Florida Tomato Committee celebrates 20 years of culinary competition

The 20th annual Florida Tomatoes “Best of the Best” Recipe Contest is underway. Culinary students from the United States and Canada will create dishes featuring red, round, field-grown tomatoes from Florida for a chance to win $2,000.

Supervising instructors will select a recipe to represent their school; only one recipe is permitted per school. Finalists’ recipes will then be judged by a panel of prominent New York-area chefs and food writers on the basis of taste, visual appeal, originality and effective use of fresh Florida tomatoes. Winning recipes will be announced in trade publications and online.

Last year, desserts took center stage, with Fresh Tomato Jam-Filled French Crepes with Tomato Ice Cream and Basil Syrup (recipe below) winning top honors for Jose Luis Hernandez, a student at Johnson County Community College in Lenexa, Kan. First among Canadian school entrants was Lynn Fretz of Canadore College with her Tomato Mousse & Basil Jelly with Tomato “Cigars.”

The contest is open to all students enrolled in a professional culinary program in the United States or Canada. The deadline for schools to submit their selected recipe is Wednesday, April 22, 2009. Instructors interested in learning about how their students can participate should contact Jason Stemm at (212) 420-8808 or tomatocontest@lewis-neale.com.

Fresh Tomato Jam-filled French Crepes with
Tomato Ice Cream and Basil Syrup
Jose Luis Hernandez, Johnson County Community College,
Lenexa, Kan.

Yield: 6 servings

Water, as needed
1 1/4 c. sugar
7 lbs. fully ripened fresh Florida tomatoes
1 c. port wine
1 t. fresh grated ginger
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/4 c. fresh basil, loosely packed
12 Crepes (recipe follows)
Tomato Ice Cream (recipe follows)

Method (1) In small saucepan combine 1/2 c. sugar and 1/2 c. water; bring to a boil; set aside to cool to sugar syrup. (2) Bring large pot of water to boil; preheat oven to 200°F. (3) Arrange rack on tray; coat rack with non-stick cooking spray. Score skin on each tomato in 4 equidistant places. Drop several tomatoes at a time into boiling water until skins loosen, about 10 seconds; set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel off skins; dip 20 pieces of skin into sugar syrup; place on prepared tray. Reserve remaining syrup. Dry tomato skins in oven until crisp but not browned, 30-40 minutes; set aside. (4) Quarter, seed and coarsely chop 2 quarts of remaining tomatoes, reserving seeds and juice; place chopped tomatoes in a heavy saucepan. Add 3/4 c. sugar, port, ginger, cinnamon and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick and jam-like, about 45 minutes. Remove Tomato Jam from heat; set aside until cool; crumble into 1/2" pieces. (5) Meanwhile, coarsely chop remaining uncooked tomatoes; place in blender with reserved uncooked tomato seeds and liquid. Blend until smooth; strain puree; set aside. (6) In a heavy saucepan, combine reserved sugar syrup and basil; bring to a boil. Transfer to a blender container; whirl until smooth. Strain Basil Syrup mixture and set aside. (7) For assembly: Spread 12 Crepes with warm Tomato Jam; roll up. Place 2 Crepes on the center of each plate. Top with scoop of Tomato Ice Cream and a drizzle of Basil Syrup. Garnish with crisp tomato skins.


Crepes
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. milk
2 eggs
2 T. oil, plus more as needed
2 T. sugar
1/8 t. salt

Method (1) In bowl, combine flour, milk, eggs, oil, sugar and salt until smooth. Heat 6" crepe pan; very lightly wipe with oil. (2) Pour about 1 1/2 T. of batter at a time into pan, swirling to cover the bottom; cook until bubbly and bottom is golden. Turn and cook just long enough to lightly brown; remove and set aside. Repeat to make 12 crepes, wiping pan with oil when needed.


Tomato Ice Cream
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. milk
1/8 t. salt
6 large egg yolks
2 c. reserved tomato puree
1 T. crème fraîche

Method (1) In medium-sized, heavy saucepan, whisk together cream, sugar, milk and salt. Heat, stirring frequently, just until mixture comes to a simmer. (2) Meanwhile, in small bowl whisk egg yolks. Very gradually whisk hot mixture into yolks; return mixture to saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, just until it simmers. Remove from heat; whisk in reserved tomato puree and the crème fraîche. Reserve remaining puree, if any, for another use. (3) Refrigerate, covered, until cool. Transfer to ice cream maker; process until frozen. Serve or transfer to freezer container and freeze until ready to serve.

Register for the FENI Summit

The 2009 Foodservice Educators Network International (FENI) Educators Summit is just around the corner, and there is still time to register! The FENI Summit will be held in Las Vegas Feb. 14 to 17 at the Tuscany Suites & Casino. This year, the offerings include more than 40 Master Classes, educational roundtables and speakers, as well as special events and awards ceremonies for poster board winners and the Educators of the Year. FENI's host school, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts—Las Vegas, offers a spacious facility with modern labs and state-of-the-art equipment. Please visit www.vegasculinary.com to discover more about our host school. Click here to download the 2009 FENI Summit Agenda and Registration Form, or visit www.fenisummit.com.

If your focus is hospitality education, you won't want to miss the inaugural Hospitality Educators Leadership & Development Conference. Continued training and leadership technique improvements are requisite for maintaining top performance in the hospitality field. Held in conjunction with the FENI Summit, this conference will help you to gain fresh ideas for achieving a balance of excellence and respect as a leader within your group. The Hospitality Educators Leadership & Development Conference is in cooperation with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and other leading hospitality-training programs and service providers industrywide. Click here for the registration form.

