies; the easiest is using the three-legged conference to promote their thinking about themselves.

Continuing the theme of helping students work together successfully to better prepare them for real-life employment, Chef Weiner suggests strategic ways to group team members who don’t necessarily see eye to eye.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Last month’s article was based upon a seminar given by Paul Sorgule at this past summer’s Leadership Conference about how students interact, fight and then grow together to become a team.

The two key points of that article were: 1) whether or not students like working in teams, they need to learn how to work in teams to work in the culinary field, and 2) whether they like someone on their team is not relevant, as they still have to work together well.

How teams are chosen will, in large part, contribute to teaching students how to work in a team format. Here are some of the ways to pick teams: