Whether you maintain one or 21, building the practice of keeping a journal and recording key ideas and activities can very useful for three important reasons.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed strategies for retaining students in our courses and programs. This month and next month, we will talk about professional journals—not published in scholarly and trade journals, but notebooks or diaries in which one writes ideas, feelings and reflections so that they can be referenced in the future.

This month, we will discuss the power and value of a keeping a journal, whether you are a student, teacher or administrator.

Types of Journals
There are many types of notebook journals that journal individuals use. Kate Davis, on www.darktea.com, lists 15 (time-capsule journal, specific-topic journal, dream journal, travel journal, reading journal, specific-timeframe journal, group or family journal, gratitude journal, personal-development journal, project journal, gardening journal, meditation journal, planning journal, creativity journal and quick journal) and Shoshana Jackson on www.knoji.com lists 20 (family journal, couples journal, relationship journal, letter journal, birthday journal, memory journal, gratitude journal, prayer journal, good thoughts or affirmations journal, dream journal, focus journal, joke journal, book or movie journal, recipe journal, hobby journal, sports journal, travel journal, health journal, diet and exercise journal and finance journal.)

Are you dooming your students to failure by not focusing enough attention on helping them find and keep jobs after graduation?

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

I hope you will endure a bit of self-promotion. I was asked by Mary Petersen of CAFÉ to lead a roundtable discussion at the upcoming Leadership Conference in Salt Lake City on the importance of teaching life skills and job skills to culinary students.

For those of you who have read my articles for a while, you know I adamantly believe that unless you teach your students job-searching skills, skills to keep the job, and basic life skills you are dooming them to failure. I have written a number of CAFÉ articles on this very subject:

1.     “Interview Skills,” March 2011

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

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

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

5.     “12 Things for Students to Know,” on how to work in a commercial kitchen, December 2012

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

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

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

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

There should be no room for variance from a standard of expectation among all stakeholders—employers, faculty, parents and the students themselves. To ensure that culinary grads meet acceptable skill and aptitude standards, Chef Sorgule suggests employing a “passport.”

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

The first question is, “What are the critical skills that will allow students to progress within your program and reach a level of success on internship and after graduation”?

Although there are numerous core competencies that set the stage for “learning” and the ability to adapt to various situations, there is a specific grouping of more tangible competencies that are essential in building “employability” aptitudes in kitchens. If planned correctly, these aptitudes can provide the setting for the other core competencies within a curriculum.

These critical skills should be drawn from a collaborative process of involvement including faculty, industry chefs and bakers, alumni and the students themselves. Knowing the expectations of these constituencies is the foundation for building a curriculum and system of evaluation that will develop confidence and lead to student success.

Potato prep problems? Your students are one click away from the solution. Questions about au gratin, baked, mashed, potato salad and french fries are answered online.

Courtesy of the Idaho Potato Commission

Here’s a scenario to offer students: It’s the middle of the dinner rush, and the french fries are coming out of the fryer darker than usual. What’s an operator to do when a potato-preparation crisis arises?

Have them head to the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) All Things Potatoes page. As the potato industry’s best resource for product information (varieties, handling, storage) and usage (preparation tips and recipes), the IPC collected targeted solutions and recommended recipes for five potato menu standards: All Things Au Gratin Potatoes, All Things Baked Potatoes, All Things Mashed Potatoes, All Things Potato Salads and All Things French Fried Potatoes.

Under each heading, students can browse Dr. Potato’s posts on best practices, optimal outcomes and profitability tips. Scrolling down, the IPC provides technique videos and a wide-ranging selection of recipes in each category. Future plans to expand available topics include hash browns and potato skins.

While students visit https://idahopotato.com/foodservice, have them check out the IPC’s comprehensive recipe database, refer to a helpful size guide and Idaho® potato preparation tips, find answers and solutions to operational and culinary FAQs, or ask Dr. Potato a question. 

The 2013 initiative, which has gained much chef and operator support from states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, continues to strive to ensure sustainability of red snapper, grouper and other fish for sale in foodservice.

As part of its efforts to support sustainability practices in the foodservice industry,The National Restaurant Association recently announced it has joined Share the Gulf, a coalition of chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant associations, seafood suppliers, fishermen, consumers and environmentalists working to protect their access to fish in the Gulf states.

“The fresh, local seafood of the Gulf states is essential to the growth of the region’s economy and its varied foodservice businesses,” said Scott DeFife, executive vice president of policy and government affairs for the NRA. “We are committed to helping ensure this seafood is not only fished sustainably so its population continues to grow, but that the voices of small businesses, their employees and customers also are heard.”

The initiative, launched in 2013, aims to ensure the region’s restaurants and grocery businesses maintain an equitable share of the Gulf states’ red-snapper catch.