The Great American Can Roundup Industry Challenge raises more than $183,000 for charity.

As the nation celebrated America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, the aluminum-beverage-can industry announced it had collected and recycled more than 235,100 pounds of cans, raising nearly $183,830 for local charities across the country according to the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI).

The Rexam North American beverage-can headquarters office in Chicago won first place in the annual industry competition, with 70,775 pounds of used aluminum cans (874 per capita), followed by Novelis in LaGrange, Ga., whose employees collected 3,517 pounds of cans (352 per capita). In third place is Ball Corporation’s plant in Findlay, Ohio, collecting and recycling 36,611 pounds (101 per capita). Winners are selected from the highest per-capita collection rates based on the number of pounds of aluminum collected per employee at each site.

An English professor expresses his hope for the culinary-arts students he teaches: that they will see how public speaking translates to everyday interactions.

By Scott Palmieri, Ph.D.

With dreams of becoming the next Thomas Keller or Alice Waters, freshmen who must enter my Communication Skills class at Johnson & Wales University are often far from enthused. As my colleague, Bill Lenox, reminds me, when they go home for Thanksgiving and are asked by their loved ones to wow the family in the kitchen, they are left to explain that they were behind a desk or podium for most of the fall.

For the university, this is a source of pride, as they receive a well-rounded education. However, how do I, an English professor, relate my subject to future culinarians? After 11 years teaching English courses to culinary and baking-and-pastry students, I have learned to speak their language better while bringing them into my world.

From a veritable vegetable harvest to liquid luxuries to 24/7 snacking, a noted trend-tracker is among the first to predict what will be hot on menus next year.

Courtesy of Culinary Visions^® Panel

Culinary Visions^® Panel collected insight from foodservice professionals, scoured more than 20 trade conferences and surveyed more than 3,000 consumer foodies to get their take on the foods and flavors most likely to captivate consumers this coming year. This year the conversation was about the cultural significance of food and the role consumers play as curators.

Curation has become the new art form practiced by opinion-leading chefs who are among the important cultural curators of our time. Consumers, who have been digitally enabled, have become enchanted with the idea of becoming the curators of their real or imagined lives. Following are highlights from the insight collected that includes both food-professional and consumer-foodie perspectives, and what it suggests for the coming year:

When teaching the development of successful children’s menus, emphasize to your students that all five human sensory perceptions (and an arguable sixth) must be put into play.

By Eric Stein, RD, MS, CCE

Getting kids to eat a nutritious meal doesn’t have to be a challenge. Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all learning style in the classroom, kids don’t respond to food stimuli the same way, either. Each child is born with a dominant sense that guides his or her food choices.

Appealing to the senses has a direct bearing on parents’ success getting kids to eat enough of the right foods. And while it is commonly perceived that we eat with our eyes first, aroma and sound also play vital roles in building hunger.

The following recipes are not only visually striking and flavorful, but also appeal to the senses of smell, touch (including texture and mouthfeel) and/or sound:

For millennia, specific ingredients indigenous to traditional sheep-growing regions have influenced the types of dishes made using lamb, and today, popular techniques cross global frontiers for many cuts to yield eminently flavorful and satisfying dishes.

By Priscilla Martel

Lamb is among the most common livestock consumed throughout the world, linked to feasts and religious observances. Christians, Jews and Muslims celebrate with lamb, an essential part of the cuisine on Easter, Passover and Ramadan. Lamb is symbolic of spring, sacrifice, fertility and it unites people around a table of delicious food. For centuries, in humble homes, on the street and in the finest restaurants this versatile meat has been grilled, seared, braised, roasted, stewed and served everywhere. The lore and tradition that surrounds the way lamb has been served around the globe is a source of inspiration for new ways to prepare it.