National Culinary Review (Nov/Dec 2020)

NATIVE FLAVORS

Exploring the tastes of Indigenous cuisine

Let your customers know you have their safety in mind.

New ACF COVID-19 Safety Training

Take the ACF COVID-19 Safety Training for Foodservice course and earn a certificate and verifiable digital badge that can be displayed on your website and social media channels.

Available in the ACF Online Learning Center. Visit acfchefs.org/OLC

Topics Covered:

• Key Features of COVID-19

• Minimizing Risk and Preventing Spread

• Best Practices for Foodservice

• Examples from Chefs in the Industry

FEATURE STORIES

22

Flavors of the Land

Chefs are sparking interest in Indigenous foods by going back to their roots. Plus, a look at these foods in North America and beyond.

DEPARTMENTS

12 Management

16

20

30

Leading chefs discuss how to make the move into higher-level management positions.

Pastry

Panettone, the Italian sweet bread enjoyed during the holidays, remains as popular as ever.

Classical vs. Modern

A study of financiers in the classic form, plus a modern take on the French pastry.

Main Course

A look at some of the most sustainable and climate-friendly crops on the planet.

34 On the Side

These organizations are going the extra mile when it comes to modern-day sustainability. 36 Health

With Thanksgiving around the corner, chefs offer ways to lighten up turkey stuffing.

Editor-in-Chief

Amelia Levin

Creative Services Manager

David Ristau

Graphic Designer

Armando Mitra

Advertising and Event Sales

Eric Gershowitz

Jeff Rhodes

Director of Marketing and Communications

Alan Sterling

American Culinary Federation, Inc.

180 Center Place Way • St. Augustine, FL 32095 (800) 624-9458 (904) 824-4468 Fax: (904) 940-0741 ncr@acfchefs.net ACFSales@mci-group.com www.acfchefs.org

Board of Directors

President

Thomas Macrina, CEC®, CCA®, AAC®

National Secretary

Mark Wright, CEC, AAC

National Treasurer

James Taylor, CEC, AAC, MBA

American Academy of Chefs Chair

Americo “Rico” DiFronzo, CEC, CCA, AAC

Vice President Central Region

Steven Jilleba, CMC®, CCE®, AAC

Vice President Northeast Region

Barry R. Young, CEC, CCE, AAC

Vice President Southeast Region

Kimberly Brock Brown, CEPC®, CCA, AAC

Vice President Western Region

Robert W. Phillips, CEC, CCA, AAC

Executive Director

Heidi Cramb

Number 6, is owned by the American Culinary Federation, Inc. (ACF) and is produced 6 times a year by ACF, located at 180 Center Place Way, St. Augustine, FL 32095. A digital subscription to the National Culinary Review® is included with ACF membership dues; print subscriptions are available to ACF members for $25 per year, domestic; nonmember subscriptions are $40. Material from the National Culinary Review®, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission. All views and opinions expressed in the National Culinary Review® are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the officers or members of ACF. Changes of mailing address should be sent to ACF’s national office: 180 Center Place Way, St. Augustine, FL 32095; (800) 624-9458; Fax (904) 940-0741.

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This is my favorite time of year. The holiday season to me is a time to celebrate with family and friends, but also a time to indulge in delicious food. This year might look a little different — we might have to celebrate with some of our loved ones in spirit only, instead of in person — but as chefs, we can still cook and enjoy the comfort foods of our various cultures. To get you into the holiday spirit and excited about the flavors of fall and winter, this issue of NCR features stories about panettone and some lighter options for Turkey Day stuffing. The holiday season also signals a time to recognize others. First, I want to thank everyone who submitted nominations for our annual awards. Deadlines have been extended to December 1, so please remember to nominate your favorite chapter for the Regional Chapter of the Year award.

I would also like to recognize all of our members who have gone out of their way to feed and help others during these trying times. Many participated in distributing food to those in need, including children, families and out-of-work hospitality workers. Some set up donation funds to help members manage their expenses. Plenty of chapters have coordinated Zoom meetings, inviting members from around the country and beyond to participate and connect virtually.

Even at a time when we can’t travel or meet in person, many of you continue to engage with and support your peers through our new online community, Chef’s Table. If you haven’t logged in, I encourage you to do so, and join in the lively discussions taking place. You all inspire our industry to move into next year with a renewed purpose and passion for what we do.

