President's Blog

On behalf of the American Culinary Federation, the Certification and Communications departments invite your chapter members to take part in the Chefpertise program. The Chefpertise Guide will highlight ACF certified chefs and their culinary specialties, from molecular gastronomy to farm-to-table cuisine.  To be considered, all Certified Chef de Cuisines® and higher must submit an application by March 7. For more information, visithttp://www.acfchefs.org/download/temp/20101209_chefpertise_application.pdf .

 

The Chefpertise Guide will be posted on ACF’s website as a downloadable guide and will be used by the media when seeking expert sources for interviews, TV appearances and cooking demonstrations, and by communities throughout the U.S. in search of qualified chefs for community initiatives and educational events. 

 

Thank you for sharing this great opportunity with your chapter members.

 

Sincerely,

Leah Craig, Communications Manager, and Sandy Friend, Director of Certification

904-484-0213

lcraig@acfchefs.net

www.acfchefs.org

People:

Remember when you saw (or heard about) PRI doing the play Hairspray?

Well we entered a 5 minute version of Born for the Stage (the title of the documentary) into the Filmanthropy Film Festival last weekend.

Long story short, we won first prize.

Fabulous, but not the end of the story.

Born for the Stage was posted on You Tube.

Here is the You Tube version: This is a five minute version for you to review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HpUFvopdVs

We have had some rather shocking responses.

Please see below.

  

This is an email that was sent to our company yesterday:

 

Hello!

 

My name is Marc Shaiman and I co-wrote the musical "HAIRSPRAY" (music and co-lyrics, I have cc:d my partner Scott).  I just came across the video on YouTube about your performance of our show/songs.

 

I just wanted to say how deeply touched and humbled I am to have be connected (albeit 'from a distance') with such good people as you and your team.  Please send along my thanks to the other teachers/instructors/volunteers in the video whose Email addresses were not on your website.

 

And please also send my hearty congratulations to the performers.  I can tell from the bits and pieces in the video that they truly captured the spirit of joyfulness and pride that is what "HAIRSPRAY" is all about.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

 

With thanks and gratitude,

Marc Shaiman

More info on Mr. Shaiman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Shaiman#Personal_life

 

Needless to say, we are thrilled and somewhat overwhelmed by the attention. We will be working on the next steps for Born for the Stage and shall keep you posted.

A celebration and awards ceremony is in the planning stages for early to mid January.

Thanks,

 

Dan Reed

Director of Marketing and Development

Partnership Resources, Inc.

4226 Park Glen Rd.

St. Louis Park, MN 55416

phone: 952 925-1404

cell:        612 363-5308

fax:         952 925-6055

danreed@partnershipresources.org

www.partnershipresources.org

Wow! What a night. Thank you for all that was able to make this such a great event tonight. Those that couldn't attend you missed a wonderful night. Chef Bryan Schouten and staff put on a fantastic event.

After presenting the outgoing board a thank you for their 2 years of service. The chapter thanked the following companies for their support the past year. Reinhart Foodservice, US Foodservice, Sysco, Foodservice News.

Recognition of 8 new Supporting Associate Memberships went to: Neesvig Purveyors, Cardinal International, Caulfield & Associates, Excel Food Service Marketing, Apex Commerical Kitchen Co., BIX Produce, LeMire Sales, Hawkeye Foodservice.

Recognition to 16 continuing Supporting Associate Memberships: US Foodservice, Apperts Foodservice, American Fish & Seafood, CenterPoint Energy, Wells Blue Bunny, Hockenberg Newburgh, Swanson Meats, Iowa Capons, Hormel Foods, Yes Distributing, Hollander Company, Minnesota Restaurant Association, Compart Farms, Reinhart Foodservice, Bull Brokerage.

10 year ACF Service Pins to: Ray Clark, Kurt Struwe, David Eisenriech, Eileen Zolen.

Local Chef and Child 'Little Oscar' went to Chris Sturzl and Mark Good.

Chef Educator of the Year to Gil Gaitan.

