Food & Business Tips
The Culinary Institute
Food & Business Tips
May marked the graduation of another culinary class, and this was the largest class to graduate in our history! Having that number of graduates is encouraging from the standpoint of realizing that the incoming students are committed to our program and feel they are getting a thorough and useful certificate. The program is still dedicated to earning accreditation through ACF or another institute, and to that end we remain optimistic that the cold kitchen will have a full makeover before the end of the year, resulting in a facility more geared for teaching and training.
The new rotation will be the first with internet access by using the University’s Blackboard system. For those of you not familiar with Blackboard, the basic principle is that we can now post any information we need to share with the students, which they can then access with their account. During the course of a subject, their syllabus can be made available, handouts or worksheets can be posted, along with homework, even testing can be done online. Blackboard is a wonderful way to get information out to all the students without having to print numerous copies to handout. We can also… Continue reading
A Background Check for: Worcestershire Sauce
Food & Business Tips
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce is probably the most well-known product produced in Worcester and was first produced by two chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins. If you look at the bottle today, there is still the message of “…from the recipe of a nobleman of the country”; but who exactly was this nobleman, and where did he get the recipe?
According to historians, Lord Sandy was a local aristocrat who had been the Governor of Bengal at one point in his life. In 1835, he went to the two chemists and asked if they could replicate a recipe he had discovered in India. Taking on the challenge, they eventually duplicated the taste to the nobleman’s content, and actually kept a few extra jars for themselves. However, they tasted the concoction and could not find a way for themselves to actually enjoy the new dish, so they took their jars and stored them in the cellar in case they had to replicate the sauce again for Lord Sandys. They forgot about the jars until some time later and decided to retaste the vinegar, just to see if it had become more palatable. To their surprise,… Continue reading
ACF Chef & Child Foundation Partners with Clemson University to Provide Free Nutrition Articles From “Vegetarian-Friendly” to “Downsizing Calories and Portions,” articles are valuable resource to chefs, foodservice professionals and the public.
Food & Business Tips
St. Augustine, Fla., May 4, 2009-The American Culinary Federation’s Chef & Child Foundation and Clemson University have partnered to offer a series of monthly “Culinary Nutrition News” articles. Written by experts, articles will bridge the nutrition gap for chefs by providing up-to-date research information. Articles will be posted on ACF’s Web site the first Monday of each month. Download the inaugural article, “Culinary Nutrition News: Vegetarian-Friendly,” today.
“Our partnership with Clemson University to promote research in the ever-changing scenery of nutrition information will help the Chef & Child Foundation fulfill its mission, which is to educate children and families about proper nutrition,” said Elizabeth Mikesell, CEC, AAC, chair, ACF Chef & Child Committee, and chef-instructor at Pima Community College, Tucson, Ariz.
Topics to expect in 2009:
* May: Vegetarian-Friendly
* June: Allergen Awareness
* July: Fiber-Rich
* August: Calorie Countdown
* September: Healthful Cooking Techniques
* October: Downsizing Calories and Portions
* November: Demystifying Lipids
* December: Diabetic Menu Makeover
Experts in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at Clemson University will utilize research teams, its research kitchen and its CU CHEFS(r) (Clemson University’s Cooking and Healthy Eating Food Specialists) program to bring the most… Continue reading
Business Sense
The most common question I get from chefs, restaurateurs, students, and just people interested in the environment is: What is sustainable seafood and how do I know if I am using it? Unfortunately, that is a difficult question to answer because there are no clear-cut answers for many of the seafoods. This month, however, I will try to give you some guidelines to follow for the most common fish we use.
To begin with, sustainable seafood is seafood from either fished or farmed sources that can maintain or increase production in the future without jeopardizing the ecosystems from which it was acquired. This means it is seafood we are not harvesting faster than the population can be replenished, or the farms we are harvesting from are not destroying other systems. It is extremely hard for us to know exactly which fish are being caught correctly, but let’s go over some of the more common fish:
American catfish, tilapia, trout: Farmed is the way to go with these fish, but try to use farmed in the United States vs ones farmed in China. The Chinese use many pollutants which hurt nearby waters.
Crabs: Blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay… Continue reading
Calculating Food Cost
When interviewing for a job, calculating food cost, food cost percentages and sales price can be key questions to success.
Food Cost =
Sales Price x Food Cost% (FC = SP x FC%).
Sales Price =
Food Cost / Food Cost % (SP = FC / FC%).
Food Cost % =
Food Cost / Sales Price (FC% = FC / SP).
ENSURING FOOD SAFETY
1. Controlling Time and Temperature: Microorganisms cannot survive or reproduce outside certain temperature ranges.
2. Practicing Good Personal Hygiene: *Proper hand washing *Enforcing rules regarding eating, drinking and smoking *Preventing the ill from working with food *General cleanliness.
How healthy are healthy foods?
Yes some foods may fight diseases and prolong life, but we often forget just because a food is healthy doesn’t mean it’s calorie-free. We often eat too much of a healthy food and that cancels out the benefits it provides.