We need to stick together during these times, and ACF is here for you. Right now, ACF is offering those considering joining our group a 90-day trial for professional membership. This trial will give you a taste of what we offer and allow you to be a part of a leading culinary organization driving the trends and best practices that will shape the future of our industry. In addition, we’re offering flexible payment options for members, as we recognize this is a tough financial time for many of us.

As we approach 2021, we’re continuing to plan an amazing year of events, whether they end up being in person, virtual or a hybrid. We are monitoring scientific reports and working with local authorities to design the safest-possible events for our regional conferences in the spring. In addition, we are adding virtual training and competitions next year. And, of course, we continue to diligently plan our annual convention, taking place next summer in Orlando, Florida.

We know how important networking and maintaining connections are to all of our members. That’s why we are prioritizing ways for everyone to be involved and help you teach each other how to promote yourselves, excel at your jobs, and grow your brand and career.

Wishing you a very happy holidays,

Thomas “Tom” Macrina, CEC, CCA, AAC National President American Culinary Federation

The National Culinary Review® (ISSN 0747-7716), November/ December 2020, Volume 44,

Esta es mi época favorita del año. Para mí, la temporada navideña es un momento para celebrar con familiares y amigos, pero también para disfrutar de una deliciosa comida. Este año las fiestas tal vez sean un poco diferentes: Es posible que con algunos de nuestros seres queridos debamos celebrar solo en espíritu y no en persona, pero como chefs, aún podemos cocinar y disfrutar de las comidas reconfortantes de nuestras diversas culturas. Para que entren en el espíritu navideño y se entusiasmen con los sabores del otoño y el invierno, este número de NCR presenta historias sobre panettones y algunas alternativas ligeras para el relleno del “Día del Pavo.”

La temporada navideña también significa un momento para reconocer a otras personas. En primer lugar, quiero agradecer a todos los que enviaron nominaciones para nuestros premios anuales. La fecha límite se extendió hasta el 1ro de diciembre, así que no olviden nominar a su delegación favorita para el premio a la Delegación Regional del Año.

También me gustaría reconocer a todos nuestros miembros que se han esforzado por alimentar y ayudar a otros durante estos tiempos difíciles. Muchos participaron en la distribución de alimentos para los más necesitados, entre ellos niños, familias y trabajadores de la industria hotelera desempleados. Algunos conformaron fondos de donación para ayudar a los miembros a administrar sus gastos. Muchas delegaciones coordinaron reuniones de Zoom, invitando a miembros de todo el país y del exterior a participar y conectarse virtualmente.

Incluso en un momento en que no podemos viajar o reunirnos en persona, muchos de ustedes continúan participando y apoyando a sus compañeros a través de nuestra nueva comunidad en línea, Chef's Table. Si no se han registrado, los invito a hacerlo y participar de los animados debates que se están llevando a cabo. Todos ustedes inspiran a nuestra industria a avanzar hacia el próximo año con un propósito renovado y pasión por lo que hacemos.

En este momento, necesitamos mantenernos unidos, y ACF está aquí para ustedes. Actualmente ACF ofrece a quienes estén considerando unirse a nuestro grupo una prueba de 90 días para ser miembros profesionales. Esta prueba les dará una idea de lo que ofrecemos y les permitirá ser parte de una organización culinaria líder a la vanguardia de todas las tendencias y las mejores prácticas que darán forma al futuro de nuestra industria. Además, ofrecemos opciones de pago flexibles para los miembros, ya que reconocemos que, para muchos de nosotros, este es un momento difícil en términos financieros.

A medida que nos acercamos a 2021, continuamos planificando un año increíble de eventos, ya sea que terminen siendo en persona, virtuales o híbridos. Estamos siguiendo los informes científicos y trabajando con las autoridades locales para diseñar los eventos más seguros posibles para nuestras conferencias regionales en la primavera. Además, agregaremos capacitación y competencias virtuales para el próximo año. Y, por supuesto, continuamos planificando diligentemente nuestra convención anual, que tendrá lugar el próximo verano en Orlando, Florida.

Sabemos lo importante que es entablar redes y mantener contactos para todos nuestros miembros. Es por eso que estamos priorizando las formas en que todos pueden participar para ayudarlos a enseñarse mutuamente cómo promocionarse, sobresalir en sus trabajos y hacer crecer su marca y su carrera.

Muy felices fiestas.

