CIA Culinary Bible, The Professional Chef, New 9th Edition Available for iPad

The Culinary Institute of America’s The Professional Chef is the classic resource that America’s best professional chefs and home cooks have relied on for decades to master the complete range of basic and advanced cooking skills. Now America’s most trusted culinary reference is just a tap away. Through publisher Wiley and Inkling—the leading platform for interactive learning content on iPad—the gold standard of culinary textbooks has taken a step that PC Magazine calls “a new frontier for books.”

The Professional Chef, iPad Edition (Wiley, Inkling; $49.99) is a premier interactive learning experience. The iPad edition enhances the user experience with 850 recipes, nearly 750 photographs featuring 175 enhanced images, more than 100 videos and other features. Assessment indicators test participants’ knowledge of each product type, navigating readers through a series of multiple-choice, true-or-false and short-answer questions. Additional features include highlighting and sticky notes to mark text or highlight important content. A social-notes feature allows readers to follow other people’s commentaries right in the text, making it easy for students to organize study groups, instructors to share comments with the class, or any user to get real-time notes and tips from fellow cooks using The Professional Chef.

With its release on October 25, 2011, the iPad version of The Culinary Institute of America's essential reference text has ushered in a revolution in publishing. Courtesy of Inkling/Wiley.

 A PC Magazine online article as the iPad edition arrived on virtual bookshelves October 25 said this innovation “is an impressive alternative to the 1,400-page print edition and illuminates a path toward the future of publishing.”

Images are annotated with pop-up descriptions of fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, poultry and seafood. Photo slideshows illustrate step-by-step techniques of key cooking fundamentals, and guided tours take the reader through the key elements of an important technique. For example, tapping through the different cuts of beef will lead to detailed information, additional illustrations and tips on uses for each cut. Instructions are brought to life with embedded videos demonstrating precisely how to master a specific technique such as cooking a perfect egg, fabricating a lobster or preparing a meringue.

MSU's School of Hospitality Business Breaks World Record—with Tacos

Demonstration Hall on the campus of Michigan State University was the site of a world record-breaking line of—believe it or not—tacos. And two students in The School of Hospitality Business demonstrated their perseverance, persuasive powers and organizational skills by spending nearly eight months orchestrating the memorable event, which occurred on September 30 and fulfilled the Guinness Book of World Records requirements.

Nate Redner (BA ’12) and Luke Magnini (BA ’12) came up with the idea when they watched a YouTube video detailing the record set by Dining Services at Emory University, which was 260 tacos, totaling 121 feet. They worked with alum and MSU Culinary Services’ corporate chef Kurt Kwiatkowski (BA ’96, MS ’05) on the project.

Using only MSU ingredients, the line contained 150 pounds of beef, 35 pounds of cheese and 50 pounds of pico de gallo. All the ingredients added up to a 490-foot taco line with 847 tacos placed on tables in the shape of a block “S” and created with the help of almost 60 volunteers.  The project covered nearly the whole length of Dem Hall, which served for years as MSU’s ice-hockey rink.

(l. to r.) Cichy, Kwiatkowski, Magnini, Redner. Photo by Lindsey LaTour Bliss, MSU Culinary Services

Culinary officials were required to record an exact measurement of the taco line. Additionally, a video had to be taken of the lineup, and each individual taco had to be counted and documented. Several witnesses and MSU workers also were required to fill out forms documenting the event.

School director Ron Cichy was one of those witnesses. He was amazed, but not surprised, by the students’ accomplishment and sense of fun. “It seems as though there is nothing Nate and Luke can’t accomplish when they put their minds to it,” he said. “And it’s great to see that they made it a total Spartan effort.”

Recognized as the top-ranked hospitality-business school, the school has a unique and independent position within Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. Celebrating its 85th anniversary in 2012, the school boasts nearly 10,000 graduates worldwide, including a number of leading academicians and industry executives who have earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Sullivan University Wins Two Gold Medals at Music City Challenge Fall Culinary Competition

Two students at Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies (NCHS) won gold medals at the 2011 Music City Challenge, the American Culinary Federation-sponsored competition that took place September 27 and 28 in Nashville. 

Kelsee Newman and Kenna Nelson represented Sullivan University’s Baking and Pastry Arts program, presenting a display in petit fours and an Alice in Wonderland sculpture produced from fat. The students were evaluated by certified ACF judges Paul C. Jensen, II, CEC, CCA, AAC, Wolfgang Bierer, CMPC, CEC, CCE, AAC, and Roland E. Schaeffer, CEC, AAC, HOF.

“A gold medal is thrilling in its own right, but it's the caliber of judging behind it that makes it noteworthy,” said Nelson. “We are honored that the talented, experienced and award-winning team of judges were impressed by us! But we couldn't have done it without the chefs at Sullivan who invested in us during our preparation.”

(l. to r.) Nelson, Spendlove, Newman

“Participating in a competition like this involves so much stress and work, and time spent before and after class ... but it's all worth it to hear these amazing chefs who are judging your work say that it's worthy of a gold medal,” said Newman.

