Best of military foodservice members attend CIA education program

During the third annual Armed Forces Forum for Culinary Excellence, 21 top Air Force Airmen and four Marines from around the world were selected to spend the week of Oct. 3 to 10 refining and expanding their culinary skills at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Greystone, St. Helena, Calif., working under CIA chefs Thomas Wong and Victor Scargle. This annual forum is sponsored by the Hennessy Travelers Association Educational Foundation. The 25 Airmen and Marines were selected during their service's foodservice excellence evaluation program--the John L. Hennessey Awards Program for the Air Force, the Major General W.P. T. Hill Award for the Marine Corp and the Senior Master Sergeant Kenneth Disney Award for the Air National Guard.

(l to r) Air Force Senior Airman Clabirel Najera-Torres and Marine Corporal Michael Williams

During the forum, the students attended lectures in the morning followed by intensive hands-on preparation of complex recipes in the Greystone kitchens, which were then critiqued by the CIA chefs. At the end of the week, the Airmen and Marines were each awarded diplomas. For more information on the event, visit www.hennessyaward.org.

(l to r) Hennessy Travelers Association president Carmen Anthony Vacalebre, Air Force Senior Airman Angel Ramirez and CIA chef Thomas Wong

Delmar releases latest book in Kitchen Pro Series

Delmar Cengage Learning has published Poultry: Identification, Fabrication and Utilization, by chef Thomas Schneller, the third book in the Kitchen Pro Series from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
Poultry describes both time-honored and state-of-the-art methods of identifying species and cuts, purchasing, fabricating and storing of a wide range of poultry ranging from domestically raised turkey and duck to quail, poussin and wild birds. This full-color, hard-bound text is designed for culinary students, instructors, chefs, foodservice managers, purchasing agents, suppliers, vendors, retailers and food enthusiasts. It demonstrates basic preparation methods and tested recipes reflecting classic and contemporary cooking in a step-by-step format.

For culinary instructors, each subject component in the Kitchen Pro Series comes with an instructor's manual, which provides review and test questions, course outline, teaching tips and guidelines, objectives and key terms. The first two books published in the Kitchen Pro Series were Fish and Seafood and Meat. Schneller, an associate professor at the CIA, also wrote Meat. The final three books in the series will be released later this year and next. For more information, visit www.culinary.delmar.com.

HCCC lecture series begins with Buddy Valastro

For the first of a series of free lectures, Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will host Buddy Valastro, fourth-generation baker and owner of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, N.J., on Nov. 19. The theme of this year's series is Reaching New Heights. The other speakers, due to appear early next year, are: Michael Eric Dyson, author and cultural observer; and actress Rita Moreno.

Valastro's lecture begins at 6:00 p.m. at HCCC's Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center. For more information on the HCCC Lecture Series, please visit the college's Web site.

Baker Buddy Valastro and his bakery are the stars of "The Cake Boss," a show that premiered on The Learning Channel last spring

Jones Dairy Scholarship winners announced

Culinary Institute of America (CIA) students Kaleena Bliss and Robert "Robbie" Rensel both received The Jones Dairy Farm Scholarship Fund. Jones Dairy Farm supports three scholarships annually. CIA juniors and seniors pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Culinary Arts Management are eligible to apply for the scholarship by submitting a short essay and original recipe using a Jones' product. Only students with a demonstrated financial need and grade point average of 3.0 or higher are eligible to apply.

Kaleena Bliss

Robbie Rensel

For more information, visit www.jonesdairyfarm.com.

California Raisin Marketing Board announces winners of America's Best Raisin Bread Contest

The California Raisin Marketing Board is pleased to announce the winners of its second annual "America's Best Raisin Bread Contest," hosted at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kan., Oct. 9 and 10. The competition included 30 finalists, made up of both professional and student bakers from across the country in the artisan and commercial categories.

Of the student competitors, Courtney Lipkins of Providence, R.I., and student at Johnson & Wales University, took home the artisan grand prize for her Honey Nut Raisin Bread. Liana Ycikson, of Miami, Fla., also a student at Johnson & Wales University, took home the commercial grand prize for her Cardamom Pecan Raisin Bread.

Of the 30 professional and student finalists, a total of 12 winners were chosen to participate in an all-expense paid visit to California to experience the growing areas and production of California Raisins, and enjoy California cuisine and wines at the Culinary Institute of America Greystone in St. Helena.

Additional prize winners in the artisan category, include:

• Judges prize: Co-winners Mitch Stamm, Johnson & Wales University, Providence, R.I., for his California Gold Rush Bread; and Charles Niedermyer, Pennsylvania College of Technology, State College, Pa., for his Dueling Raisins Bread; and
  
• Ideas prize: Co-winners Luminita Cirstea, Kendall College, Chicago, for her Golden Gate Bread.

For more information, visit www.LoveYourRaisins.com.

CulinaryCorps names Puerto Rico next destination for chef-instructor/student 'culanthrophy' outreach trip

CulinaryCorps Inc., the nation's first service organization for culinary professionals, will expand its culanthropy footprint with an outreach trip to Puerto Rico from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7, 2010. Through Nov. 23, 2009, CulinaryCorps will recruit a team of ten qualified and passionate culinary professionals to travel to the country to make a difference through food and cooking.

Since March 2007, CulinaryCorps has led six week-long service trips offering food-focused humanitarian aid to communities in the US. These trips, which recruit chefs, cooks, food educators and culinary students, are designed to address a community's most critical food challenges: emergency hunger relief, cooking and nutrition education, healthy food access, childhood wellness, and culinary heritage preservation. Initial CulinaryCorps efforts focused on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, connecting 75 chefs with an intense portfolio of projects including establishing farmers markets, edible school yards and emergency feeding centers.

To date, these teams of CulinaryCorps chefs from around the world have created over 6,000 meals for the communities served, mentored 400 local students on the importance of healthy eating, designed a "Grow.Cook.Dine" after-school cooking club for the state of Mississippi, and taught AmeriCorps members how to cook for Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

Applications for the 2010 trip are now available at www.culinarycorps.org.

'Super green' seafood list released

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, with the help of conservation and public health organizations, has compiled a Super Green list of seafood, meaning it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The products currently on the list are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and are low in environmental contaminants.

Based on these criteria, The Monterey Aquarium lists the following as the best seafood choices as of October 2009:

• Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the United States of British Columbia)
• Mussels (farmed)
• Oysters (farmed)
• Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
• Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)
• Rainbow Trout (farmed)
• Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)
• Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)

Other healthy choices are:

• Arctic Char (farmed)
• Bay Scallops (farmed)
• Crayfish (farmed, from the United States)
• Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
• Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
• Pacific Cod (longlinee-caught, from Alaska)

For more information, visit www.montereybayaquarium.org.