Thomas “Tom” Macrina, CEC, CCA, AAC Presidente Nacional American Culinary Federation

What’s Cooking on WeAreChefs.com

Visit WeAreChefs.com, the official content hub for the American Culinary Federation, to read online exclusive articles, including industry trends, interviews, COVID-19 coverage, recipes and more.

Working with Acorn and Chestnut Flour

One ACF Chef details how to make delicious, rich and gluten-free flours using the acorns and chestnuts native to her region of Michigan.

Try This Ingredient in Your Next Dish

ACF Chefs of Charlotte Chapter Vice President Chef Jamie Bostian demonstrates in a video presented during a Zoom chapter meeting how to prepare and use fermented tomato leaves straight from a local farm.

Hotel Chef Roundtable Recaps

Chefs from some of the largest hotels and resorts in the country talk about the changes they have made to adapt and succeed during COVID-19.

The Culinary Insider, the ACF’s bi-weekly newsletter, offers timely information about events, certification, member discounts, the newest blog posts, competitions, contests and much more. Sign up at acfchefs.org/tci

Sure, digital is environmentally friendly... but paper smells better.

A digital subscription to NCR is included with ACF membership, but members can now get a one-year print subscription for just $25! Visit acfchefs.org/ncr to get yours today.

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American Culinary Federation

Twitter

question of the month:

What is your favorite holiday season ingredient?

Tweet us your answer using the hashtag #ACFasks and we’ll retweet our favorites.

love proudly. eat classically. live deliciously.

When you choose Prosciutto di San Daniele PDO, Grana Padano PDO and Prosciutto di Parma PDO, you show a passion for the Italian way of life that includes incomparably delicious, natural food that’s never mass-produced or processed. Each of these products carries the Protected Designation of Origin seal, the European Union’s guarantee of quality and authenticity, so you know they are from a specific geographical region in Italy and are created using traditional techniques that have set the standard of culinary excellence for generations.

Learn more about these icons of European taste at iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

CAMPAIGN FINANCED WITH AID FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION.

THE EUROPEAN UNION SUPPORTS CAMPAIGNS THAT PROMOTE HIGH QUALITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

The content of this promotion campaign represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) do not accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

NEWS BITES

The 2021 Certified Master Chef Exam

Leading chefs will gather March 18 to 22, 2021, at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan, to test their culinary skills, knowledge and creativity in pursuit of ACF’s Certified Master Chef® (CMC®) designation — the highest level of professional certification in the U.S. that a chef can earn. For more information, visit acfchefs.org/CMCExam.

Take Advantage of ACF Membership FlexPay

Depending on one’s membership level and local chapter dues, Students can renew their membership for as little as $7 monthly, and Professional Culinarians for as low as $19 each month. Email membership@acfchefs.net or call (904) 824-4468 (ext. 504) to apply.

Save the Dates: 2021 Events

ACF continues to monitor public health and local government guidance regarding event scheduling and event safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, the following ACF events are scheduled in person for 2021:

• ChefConnect: Pittsburgh, March 6 to 8, 2021, Omni William Penn Hotel

Chef’s Table Live! Debuts

ACF’s new online forum, Chef’s Table, held its first Chef’s Table Live! event. It featured a panel of ACF chefs discussing how they prepare for the holidays, and invited members to post their questions in real time for the chefs to answer. Members mostly asked about how to pivot away from traditional holiday buffets this year in order to serve guests in different ways. Visit chefs-table.acfchefs.org to join this and other discussions taking place on the forum every day.

• ChefConnect: St. Louis, March 27 to 29, 2021, St. Louis Union Station

• ChefConnect: Nashville (Tennessee), April 11 to 14, 2021, Sheraton Music City (rescheduled from 2020)

• ChefConnect: Tucson (Arizona), April 17 to 19, 2021, El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort

• National Convention, July 11 to 15, 2021, Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando (Florida)

gather joyfully. eat soulfully. live deliciously.

When you choose Prosciutto di San Daniele PDO, Grana Padano PDO and Prosciutto di Parma PDO, you show a passion for the Italian way of life that includes incomparably delicious, natural food that’s never mass-produced or processed. Each of these products carries the Protected Designation of Origin seal, the European Union’s guarantee of quality and authenticity, so you know they are from a specific geographical region in Italy and are created using traditional techniques that have set the standard of culinary excellence for generations. Learn more about these icons of European taste at iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

CAMPAIGN FINANCED WITH AID FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION.