“The judges spoke very highly about Sullivan University and the education that our students are receiving,” said Baking and Pastry Arts chair Derek Spendlove, CEPC, AAC. “This is an exciting honor.”

The Culinary Institute of America to Launch Latin Cuisines Certificate Program at San Antonio Campus

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is pleased to announce the creation of a new culinary-certificate program focusing on Latin Cuisines. The two-semester (30-week) program will welcome its first class of students on January 24, 2012, at the college's campus in San Antonio, Texas. The advanced program is for CIA graduates and other industry professionals with culinary-arts degrees or certificates.

 Chef Sergio Remolina works with student Evan Martinez on the metate in the kitchen. As part of the CIA's new Latin Cuisines Certificate Program, students will have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of culinary techniques from Latin America and Mexico. Photo credit: CIA/Keith Ferris

The program provides a specialization in Latin American cuisines for those who already have a solid foundation in culinary arts from a previous associate degree, bachelor's degree or certificate in culinary arts. While the hands-on culinary classes will be unparalleled, the program is more than a “concentration” of classes on various Latin cuisines.

Students will learn from an expert team of faculty members that includes Elizabeth Johnson-Kosick and Iliana de le Vega, the CIA’s two full-time Latin-cuisines researchers based at the San Antonio campus. Kosick and de la Vega have spent years documenting and researching many of the traditional ingredients and techniques of Mexican and Latin American cooking through their extensive travels. The chefs will feature their knowledge in their course work, while the college also brings a wide array of special guest chefs to campus to teach, as well.

“Through this program, the CIA San Antonio will be a ‘Carnegie Hall’ of Latin cuisines,” says Dr. Tim Ryan, CMC, president of The Culinary Institute of America. “Visiting guest chefs will have a conservatory-style relationship with small groups of students, and teach them about the cuisines of countries such as Peru, Brazil and Mexico.”

In conjunction with the college’s expanded educational offerings, the CIA San Antonio will open a new pan-Latin full-service restaurant in early 2012 on the campus. Overlooking the San Antonio Riverwalk, the restaurant will serve as a classroom for CIA students, as well as a showcase for visiting Latin American chefs and a rare opportunity to experience the work of these chefs in the United States.

The Latin Cuisines Certificate Program joins the CIA’s Associate Degree in Culinary Arts Program already offered at the CIA San Antonio. Significant scholarships are available for both programs for students who qualify. To learn more, visit www.ciachef.edu/lccp.

Navajo Nation’s Only Culinary-Arts Program Takes First Step toward National Accreditation

As Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M., has been taking leaps and bounds toward national acclamation, the NTC culinary-arts program has taken its first steps toward national accreditation.  

For three days, Navajo Tech welcomed chefs Robert Hudson, CEC, CCE; Keith Mandabach, CEC, AAC, Ed.D.; and Mark Cochran, CEC, CCA, CFBE, of the American Culinary Federation’s accrediting commission to review a self-study on the school’s culinary-arts program and to see if the school meets ACF’s standards for accreditation.  

The review included an examination of the college’s curriculum and staff, as well as a detailed inspection of the program’s educational facilities to determine if they are in line with industry standards.  

NTC culinary-arts student Melvina Jones poses next to her creations at the SkillsUSA National Conference in Kansas City, Mo.

After the three days of the initial evaluation, the commission provided an exit report that noted several of the school’s strengths, but also provided the Navajo Nation’s only culinary-arts program with a short list of compliance issues.

“For an initial process, it’s been very good,” said Hudson, who traveled to Navajo Tech from Colorado Springs to perform the evaluation. “I can see this program going further.”

Navajo Tech now has until mid-December to take the corrective measures to comply with the ACF commission’s requirements, in which it will have to address issues that involve student-to-faculty ratio, advisory-board expansion and creating a unified teacher manual that contains class outlines, notes and syllabi.

After Navajo Tech complies with each requirement, it must submit a report that addresses each correction, which will then be reviewed by the ACF’s national board in January. If the board approves of the report, Navajo Tech will receive either a three- or five-year accreditation so it can certify its students under the country’s most renowned culinary organization. If accredited, Navajo Tech would be the first Native American college to receive ACF certification.

Once the program receives its accreditation, NTC culinary-arts director Robert Witte, CEC, expects big things for one of the college’s most popular programs.

“Overall, this is going to improve the program by 300%,” said Witte. “We’re now going to be the model for all future Native American colleges who want to become accredited through the ACF.”

Mandabach was impressed with the direction the program is heading. “You guys have a really good program,” he said. “Your students have the desire, and if you have that, you’re 50% of the way there.”

The ACF is the culinary leader in offering educational resources, training, apprenticeship and programmatic accreditation designed to enhance professional growth for all current and future chefs and pastry chefs. In addition, the ACF operates the most comprehensive certification program for chefs in the United States. For more information, please visit www.acfchefs.org.