Maple Leaf Farms challenges professional chefs and culinary students to think outside the box when it comes to duck preparation. And to spark their creative juices, Maple Leaf is offering more than $19,000 in prize money in the 2015 Discover Duck Recipe Contest.

This year’s focus is “Duck Redefined,” which encourages participants to create a dish featuring duck as the main ingredient in a non-traditional way. “Our contest encourages chefs to think outside the box beyond just roasted whole duck or a sautéed duck breast,” said Maple Leaf Farms’ director of duck marketing, Cindy Turk. “Duck is such a versatile protein, the possibilities are endless.”

The Culinary Institute of America has appointed Rose S. Wang as the college’s vice president of strategy. Wang joined the college on Feb. 3, 2015, after serving as the chief financial officer of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Center to Advance Palliative Care in New York City since 2013.

Before taking her position at Mount Sinai, she was managing director of Carat Companies, a Princeton, N.J.-based consulting firm to nonprofit organizations, and division CFO of beverages for the Campbell Soup Company in Camden, N.J. Prior to that she held several financial and strategic planning positions with Avon Products, Inc., and Citibank N.A., including executive director of business planning, director of international finance and operations, and director of finance and corporate development.

The National Honey Board (NHB) has introduced a colorful, eye-catching, new, information-rich resource, A Guide to Honey Beverages. Serving as a complement to the Sweet Stirrings cocktail guide (2012), the honey beverage handbook features nearly 40 spiral-bound, laminated pages replete with honey tips, tricks and on-trend recipes to help operators enhance their non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage menus and programs.

The new honey beverage guide includes the following highlighted, tabbed sections:

With the addition of Master of Wine Adam Lapierre (pictured) to the team and three brand new programs to the schedule, San Francisco Wine School now boasts top-level educators from, and coursework for, all four major wine credentialing bodies. The school’s elite group now comprises three Master Sommeliers (Court of Master Sommeliers), three with Diplomas in Wine & Spirits (Wine & Spirits Education Trust), three Certified Wine Educators (Society of Wine Educators) and one Master of Wine (Institute of Masters of Wine). This guarantees that, no matter which educational path wine students choose, they will be fully supported by San Francisco Wine School.

Naturally, educators must stress to their students the critical importance of proper knife skills. But, says this chef-consultant, the reality in the workplace doesn’t always match what we teach. (Don’t miss the YouTube video link.)

By John Reed, CEC, CCA

After addressing a group of culinary students at an ACF state competition, I sat back and thought about my words and the content.

In the skills portion of the competition, one of the four disciplines is “Knife Skills.” It requires a competitor chosen randomly from each team to perform this culinary skill. The competitors must dice an onion, cut julienne and chop some tomatoes, among other things. As judges, we critique the competitors on the accuracy of the cuts and compare them to a known standard.

One of the standards is a molded plastic form with the exact dimensions of the named cuts that are mounted to a board. I describe it as the original “3D APP.” You can look something up and then stick it back in your pocket. If you have ever been to culinary school or attended these competitions, you may have seen this guide or are at least familiar with the names of knife cuts that are common in a professional kitchen. In some cases, students spend hours fine-tuning their skills, such as lining up their little sticks of carrots in a row like little Napoleonic soldiers. A sight to see!

Emily Williams Knight—the newest of three educators on the NRAEF’s board—is committed to helping more Americans achieve meaningful, fulfilling careers in the restaurant industry via a respected national industry platform.

Emily Williams Knight, president of Kendall College, Chicago, is among the newest members elected to the Board of Trustees of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), the philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association (NRA).  Knight was welcomed to the board at the NRAEF’s annual meeting on Jan. 30 in Orlando, Fla. She will serve a two-year term with the possibility of serving two additional two-year terms. Knight is the first representative of Kendall College to serve the NRAEF in this capacity in the foundation’s 28 years.

As a new trustee of the 35-member board, Knight represents not only Kendall College’s Schools of Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management and Business to the NRAEF, but also the farther-reaching role of higher education in supporting the NRAEF’s strategic initiatives. These include creating educational programs that provide pathways to employment in the restaurant and foodservice industry and supporting an effective communications program that conveys opportunities for advancement in the industry, as well as the impact of community engagement.

Familiarity with cooking and incorporating lentils into various menu applications can help your students meet nutrition regulations, budgets and consumer demands when they become foodservice professionals.

Foodservice educators not only need to prepare their students to meet expanding nutrition regulations in schools and healthcare settings, but to simultaneously cater to increasing consumer preferences for healthy, affordable and sustainable ingredients that—above all—still taste good. Allow us to introduce a dark horse in helping foodservice educators rise to meet this challenge: lentils.

Top 10 Facts Your Students Need to Know About Lentils

1. Lentils are nutritional powerhouses. They are cholesterol-free and sodium-free, and loaded with potassium, folate, iron and fiber. One serving of lentils boasts nearly half as much protein as a serving of pork, and two times as much proteinas a serving of quinoa.
2. Lentils naturally cater to a variety of specialty diets, including gluten-free, vegetarian and allergen-friendly. Lentil flour can even be used as a wheat-flour alternative to make gluten-free baked goods (like the cookies pictured).

Two decades ago, dining out was primarily a special occasion. Today, it’s part of daily life for all Americans. But what differentiates the prepared-food-away-from-home choices of a “foodservice hobbyist” and an “affluent socializer”? Technomic offers an in-depth view of the current consumer foodservice landscape.

Technomic’s New Consum4Sight Group gathered data points from 81,870 consumer foodservice occasions over one full year to reveal a look ahead at the 2015 landscape. One surprising pattern: More than half of eating-out occasions are unplanned or decided on impulse. At 53% of all dining occasions, the frequency of “eating on the fly” accounts for more than twice as many routine occasions (25%); special occasions account for just 22% of dining occasions.

Although they represent nearly a quarter of all restaurant visits among Americans, Millennials’ visits and dollars spent are down considerably from several years ago. Why? Chiefly, they find it’s cheaper and healthier (and enjoyable) to cook at home. So, what can operators do to earn greater patronage from this highly desired demographic?

Millennials are the chosen generation for many marketers because of their sheer number and perceived buying power, but they are not a homogenous group. Depending on their age and lifestyles, they use restaurants differently, according to a recently released report by The NPD Group, a leading global information company.

For U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets, Millennials as a group currently represent about 14.5 billion visits and $96 billion in spending, which is 23% of total restaurant spend. But the group has cut back in both visits and spending, finds the NPD report.

Many students are not used to conducing structured observations and might not know what to look for and how often to record behaviors. The more explicit you are about how they should conduct the observation, the more likely it will be an effective learning experience.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed the art of using interviews as an out-of-class activity, and this month we will examine using structured observations as an outside-the-classroom activity, as well.

Good chef-instructors provide carefully developed demonstrations of everything from culinary fundamentals to complex technical skills. While these in-class activities are valuable—even essential—to a good culinary education, there are a range of ways to learn from observation.

Reasons for Using Observations
Encouraging students to learn from watching demonstrations and observing professionals has been part of the hospitality industry for decades, if not centuries. In the culinary arts, students learn a great deal from observing chefs in action and noticing the way in which they practice their particular skills. There is also magic in demonstrations set up on the spot to teach something that students clearly have not learned and need to review. However, demonstrations outside of class have value, too.