THE EUROPEAN UNION SUPPORTS

CAMPAIGNS THAT PROMOTE HIGH QUALITY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

The content of this promotion campaign represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) do not accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Apply to be a 2021 Fellow

Many chefs are working to complete their applications to become Fellows in 2021, and we encourage those of you who are interested but have not yet applied to get your applications in. The application deadline for induction into the American Academy of Chefs is December 1. For any questions, contact the Academy office, academy@acfchefs.net or call (904) 484-0202. ACF’s Regional Directors are also available to help, and can review applications prior to submission. Visit acfchefs.org/ACF/Partnerships/AAC/ Board for a list of directors and their contact information.

Letters From Our Members

Francesco Dell’Olio, chef/educator and treasurer of Pioneer Valley ACF Chapter MA061 (western Massachusetts), talked about why he joined ACF and continues to renew his membership: “I joined the ACF membership in the late ‘90s. Why? As an educator teaching in a vocational setting, it was good for me to be part of a renowned association. I met many colleague chefs either in educational settings or in the industry throughout these years. My purpose is to extend our knowledge and education to our younger generation, especially our students. [I want to] introduce them to events such as competitions, internship programs, and last but not least, the ACF Junior membership through our chapter scholarship program. I recently was appointed treasurer of our ACF Pioneer Valley Culinary Association in western Massachusetts. I know that in these unprecedented times, it is very hard to stay in touch with our members and establish connections with new and future members, so it is my duty to make sure our current members renew their memberships.”

Do you have stories or feedback about your ACF membership you’d like to share? Send us your thoughts and letters! Email pr@acfchefs.net

The Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, hosted an at-home gingerbread-making class series, with a portion of the proceeds going to the ACFEF’s Child & Chef Initiative. Teachers included celebrity chef and past ACF convention speaker Carla Hall.

SALUT

Graduates of the Culinary School of Fort Worth (CSFTW) left their commencement this summer with not only a diploma, but also an ACF certification, even during the height of a global pandemic. The Professional Culinary Program at CSFTW is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation, making its graduates eligible to become either a Certified Fundamentals Cook (CFC) or a Certified Culinarian (CC), as long as they complete the program and fill out their free certification applications.

On Oct. 16, the ACF Columbus Chapter (OH021) hosted a socially distant Childhood Nutrition Day event at Millennium Middle School in Columbus, Ohio. The group of 23 participating students learned nutritional information about different plant-based food choices and received a personalized to-go tray of eight fruits and vegetables with healthy dips, and enjoyed freshly made smoothies that used ingredients from the school’s vertical aeroponic gardens.

St. Philip’s College Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts

Center of Excellence plans to open a brand-new $30 million facility this quarter after three years of design and development. The 61,200-square-foot, four-story facility will include five teaching kitchen labs; two full commercial

kitchens; classrooms with mock hotel office and breakout rooms; and a 100-seat, tiered lecture hall that can double as a food demonstration kitchen. St. Phillip’s College Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts department, chaired by Chef Will Thornton, has earned an Exemplary Program Award from the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation Accrediting Commission.

Chef Michael Carmel, CEC, CCE, member of ACF Greater Charleston South Carolina Chapter (SC011) and department head of the Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College, received the 2020 Entrepreneurship Award from the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education (CAFÉ).

Volunteers from ACF Chef’s Association of Arizona (AZ033) joined the Fresh Food Collaboration, a partnership between organizations in the Phoenix area with a mission to feed those in need during COVID-19, to box up more than 800 meals for Phoenix residents this fall.

Chef Nick Barrington, president, ACF Atlanta Chefs Association (GA011), together with Chef Ashley Keyes (@keyesinthekitchen), delivered healthy and delicious meals to kids in need in their community.

MOVING INTO MANAGEMENT

Tips for chefs looking to transition from the kitchen to F&B management //

By Michael Costa

Longtime chefs looking for a challenge may seek to step out of the kitchen and into a role with a broader set of responsibilities: F&B management. Within many organizations — such as restaurants, hotels, cruise ships, casinos and corporations — an F&B management structure oversees not just culinary, but also front-of-house strategies, beverage programs, and the overall food and beverage direction of an operation.

We talked to three culinary leaders who made successful career leaps from chefs into F&B management to glean advice on where to start — especially during a time when many are looking to advance their career or try out new roles.