Student Culinarian of the Year to Lisa Berg

C.H.E.F.F.Y. to Angelo Montes, CEC

Toby Landgraf Scholarships:

Lisa  Berg, Minneapolis Community Technical Colllege

Denis Durnev, Hennepin Technical College

Julie Kowalezuk-Riel, Le Cordon Bleu

Daryll Tinana, The Arts Institute International Minnesota

Scott Parks, Le Cordon Bleu

ACF Minneapolis Scholarships:

Max Kurnow  - Timothy Joyce, Le Cordon Bleu

Sandra Berg- Katie F. Hohenstein, South Central College

ACF MCC Scholarship ~ Joe Mueller, South Central College

US Food Service - Luke Rother, The Arts Institute International Minnesota

And this years Chef of the Year went to Gary Hjellming.

Congratulations to this years scholarship and award winners.
What a night!

The 2010 Scholarship and Grant Application is now posted on the chapters website on the Download Forms Page. Many scholarships will be given out to Minnesota Culinary Students. Deadline is October 15th. Don't wait do it today.

ACF national president Michael Ty, CEC, AAC, invites students and apprentices to enter the Be Like “Mike” contest for the chance to shadow him at the 2010 ACF National Convention in Anaheim, Calif. Airfare, accommodations and full registration will be provided.

To enter, applicants must submit a photo, letter of recommendation from their department chair and an essay describing how shadowing Ty during the national convention will help them attain their goal of being a culinary leader in the future. Applications must be mailed to ACF, postmarked by May 28. The winner will be announced June 21. Complete information and the application is available at www.acfchefs.org/Content/NavigationMenu2/About/Overview/President/Contest/default.htm.

We have now added a facebook Fan Page. The previous facebook page was a group page with everyone able to post to it. This appears more professional. If you have a facebook account please join.

In April we will be having a special event for Junior & Student Culinarians with an acclaimed author as our guest speaker. This event will highlight the many membership benefits that joining the ACF can offer young culinarians as they start out their fantastic careers. Education, Certification, Competitions, Networking & Seminars. We will also have food, refreshments and door prizes. 

The night of the event we will have a drawing for 5 FREE Junior/Student Culinarian memberships into the ACF/MCC. But you must register in advance to be eligible. Stay tuned.

For those of you on the social networking site Facebook. We now have a page there for those that want to become a FAN.

The website has been updated with several new items. On the main page you will see scrolling images of our Supporting Associate Members with links to their websites. (working on getting all the images the same size) Some interesting shared items from Google Reader & new job postings. I also added a page on the website for taking Polls. Some will be for fun and some will be for feedback on the chapter. Please go to the website and take the poll or go to http://www.polldaddy.com/p/1568352/ If you have any ideas or suggestions for Polls, email them to me. Looking forward to announcing the results at this months meeting.

If you have registered for this months meeting, thank you. If you are registered and can not make it please let me know because we are full. Chef Dan has limited space for 50 people.

We are currently looking for hosting sites for 2010.  If you have never hosted a meeting we always enjoy going to a new location. Of if you haven't hosted a meeting in a few years now is the time to sign up. Our goal is to have meeting sites around the entire metro area at locations that can accommodate at least 80 members. If you would like to host a meeting next year contact Vice President Pat Conway or me. Remember the St. Paul Chefs Association has disbanded and many of their members will be joining our chapter. It would be great if each Culinary School could host one meeting each year. What a great way to introduce the students to the ACF. We only meet 10 times a year and with 6 Culinary Schools that would leave only 4 other meeting sites and 1 of those is the Awards Dinner.

The subject of molecular gastronomy has been ever increasing the last few years.

Molecular gastronomy is a scientific discipline involving the study of physical and chemical processes that occur in cooking.^[3] It pertains to the mechanisms behind the transformation of ingredients in cooking and the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general (from a scientific point of view).

The ACF Minneapolis Chefs Chapter is planning on holding an informative seminar on this subject. We are currently looking for chefs with experience and knowledge with molecular gastronomy. If you or you know some one  interested have them contact a member of the board.

Also as a member of the ACF MCC what do you want to learn about molecular gastronomy?

Do you have any other ideas for cooking seminars?