Fifty Minute Classroom

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50-Minute Classroom: The “First 50” Index

28 July 2014

Chef Weiner lists his first 50 articles written for CAFÉ’s “The Gold Medal Classroom,” for the benefit of readers.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

This article is dedicated to Ms. Terry Jones of Gallup high School in New Mexico. At the June 2014 CAFÉ Leadership Conference in Salt Lake City, she sat down next to me and said, “Adam, I print out each of your articles and keep them in a notebook on my desk. I made an index, and before I teach a new subject I re-read the appropriate article.”

Could anything be more musical to my ears?

Toward the end of 2008 I was contacted by Brent Frei and Mary Petersen asking if I would be interested in writing the regular editorial department, “50-Minute Classroom,” for CAFÉ’s “The Gold Medal Classroom.” I told them that I would do it temporarily for a few months until they found a permanent columnist.

I enjoyed working with both of them so much, and so enjoyed the challenge of taking culinary-academy subjects and figuring out how they could be taught in a high-school context that more than four years later I am still “temporarily” writing the column!

This is my 50th article, and I thought that Ms. Jones’ idea was a good one. So, below is an index to the previous 49 articles. All except Number 5 are archived on CAFÉ’s website and hyperlinked. (No. 50—this article—will join the archives in September.)

1.     “Teaching Presentation in 50 Minutes,” January/February 2009  

2.     “Teaching with Puzzles,” March/April 2009 

3.     “At-a-Glance Refresher” (a culinary cheat sheet), May/June 2009

4.     “Out of the Box” (on the reality of cooking with convenience product), September 2009

5.     “Cooking Quotes,” November 2009

6.     “Teaching Students How to Plan Their Cooking,” January 2010

7.     “The Importance of Preparation among the Five ‘P’s,” March 2010

8.     “Teaching International Cuisines,” May 2010

9.     “Ten Key Points of Separation” (amateur vs. professional cooks), June 2010

10.  “Braising,” September 2010

11.  “How to Buy Knives, Part 1,” October 2010

12.  “How to Buy Knives, Part 2,” November 2010

13.  “How to Buy Knives, Part 3,” December 2010

14.  “How to Buy Knives, Part 4,” January 2011

15.  “Interview Skills,” March 2011

16.  “Help Your Students Keep Their Jobs,” May 2011

17.  “Teaching Baking in 50 Minutes,” July/August 2011

18.  “Assessing Culinary Math Skills,” September 2011

19.  “Motivation” (of students), October 2011

20.  “Foodservice Economics,” November 2011

21.  “Teaching Food Costs,” December 2011

22.   “Sauté,” January 2012

23.  “Chocolate Dipping,” February 2012

24.  “Teaching Nutrition, Part 1,” March 2012

25.  “Teaching Nutrition, Part 2,” April 2012

26.  “Assessment,” May 2012

27.  “Teaching Students How to Get a Job, Part I,” June 2012

28.  “Teaching Your Students How to Find a Job, Part II,” July/August 2012

29.  “Salt,” September 2012

30.  “Capitalize on Boards, Commissions and Associations,” October 2012

31.  “Making Sure Everyone Shares in the Work, Making Sure Everyone Gets the Glory,” November 2012

32.  “12 Things for Students to Know” (working in a commercial kitchen), December 2012

33.  “Do You Teach Recipes or Technique?” January 2013

34.  “Reading and Writing Recipes,” February 2013

35.  “Teaching Steaming,” March 2013

36.  “Teaching Grilling,” April 2013

37.  “Teaching the Value of ‘Real’ Networking,” May 2013

38.  “As Teachers, Always ‘on,’ All the Time,” June 2013

39.  “The 10 Hardest Things to Teach Young Culinary Students,” July/August 2013

40.  “Working in Teams Needs to Be Taught,” September 2013 

41.  “Picking Teams,” October 2013

42.  “Playing Games,” November 2013

43.  “Volunteering for Young and Old,” December 2013

44.  “Teaching How to Prepare to Give a Non-Class Demonstration,” January 2014

45.  “Do You Need to Teach Science?” February 2014

46.  “Science Your Students Need to Know,” March 2014

47.  “The Rest of the Science,” April 2014

48.  “Look for the Open Door. It Is There” (commencement speech), May 2014

49.  “Teaching Essential Skills,” June 2014

50.  “The ‘First 50’ Index,” July/August 2014

My next two articles will be topics suggested at the 2014 Leadership Conference: how to teach blanching in 50 minutes and how to order more easily and efficiently.

If you have suggestions for future articles, please e-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or send a message to Chef Adam Weiner on LinkedIn.

Cheers to the next 50 articles!

Editor’s note: “50-Minute Classroom” was conceived by Mary Petersen for the benefit of secondary-school foodservice educators. Chef Weiner is very receptive to feedback and suggestion, so we encourage readers to reach out to him with ideas for future topics, as the chef accepts them with great conscientiousness and gravity. He also welcomes critical review of and reaction to his recent articles.—BTF


Chef Adam Weiner, CFSE, teaches a 20-week Introduction to Cooking program for JobTrain on the San Francisco Peninsula.