CIA's St. Andrews Café is a Certified Green Restaurant

The Green Restaurant Association has named St. Andrew's Café on The Culinary Institute of America's (CIA) Hyde Park campus a Two-Star Certified Green Restaurant. The restaurant earned the certification through efforts to be environmentally conscious in areas including food sourcing and purchasing, energy usage, waste disposal and water usage.

Giovanni Agnitti, Corey Bourassa, and Corey Siegal making pickled vegetables at Andrew's Café

St. Andrew's Café is currently transitioning into a sustainable restaurant. As part of this process, the dining room will also be redesigned to be more eco-friendly. The new front of the house for St. Andrew's will feature low VOC paints and furniture created from recycled or sustainable natural resources, as well as a number of modifications throughout the dining room to improve energy usage. The dining room is expected to be unveiled in August 2010.

Founded in 1990, the Green Restaurant Association develops guidelines and certification standards in support of its mission--to create an environmentally sustainable restaurant industry. For more information, visit www.dinegreen.com.

For the Love of Chocolate fund-raiser a grand success

(l to r) Marie Donovan, advisor to For the Love of Chocolate; Ted Timm, board member, For the Love of Chocolate; Kirk Dakarian, board member, For the Love of Chocolate; Violet Orellana, scholarship recipient; Tulin Tuzel, vice president of research and development at Sara Lee Corp.; Franco Pacini of the French Pastry School; and chef Jacquy Pfeiffer of the French Pastry School during the Sara Lee Corp. Scholarship presentation

The French Pastry School at City Colleges of Chicago saw an attendance of more than 450 people at its annual fundraiser, For The Love of Chocolate, on Feb. 6. With the support of sponsors and guests, For The Love of Chocolate Foundation cleared over $68,000 for pastry scholarships for future applicants to L'Art de la Pâtisserie, the full-time, 24-week professional pastry and baking program.

Guests, sponsors, students, alumni and chefs from Chicago and around the country gathered to partake in more than 40 chefs' specialties from fine cuisine to exquisite desserts to chocolate bonbons. Some of the country's most celebrated chefs were present, including Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill; Della Gossett of Charlie Trotter's; Paul Bartolotta of Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare; Christophe David of NoMi; Jean Joho of Everest; Frederic Robert of The Wynn Las Vegas; and Kai Lermen of The Peninsula.

Alumna of the French Pastry School Chris Kadow-Dougherty, chef-owner of Whimsical Candy, presented her signature candy, La-Dee-Dahs.

Four current students enrolled in The French Pastry School's L'Art de la Pâtisserie received For the Love of Chocolate Scholarships from funds raised last year with the help of generous sponsors. Kaitlin Bolt received the Barry Callebaut Scholarship; Stephanie Evans was awarded the Coalesse/Office Concepts Scholarship; Sara Lee Corp. made a scholarship possible for Violet Orellana; and Chelsey Torres received the Irinox USA Scholarship. These students were recognized for their achievement at the event.

(l to r) Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, French Pastry School; Kennedy-King College president John Dozier with wife Victoria; Franco Pacini of French Pastry School; and chef Sebastien Cannone, MOF, French Pastry School

"To be able to help future students in pursuing their dream of attending pastry school is a great thing," said Jacquy Pfeiffer, academic dean for student affairs at The French Pastry School, "It's also wonderful for our current students to team up with people from the industry, to get a taste for what’s in store for them when they graduate!"

The 6th Annual "For the Love of Chocolate" Gala at The French Pastry School will take place on February 5, 2011 for an all new chocolate extravaganza. More details will be available at www.fortheloveofchocolatefoundation.org.