From molecular gastronomy to the growing demand for smaller-footprint, multipurpose devices, today’s foodservice students must be exposed to and proficient at utilizing modern cooking equipment while developing critical thinking skills to anticipate the advanced technologies of tomorrow.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

In education, we have a simple, but ultimately complicated, mandate: to prepare our students for the future they will inherit. In many foodservice operations, such thinking is trumped by the operational needs of running a foodservice business and the need to balance short-term profits and long-term fiscal health.

For us in the educational world of culinary arts, our focus is five to 10 years from now. Given the speed at which the foodservice industry changes, educators embrace an awesome responsibility. Our students trust that the education we offer will, indeed, point them toward success in the future. Thus, we look for the megatrends that will shape the future of foodservice without getting distracted by short-term trends or fads—which might get some mention in a quality culinary program, but will not earn star status by being incorporated into the curriculum.

When it comes to equipment, there are two distinct educational outcomes. The first is to simply familiarize students with equipment common to many professional kitchens. This actually goes beyond familiarization, as students need to know how to cook on this equipment and perform basic maintenance.

Cricket flour, cannabis, snack bars and sustainable packaging make the list.

Consumers will seek more from their food in 2015, whether stronger flavors, alternative sweeteners or snacks made with everything from plant-based meat to even marijuana. That’s according to predictions from the editors of Specialty Food News, the daily newsletter from the Specialty Food Association.

The $88.3 billion specialty-food industry is driven by innovation and small-batch production. Six out of 10 U.S. consumers purchase specialty food, and those numbers are expected to rise in 2015, according to association research.

“Food producers are tapping into the growing sophistication and buying power of today’s consumers,” says Denise Purcell, editor of Specialty Food News. “They are catering to new demands for better ingredients, sustainable packaging and more convenient ways to shop and eat.”

The Culinary Institute of America and Restaurant Associates announce a new partnership designed to accelerate innovation in contract-foodservice operations of the future.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and Restaurant Associates (RA) recently formed a strategic partnership geared toward fostering future creativity, innovation and “intrapreneurial” thinking in the contract-foodservice sector of the foodservice industry. In support of the CIA’s capital campaign, RA and Compass Group have also made a substantial commitment to provide financial assistance to students in pursuit of their professional degrees.

Along with increasing student scholarships, the nexus of the partnership will be the CIA’s new Student Commons, which is now under construction and scheduled to open in the summer of 2015. Located at the college’s flagship Hyde Park, N.Y., campus and designed under the direction of world-renowned Adam Tihany, the new facility will take the concept of student dining to a new level. The state-of-the-art facility will feature several cooking and dining venues, a high-volume production teaching kitchen, a fresh market complete with green walls growing herbs and vegetables, a teaching micro-brewery in partnership with Brooklyn Brewery, and a “black box restaurant” in which bachelor’s students studying intrapraneurshipwill develop and market-test new restaurant concepts.

The 2014 Economic Impact Report recently released by the Club Managers Association of America reveals that country, golf, athletic, city and other clubs spend billions on goods and services in their local communities. Additionally, they hire hundreds of thousands of personnel.

The Alexandria, Va.-based Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) recently released its 2014 Economic Impact Report in conjunction with Club Benchmarking. This biannual report details the economic impact of the more than 2,600 clubs managed by members of the CMAA.

The total direct economic impact for the club industry in 2013 was $21 billion, including all tax revenues generated as a result of club activities. Clubs are significant contributors to their local communities, with dense, highly local economic activity. The vast majority of cash flows resulting from purchases, employment, taxes, charitable giving and other economic activities are centered in the community in which the club operates.

Members of the American Culinary Federation are well aware of the quality and relevance of the organization’s official magazine, The National Culinary Review. The publication’s current success with readers and impact on the industry is due to its editor-in-chief for more than a decade, who recently received the highest recognition possible from her peers.

Courtesy of the International Foodservice Editorial Council

No one in the audience at The Betty award lunch on Nov. 4, 2014, during the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) annual conference in Dallas seemed surprised when the much-anticipated announcement came—except the awardee herself. (See photo.)

Kay Orde, editor-in-chief of the American Culinary Federation’s The National Culinary Review, was so focused on getting her camera ready to shoot the winner that it took her a moment to realize it was her name that was called.

A member of IFEC since 2003, Orde has served the organization in many capacities, including secretary of the board of directors, Chef Showcase co-chair (two years in a row) and member of the Professional Development Awards and Mentoring/New Member Orientation committees.

The Betty Bastion Outstanding Service Award, a.k.a. The Betty, is presented annually to celebrate one IFEC member who has provided extraordinary service to IFEC and the foodservice communications field and stands out as a knowledgeable and generous professional. Named for Betty Bastion Varese, who retired as IFEC’s first executive director in 1991, the award was inaugurated that year.

In nominating Orde for the 2014 award, Katie Ayoub, managing editor of Flavor & The Menu magazine and one of several IFEC members proposing Orde, said, “I have worked with her as both a writer, pitching article ideas, and as a publicist, pitching magazine placement. She has always been receptive, attentive and professional in those exchanges. Kay gives her heart and mind to IFEC, and I can think of no one more deserving of The Betty.”

IFEC member Mary Petersen, founder and president of CAFÉ, also nominated Orde. “I always appreciate Kay’s prompt and supportive feedback, as well as her keen editing skills,” Petersen wrote. “Kay is a kind professional with a willingness to help others in the IFEC community.”

Before becoming editor-in-chief of The National Culinary Review, Orde worked incommunications for the ACF in St. Augustine, Fla., producing the membership newsletter Center of the Plate. Her background includes: staff writer, The Chapel Hill News, Chapel Hill, N.C.; technical writer, Research and Evaluation Associates, Chapel Hill; staff writer/editor, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, N.C.; freelance writer, Durham Morning Herald, Durham, N.C.; and several area magazines. Prior to joining the ACF, she taught English at Flagler College in St. Augustine.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and honors in creative writing, Orde earned a master’s degree in English and environmental studies at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. She lives in St. Augustine with her husband, celebrated novelist Lewis Orde. The couple has two married daughters and three grandchildren.

According to IFEC, the 2014 presentation was especially exciting, opening with a video celebrating past recipients (24 in all) leading up to 2013 Betty honoree John Scroggins of Noble Communications +, Springfield, Mo., announcing Orde. The original Betty (Bastion Varese) and 15 previous Betty winners were on hand to help congratulate Orde.