TO MOVE OR NOT TO MOVE

“I made the shift from executive chef to director of F&B when I felt like my career wasn’t growing anymore,” says Lou Trope, vice president of F&B, Mountain Division, Vail Resorts, based in Englewood, Colorado. Trope worked in kitchens for 18 years, starting as a line cook and working his way up to executive chef at a handful of hotels and resorts around the country.

“I oversaw multiple restaurants and massive catering operations, but most of the jobs available were similar in scope, just in different places,” he says, noting the lack of leadership opportunities. “I also became frustrated that as executive chef, even though I was responsible for so much, I was being left out of critical strategic conversations within our organization. I wanted to have more influence on long-term planning.”

Chef Trope's manager at the time encouraged him to transition, and years later, after stops at multiple properties and hotel brands, he now oversees food and beverage operations for 34 Vail Resorts, comprising 300 restaurants and several thousand employees.

Chef Josef Huber faced a similar career crossroads. After more than 22 years in the kitchen overseeing restaurant menus and an enormous catering operation for Grand Rapids, Michigan-based AHC Hospitality — where he served the last 13 years as corporate executive chef — he moved into an F&B

management role with the company as regional vice president of F&B.

“I had reached the pinnacle of a corporate chef’s position within our organization. If I had stayed, in that position, I would be doing the same thing five years from now,” Chef Huber says, adding that he moved on from AHC Hospitality a few months ago. “Over the years, AHC expanded its footprint [with] additional properties, and through that expansion, I gradually had more interaction with the front of the house, so that helped my transition into management.”

Chef Len Elias, CEC, director of nutrition and culinary services at Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville, Georgia, discovered a different path from executive chef to F&B management. “Five years ago, I came across something I had never considered before: healthcare,” he says. “I saw the connection between my life’s experiences and how I could make a positive difference, so I took the challenge.”

Because Chef Elias works in healthcare and not a traditional hospitality environment, he spends about half his day in the kitchen overseeing production for nearly 2,000 meals daily. The rest of his time is filled with meetings, committees and administrative tasks. “The biggest thing to learn is time management. The kitchen tasks have to be passed to others so you can set the vision and goals for your team,” he says.

LEADING SKILLS

All three managers we talked to say the leadership skills they developed as executive chefs helped their transition

to F&B management, but “you still need to learn about restaurant operations, marketing, sales forecasting, financial and capital planning, front-of-house training, and beverage programming,” Chef Trope says. “Before making a move, start by taking on a bit more responsibility in your restaurant or bar operations to see if it’s what you really want to do.”

Beverage is the most profitable area of any F&B operation, so learning as much as possible about how beverage programs work, including inventory strategies, menu pricing, and purchasing for the best deals — all of which translate into higher profits — is crucial to succeeding in an F&B management position. “The liquor control system is different in every state and requires new skills for compliance and safe drinks handling,” Huber notes.

Chef Trope adds, “As an F&B leader, you’ll need to broaden your perspective on the overall business. As a chef, you may be focusing on the week or month, but as a F&B leader, you need to plan six months to a year out, and constantly think about how to grow the business and [improve the] guest experience.”

BECOMING A “CHEF & B”

In 2001, Chef Elias was executive chef at a hotel; after 9/11, the hotel industry tanked due to a lack of business travel and events. To save money, his hotel consolidated the executive chef and F&B director positions, creating a “Chef & B” job and giving it to Chef Elias.

“It was a good experience to get firsthand exposure to the challenges of overseeing our service techniques, lounge, frontof-house training and many of the operational details some chefs take for granted,” he says.

Fast forward to 2008’s economic downturn, and Chef & B again became a common dual role for reasons similar to 9/11. The title is now gaining traction again in the pandemic.

Chef Elias is quick to mention he had a stellar support team who helped him succeed in the role, but both Chefs Huber and Trope believe Chef & B is a short-term strategy for most F&B operations.

“I think Chef & B can be used in tough financial times as a stopgap until revenues come back,” Trope says. “Long term, I don’t think it’s a good strategy for large operations. I’ve seen Chef & Bs unable to concentrate on either the culinary operation or the front-of-house operation — because typically, they're not set up with the right team below them — and everything suffers.”

CROSSING OVER

In general, chefs enjoy many close relationships with other chefs, thanks to deep bonds forged through shared experiences. But should a chef decide to expand their career into F&B management, Chef Trope says to be prepared for some peer pushback.

