Says this career educator, whether students in your program have a practice restaurant or not, teaching respect for the staff meal and how it contributes to a sense of team will follow your graduates to the kitchens that they work in and eventually run.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

I just finished watching the United States Girls Gymnastics Team complete an impressive collaborative win. What was most impressive was not their individual athleticism (incredible), but more importantly how they worked together, felt together, supported each other and fed off of each other’s strengths. This is such an impressive feat that I naturally began to think about how this same energy and working philosophy could be imbedded in a culinary-school curriculum. The significance of team is what it’s all about.

I had the privilege many years ago of participating as a member of the 1988 U.S. New England Culinary Olympic Team, an experience that changed my entire outlook on life and my profession. We became a family and learned through trial and error to build on each other’s strengths and accept and help each other with our weaknesses. Yes, we very successful in the Frankfurt “Olympics,” but more importantly we discovered what it meant to get past teamwork and move on to “team.”

Chef Johnny Hernandez inspires foodservice educators at the 2012 CAFÉ Leadership Conference in San Antonio.

By Brent T. Frei

“Teachers and educators are some of my favorite people in the world,” said Johnny Hernandez as he began his keynote and shared his career story at the 2012 CAFÉ Leadership Conference at The Culinary Institute of America-San Antonio on June 23. “It’s our responsibility to teach.”

A successful chef, restaurateur and caterer, Hernandez told the story of his love and passion for food that began at age 5 in his father’s restaurant and at home in San Antonio’s westside neighborhood. At 9, he sold tacos from the restaurant to fellow students at school. Later, his home-economics teacher in high school accompanied Hernandez to the Marriott to ask for a cooking job.

A career educator with 42 years in the food business divulges “musts” to achieve the critical successful relationship between culinary graduate and employer.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

Even with unemployment looming as one of our country’s greatest challenges, restaurants, hotels and resorts still struggle to find enough qualified, professionally committed individuals to staff their kitchen brigades. Last count there were somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 schools in the United States with culinary programs. Why is there still a gap between supply and demand?

This year marks my 42^nd year in some facet of the food business. I spent 10 years in kitchens from line cook to executive chef after a two-year college program in hotel management. Twenty-six years followed in college-level culinary education beginning as instructor and finishing as the dean of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. During that time I completed both baccalaureate and master’s degrees in related fields and dedicated a few weeks each year working in kitchens to stay fresh. I worked diligently with the American Culinary Federation to earn accreditation for the program, served a few years on the Accreditation Committee and was appointed as the chair of the ACF National Education Committee. This time in education afforded me the opportunity to serve as a member of the 1988 New England Culinary Olympic Team and in 2001 was honored as the ACF National Culinary Educator of the Year.

A member of the American Culinary Federation’s chapter in Atlanta lauds the personal and professional value of attending a well-developed and executed monthly meeting.

by Eric Karell, CEC, AAC

I attended the April meeting of our chapter not really knowing what to expect. The last time I attended an ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter Inc. meeting was at least three years ago when I hosted the President’s Gala at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Even though it was a beautiful spring evening and I was fairly tired from a busy weekend, I decided to drive the nearly 30 miles to the Halperns’ Purveyors of Steak and Seafood’s kitchen, research and training facility.

I was greeted warmly by some old friends at the door, Halperns' employees I have known for a dozen years. They gave me a raffle ticket and informed me there would be a drawing for some boxed steaks at the end of the meeting. Sounded promising.

The executive chef of two-unit Saul Good Restaurant & Pub in Lexington, Ky., admits to learning a lot of hard lessons about how chefs and owners should get along, but he’s gotten a crash course in doing it the right way from founder Rob Perez. Chef Mayer shares some insights into why he believes “ours is not the typical owner-operator and chef relationship.”

By Jeffrey Mayer

I’m like a lot of chefs: a culinary dreamer who has a certain philosophy about the foods I want to cook. But when I first started talking to Rob about Saul Good, I saw the opportunity to work with him as a chance to learn a hell of a lot from a successful, business-savvy guy, somebody who knows how to make a whole concept work.