Chez Boucher recognized by New Hampshire Magazine

The editors of New Hampshire Magazine recognized Chez Boucher Culinary Arts Center's cooking workshops in the magazine's July "Best of NH 2009" feature.

For its annual, statewide poll, New Hampshire Magazine--the state’s largest lifestyle magazine--invites magazine readers, fans and New Hampshire residents to vote in more than 100 categories, from best local microbrew and best cupcakes to favorite restaurants in each region of the state. Along with the Readers' Poll, Best of NH includes many Editor's Picks--such as Chez Boucher, which was selected by the staff as having the state's best cooking workshops. The July issue, on newsstands now, features the complete list of Best of NH winners.

Chez Boucher is a French cooking school established for the budding professional and novice alike (see previous CET post here). Located in the heart of downtown Hampton, N.H., it offers a complete culinary arts education program and other resources like the Gourmet Shoppe, a film production studio kitchen and the Chez Bouchon dining room.

For more information about the Chez Boucher Culinary Arts Center, call (603) 926-2202 or visit www.chezboucher.com.

FCI offers tuition reduction, scholarships

The French Culinary Institute (FCI) and its sister school, the Italian Culinary Academy (ICA), are offering a 10 percent tuition reduction targeted to recent high school graduates, as well as a scholarship from the Friends of the FCI for career courses at the school that start this summer.

The tuition reduction is intended for 17- to 20-year-olds who received a valid high school diploma within two years of the enrollment date at the FCI or the ICA. And beginning in August, the reduction will apply to high school graduates who enroll in all of the career programs at the FCI: Classic Culinary Arts, Classic Pastry Arts, International Bread and the Italian Culinary Experience.

Additionally, the Friends of the FCI is offering a $10,000 Summer Scholarship for a student who enrolls in the Classic Culinary Arts or Classic Pastry Arts programs that begin in July or August. The application deadline is July 31. For more information, visit www.frenchculinary.com.

Dessert expert shares insight in new book

Delmar, part of Cengage Learning, has published The Dessert Architect, a guide to building versatile and creative desserts for professional pastry programs and chefs.

The book, by chef, teacher and foodservice consultant Robert Wemischner, features an overview of essential dessert-making tools and equipment, contemporary plating techniques, ingredient sources, 50 multi-component recipes that can be mixed and matched, and beverage and dessert pairing suggestions.

For more information or to purchase the book, visit Delmar's Web site.

ICE boot camp gets students into culinary shape

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) introduced the ICE Boot Camp series, an intensive summer program offering 11 courses that cover basic techniques of cooking, baking and wine education.

ICE Boot Camp provides students with a sample of the professional culinary program at ICE through intensive classes ranging from two to five days in length. The program runs from July to mid-September. For more information, visit ICE's Web site.

Culinary scholarships more important than ever

(Photo by Christina House for The Los Angeles Times)

Over the years, culinary scholarships have helped launch countless numbers of aspiring chefs into the foodservice industry. Today, though, with households nationwide shouldering the burden of the ongoing recession, such scholarships are more important than ever. In fact, for many students-chefs and their families, a scholarship is not merely a catalyst to pursuing a professional culinary eduction; it's a requirement. Given these circumstances, then, it's equally important to celebrate those who--despite the odds and the pressure--do earn scholarships.

A recent Los Angeles Times article, published on June 11, did just that, profiling a select group of the 34 California high school seniors who participated in a recent culinary competition and walked away with scholarship earnings totaling more than $590,000. Held at at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., the competition was sponsored by Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a nonprofit organization that works with students in several U.S. cities.

To read the full article, click here.

Kendall College debuts outdoor oven

A new piece of equipment is getting a rise out of faculty and students at Kendall College, but it’s not located in one of the school's state-of-the-art kitchens; it’s in the courtyard. Kendall recently unveiled an outdoor wood-fired brick oven, which aims to revive a centuries-old custom of community cooking and baking while expanding students' learning experience.

“Historically and throughout the world, many town and village squares boasted an oven that everyone used to bake their home-prepared bread dough,” master baker and Kendall culinary arts instructor Melina Kelson-Podolsky said in a recent press release. “The oven served as a gathering site for the community.”

Kendall’s wood-fired bread oven is expected to draw welcome interest from the surrounding community on Chicago’s Goose Island, but that’s not the oven’s primary purpose. “It’s used across the curriculum--everything from drying herbs to roasting meats to baking pastry and breads,” Kelson-Podolsky added. Guests of Kendall’s highly rated Dining Room also benefit; the outdoor oven is often employed to cook pizza specials on the lunch menu.

Construction of the oven, which began last summer thanks to funding from Chicago-based Bays English Muffin Corp., was an exacting process that encompassed several months and capitalized on the talents of local artisans. The “guts” of the oven were completed by a team of five students, Kelson-Podolsky and another baker with oven-building experience.

Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, Kendall College’s dean of culinary arts, said in the release that foods baked and cooked in a wood-fired oven take on a pleasing organoleptic quality that is often difficult to achieve in a conventional oven. “Breads and meats from an outdoor wood-fired oven promote the interaction between the mouth and nose in a way that recalls rustic cooking of yesteryear,” he went on to say. “The sensory experience is enticingly nostalgic and leaves us hungry for more.” Koetke added that periodic tasting events for the local community and greater Chicago area will expose more people to the tantalizing flavors and aromas of foods cooked in the new oven.

OCCI to host two summer culinary competitions

The Oregon Coast Culinary Institute (OCCI) will be hosting two culinary competitions on back-to-back days this summer.

The Bay Area Chef’s Association of Southern Oregon will present Cold Salon on July 31. The event is sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation (ACF). Contestants will present cold platter, pastry desserts, buffet showpieces and other dishes for judging. The OCCI-hosted event offers setup at 7 a.m. and judging at 10 a.m. Applications and an entry fee ($50 for ACF members, $100 for non-ACF members) are required for participants. The deadline to submit the registration form (PDF available here) is July 10.

The next day, Aug. 1, OCCI will host the ACF-sanctioned Albacore Tuna Cooking Competition. Competitors will receive one whole 12- to 15-pound albacore tuna. They need to provide the rest of the ingredients to complete ten portions of their signature dish--three portions for the judging panel, one for photography and six for the public to consume at the event. Competitors must provide their own equipment and china. They will have two hours to complete their dishes--one hour, 50 minutes for cooking and a 10 minute window for plating and serving. Competitors must provide recipes for their signature dish at the time of the event. These may be used in promotional material by the Oregon Albacore Commission. An entry fee ($50 for ACF members, $100 for non-ACF members) and a registration form (PDF available here) are required. Awards will include ACF medals, trophies and $1,000 in cash prizes.

For more information about either event, contact chef Tom Roberts at (541) 888-1545.