Sullivan University grad competes on Food Network’s Ultimate Recipe Showdown

Credit: Skirt Magazine

When the Food Network searched the nation for great burger recipes to include in their televised competition—"Ultimate Recipe Showdown"—they couldn’t pass up Sullivan University graduate Brigitte Nguyen’s Vietnamese-flavored specialty. Nguyen competed on the Guy Fieri-hosted show in the fall of 2008, and the results of the competition were aired on Sunday, Jan. 11.

"Being at Food Network, the home of all my favorite shows and television chefs, was unbelievable,” says Nguyen. The studios are gorgeous, the kitchens are pristine, and I was surrounded by a hard-working, fun-loving, gourmet group of foodies! My instructors at Sullivan University always pushed me to work quickly, cleanly and efficiently and these proved to be valuable skills, given the time constraints and the fact that I was cooking on-camera!”

Nguyen, a California native with Vietnamese heritage, took matters into her own hands when she could not find her favorite Vietnamese sandwich in Kentucky. Always ready for a new challenge, Nguyen headed straight into the kitchen and created the ultimate sandwich, combining her love for Asian cuisine with her all-American environment. In 2007, her Vietnamese Five-Spice Pork Burger won the first-runner-up prize at the Sutter Home 17th Annual Build a Better Burger Competition (recipe here). Her Vietnamese Bistro burger got her noticed by Food Network less than a year later.

Nguyen left her first career as a financial statement auditor to follow her passion for the culinary arts. In 2006, she relocated to Lexington, Ky., from Los Angeles and enrolled in Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies. In 2008, she traveled with a group of fellow Sullivan students and chef instructors to Beijing to work with Framboise Catering feeding the U.S. Delegation and athletes at the Olympics before graduating Summa Cum Laude. Nguyen currently does independent catering and bakes pastries for Wine + Market in Lexington.

CET now accepting papers for free publication

If you have an academic white paper, an instructional how-to or even a personal essay regarding culinary eduction, Chef Educator Today (CET) wants to hear from you. All submitted articles will be reviewed by CET editors and published online in one of the magazine's upcoming digital editions—and because chef-instructors are the lifeblood of CET, we will publish your contributions free of charge.

We like to think that Chef Educator Today magazine and the Online Tool Kit blog are already valuable resources for chef-instructors, but by adding your voice to our digital magazine, you can help us create a one-of-a-kind online forum for idea exchange for you and your peers in the culinary-education field.

Send all article submissions and questions regarding submission to CET managing editor Lacey Griebeler at lgriebeler@talcott.com.

'Insight from the Inside' podcast features CIA alumnus John Besh

John Besh, chef and owner of four New Orleans-area restaurants, talks about his career in the most recent "Insight from the Inside" podcast from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). "Insight from the Inside" is a series of chats with CIA graduates who have exciting jobs in the food world.

During the 20-minute chat, Besh talks about the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina and his efforts in the city's physical and emotional recovery, his experience on the Food Network's Next Iron Chef competition, and taking time off from his CIA studies to serve in the U.S. Marines during the first Gulf War.

The 1992 graduate credits his time at the CIA for providing the groundwork for his success. "There are great people everywhere, but some of the best instructors in the world are right here," said Besh. "Our horizons were broadened by the staff here ... Things I learned in those early days stayed with me throughout my career. That was the foundation that really made it possible for me to thrive."

To hear the entire interview with Besh or podcasts with other notable CIA alums, or to receive future podcasts, visit www.ciachef.edu/podcasts.

Sullivan University honors TRU’s Rick Tramonto

Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies (NCHS) in Louisville, Ky., recently announced that Chicago-based TRU chef Rick Tramonto will be honored with the prestigious Great American Chef Award tomorrow, Thursday, January 15. The day’s events will include two cookbook signings, open to the public at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the Sullivan University campus, as well as a private awards ceremony and educational cooking demonstrations featuring French cuisine for NCHS students.

The Great American Chef Series, which began at NCHS in 1988, is an innovative education program designed to connect students with today’s top American chefs. Tramonto is the 35th recipient of Great American Chef Award. Other chefs to receive this honor include Bob Kinkead, Emeril Lagasse, Louis Osteen, Deborah Madison and Marcel Desaulniers.

“In his 30 years in this industry, chef Tramonto has help set the bar on excellence in his field, and I am delighted that our students will have an opportunity to learn from him,” said chef Tom Hickey, director of the NCHS.

Delcastle Technical High School and MADD Bake the Night Away

By Evan Noetzel

For its annual “Cookies for Cops” Holiday baking campaign, which provides cookies to every police officer in the state of Delaware as a show of support for law enforcement’s participation in sobriety check points, the Delaware chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) looked to Delcastle Technical High School in Wilmington, Del., for some hands-on help in the kitchen.

"MADD had not received quite the support that they had hoped, so they asked if we could be a part of this program," Delcastle culinary instructor Jim Berman wrote in an e-mail. "Given our resources, our students’ knowledge and willingness to provide service to the community, I offered our aid."

Culinary arts students in Delcastle's Cooks and Bakers club (pictured above) responded with an overnight baking effort—dubbed "Baking the Night Away"—that produced 6,000 cookies (that's 500 dozen) for the MADD-sponsored cookie drive. From roughly 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, to 10 a.m. the following morning, 41 students under Berman's supervision cooked 300 cookies at a time in the school's seven commercial ovens. The cookie ingredients? USFoods donated cookie batter as well as 240 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of margarine, 15 gallons of sugar, 600 eggs and 20 gallons of chocolate chips.

To aid Berman and his students, local businesses donated meals for the student bakers and cookie-transporting boxes, which were decorated by students at the nearby Wilbur Elementary School.

Delcastle Technical High School culinary student Javana Dickerson packages cookies for MADD's "Cookies for Cops" campaign.