Monroe College names Tottenville senior Best High School Chef

Best High School Chef Kerry Pace

The Monroe College School of Hospitality Management awarded Kerry Pace, a senior at Tottenville High School in Staten Island, N.Y., the title of America's Best High School Chef at a competition from April 17 to 19. Pace and three of her classmates competed in the finals on April 19 after their team was named the best of seven.

(l to r) the Tottenville team: Nikki Rizzo, Anna Belfiore, Kerry Pace and Steve Young

Pace's winning dish of chicken rollatini, tarragon mushrooms, roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans won her a full scholarship to the Monroe College Culinary Arts program and admission into the college's study-abroad program in Italy.

LDEI launches Legacy Awards competition

Les Dames d'Escoffier International (LDEI) is holding its first-ever Legacy Awards competition. The competition is open to women in the United States and Canada who have been working in the food, beverage or hospitality industry for at least two years. Applications are due May 15, and the winners will be announced on June 15.

The LDEI Legacy Awards winners will receive week-long internships with accomplished dames in the food, beverage and hospitality industry in New York City's catering scene, Washington State's wine country or at a premier hotel property in Dallas. For more information, visit www.ldei.org.

CIA and CanolaInfo launch e-learning module

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), in association with CanolaInfo, launched The Professional Chef Discovers Canola Oil, a Web-based learning module available on CIAProChef.com, the CIA's Web site for foodservice professionals.


The e-learning module includes information about the health benefits of canola oil as well as strategies and techniques for using it in baking, grilling, frying and using it to make vinaigrettes or emulsions. The module demonstrates canola oil's versatility offering Latin-, Mediterranean- and Asian-style recipes. It also offers 16 downloadable recipe demonstrations by CIA chef-instructors in streaming videos.

Produced by the CIA's New Media group, the learning module can be found at www.ciaprochef.com/canola.

Haney selected as top Massachusetts ProStart educator

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (MRAEF) selected Nancy Haney of Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School (TCRVTHS) as the Massachusetts 2009 ProStart Educator Excellence Award recipient. Haney, a graduate from Johnson & Wales University, has been teaching for 23 years. She also runs a Gourmet Club and is the student council adviser for TCRVTHS.

(l to r) Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School student Evan Paine with Nancy Haney

Haney will join 31 other top educators at the National Restaurant Association Solutions (NRA Solutions) ProStart Educator Excellence Awards weekend, May 15 to 16. The NRA Solutions Educator Excellence Awards recognize educators using the ProStart program in their classrooms.

MSU's School of Hospitality fund-raising campaign under way

The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University announced there are still "naming opportunities" available for sponsoring its Culinary Business Learning Lab (CBLL) revitalization project, ranging from the teaching and research kitchen to the kitchen’s workstations. The School of Hospitality Business launched a two-year fund-raising campaign last May to support the CBLL.

Successful completion of the $5.8 million campaign will allow the 11,000-square-foot facility to be rehabbed and updated to include a teaching and demonstration theater, teaching and research kitchen, Alumni Association Hall of Fame, entryway and display gallery, gathering space and dining room. For more information, visit the School of Hospitality Business Web site.

Culinary Business Learning Lab teaching and research kitchen

ACF Northeast Pastry Chef of the Year to compete in Food Network Challenge

Megan Ketover, CPC, pastry chef of retail bakery outlet Bakery Hill at the Midwest Culinary Institute in Cincinnati and Midwest Culinary Institute pastry-arts instructor, was selected to compete in an upcoming episode of Food Network Challenge. The American Culinary Federation named Ketover the Northeast Region Pastry Chef of the Year after she won the ACF Northeast Regional Conference competition in February.

Ketover will compete in Food Network's Cereal Bridges 2 Challenge, to be filmed April 30. "I am excited to have been chosen to compete for Food Network's Cereal Bridges 2 Challenge, and I am gearing up to try to create something that seems impossible--a bridge primarily made of Rice Krispies," she said in a statement.

After filming the Food Network Challenge, Ketover will continue preparing for the national ACF Pastry Chef of the Year competition, which will take place during the 2009 ACF National Convention July 11 to 14 in Orlando, Fla.

CIA partners with institutions in Catalonia

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has partnered with the Alícia Foundation and Prodeca, both based in Catalonia, Spain, to facilitate an exchange of culinary faculty, students and experts.

El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià (second from left), CIA president Tim Ryan (second from right) and Spanish chef José Andrés (far right), toasting with Catalonian officials

The agreement, signed March 25, will allow CIA faculty and students to study at the Alícia Foundation, a research center devoted to the technological innovation in cooking. Additionally, visiting CIA students and faculty will be able to experience first-hand the top kitchens, markets and producers of Catalan food and wine. The agreement also will fund a 2009-2010 program series of visiting guest chefs and other leaders in Catalan gastronomy at the New York and California campuses of the CIA. For more information, visit www.worldsofflavorspain.com.

(Photo courtesy of the CIA/Keith Ferris)