Vegetarianism—and its many variations—is a way of life for a growing number of Americans. Students, thus, should learn to prepare vegetarian and vegan dishes that entice and excite even those customers who enjoy meat. To that end, Chef Zonka shares her first-week lesson plan in a vegetarian-cuisine course.

By Renee Zonka, RD, CEC, CHE

Did you know that last month (October) was National Vegetarian Awareness Month? I have been working with vegetarians in meal planning and recipe development my entire career. When I was a chef instructor, my classes were nutritional cooking and vegetarian cuisine. In the vegetarian-cuisine class, we made different courses vegetarian and then worked with different ethnic cuisines that lent themselves to vegetarian cuisine. We would prepare foods for different types of vegetarians—from vegans to the most liberal vegetarians. Accompanying lectures would include the health benefits and cautions of vegetarian cuisines.

How often do Americans eat vegetarian meals? And how many adults in the United States are vegetarian? In 2012, the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on vegetarianism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics and world hunger, asked 2,030 random adults via a National Harris Poll about their vegetarian eating habits, if any.

World’s first business school for food innovation and entrepreneurship to offer first courses next spring.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) announced plans on Nov. 8 to launch The Food Business School(FBS), its new center for executive and graduate education. The Food Business Schoolbroadens the CIA’s commitment to the future of food education and leadership with specialized programs for executives, recent graduates and mid-career explorers. The mission of the FBS is to enable and empower entrepreneurial leaders to design, deliver and lead transformative innovations that address the world’s most pressing food challenges—and its greatest business opportunities.

Registration for programs at The Food Business School will begin January 2015 with the first courses commencing next spring.

A new degree is designed to prepare graduates to influence the future of food.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA)is launching a new bachelor’s degree major in applied food studies, with classes to begin in January 2015 at the CIA’s Hyde Park, N.Y., campus. The new major joins existing bachelor’s degrees in management and culinary science. Management majors can also pursue concentrations in advanced beverage and hospitality management, farm-to-table cooking and Latin cuisines. Together, these majors and concentrations give CIA graduates many food-career options to influence the future of the way the world eats.

The new major offers students an in-depth understanding of global food resources, policy and cultures, and their interconnections. Courses such as Anthropology of Food, Food Ecology, Food History and Social Science complement the college's foundational classes covering culinary fundamentals, world cuisines, banquets and restaurant cooking. Together they prepare graduates to impact the issues facing food systems from a chef’s perspective.

This second in a two-part series on teaching culinary arts through ratios in practical culinary labs focuses on incorporating ratios into your lesson plan.

By John Reiss, CEC, CCE

In my previous article, I wrote about using ratios in professional culinary training. Here, I focus on the ratios themselves and how to incorporate them into your lesson plan.

Ratios in Professional Cooking
As professional chefs and culinary educators, we use ratios that might be explicit or subtle. On one hand, for example, we know that a pilaf is 2:1, vinaigrette is 3:1 and a roux is 1:1.

On the other hand, there are ratios that we apply instinctively and without much thought. We “know,” for example, the amount of water needed to prepare a stock, or the amount of salt we should add to water when preparing pasta.

Knowing ratios like these streamlines the cooking process and creates speed and efficiency—both valuable commodities in the kitchen—where time is of the essence. It’s also liberating to have ratios like these at our fingertips, because they provide a zone in which we can channel our creativity in developing techniques and methods.

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation unveils the most comprehensive restaurant-industry workforce study in decades. Among findings were average annual salaries for chefs and cooks and restaurant managers.

Nine out of 10 restaurant employees say they are proud to work in the restaurant industry, while three-quarters believe the industry offers them a strong career path and upward mobility, according to a new workforce study released in August by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF).

As the most extensive research of the restaurant sector workforce in decades, “Who Works in the U.S. Restaurant Industry” details the opinions of nearly 5,100 Americans who currently work or formerly worked in the industry, as well as those who own or operate restaurants.

“This landmark research finds that employees and owners/operators have a decidedly positive perception of our industry and believe extensive career choices and opportunities for advancement are readily available,” said Dawn Sweeney, president and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and NRAEF. “This study offers fresh and compelling insight into why so many Americans choose to chart their careers in the restaurant industry, how they advance and why so many plan to stay until they retire.”