“When I first made the move, some of my chef buddies gave me grief that I was a traitor,” he remembers. “But several years later, most of them followed the same path and wondered why they waited so long to make the move. In the end, most of the chefs that make the transition to F&B management prove to be very successful.”

All three we interviewed found an unexpected but valuable perk to becoming managers: They no longer work the many weekends, holidays, and 12- to 15-hour days throughout the year that are expected of an executive chef, which has improved their work-life balance. During a time of added stress and reconsidered priorities, this move can be a win-win for many.

From left: Lou Trope with his team from the Maui Marriott Resort at the Taste of Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii; Brendan Mahoney, former executive sous chef at the Maui Marriott Resort and now director of operations at the Sheraton Manila Hotel, Philippines; and Chef Trope and team at the James Beard House in 1999.

Michael Costa is the former editorial director of Hotel F&B magazine and a regular contributor to NCR.

ACF JAMAICA

The main mission of this newly formed chapter is to certify as many local chefs as possible //

By Amelia Levin

Formed just last year by a group of veteran chefs looking to certify upand-coming professionals, the ACF Jamaica Chapter’s mission is to raise the standards of culinary excellence in the country and keep jobs local.

“We didn’t want to just have a culinary club, so to speak — we [also] wanted to make sure that our students and chefs here are certified,” says Daniel Schweizer, CEC, CCA, WCEC, executive chef, Goddard Catering Montego Bay, and vice president of the chapter.

Chef Schweizer — a Germanand French-speaking chef from Biel, Switzerland, and a Jamaican transplant since the late ‘80s — formed the chapter in August 2019 with three other ACF members: Chef Randie Anderson, CEC, CCA, executive chef and director of culinary services at Montego Bay Convention Centre (president); Chef Ravi Anne, CEC, CCA, culinary consultant and director, Hospitality 365 (secretary); and Chef Stephen Sowa, CEC, executive chef, Hilton Rose Hall, Jamaica (treasurer).

“Our main mission is ETC: Educate, train and certify,” Chef Schweizer adds. “We have a culinary federation here in Jamaica, but the standards set forth by the ACF are higher.”

The issue with the hospitality workforce in Jamaica, Chef Schweizer says, is the influx each year of non-local culinarians who secure permits to work in Jamaica, which leaves local cooks and chefs with fewer opportunities to work. “We want to be able to present our group of certified culinarians first,” he says.

The biggest challenge for the chapter so far, Chef Schweizer says, is getting existing ACF members to recertify year after year: “We work closely with the tourism department here, which generously pays for the first year of dues, but it can be difficult for younger chefs — who might be between jobs or are having difficulty earning enough money to stay in Jamaica.” Case in point: One U.S. dollar is equivalent to 145 Jamaican dollars, so the cost of living is high.

The ACF has worked closely with the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation, which subsidizes certification testing. There are currently 44 ACF certified chefs in Jamaica, with training and testing taking place throughout the year.

Chef Schweizer regularly sends out correspondence to encourage members to stay in the ACF and remind them that maintaining their certifications will help them when searching for jobs — not just on the island, but around the world, because ACF certification automatically grants certification through the World Association of Chefs’ Societies.

Clockwise from top left: Evaluator Chef Fay Dawkins oversees an exam; Candidates getting ready; The official ACF certification for the chapter.

One thing that has helped boost ACF membership in Jamaica is the recent sanctioning of local evaluators, making it easier to facilitate certifications for members. “In the past, we had to call an evaluator in the U.S. to fly in regularly to do the certifications, but now, we don’t have to wait anymore; we have people who can do that here,” Chef Schweizer says. This has proven especially useful during COVID-19, when travel has been restricted for so many.

As a result of the change, the chapter tested nearly 80 people in just three months. The process took about three weeks at three different locations. By breaking it up into different locations, the chapter was also able to draw more members from across the country as well as allow for the necessary social distancing during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has slowed the tourism and hotel in Jamaica; Chef Schweizer says he’s been encouraging his chapter members to fill their extra time by taking courses (and earning CEHs) through the ACF’s Online Learning Center.

“I have taken probably 30 courses myself, and I’m 57, but I have enjoyed continuing to learn new things, and more about the subjects I already know,” says Chef Schweizer, who remains employed by Goddard Catering, although his company has pivoted to focus less on its airline catering business and more on expanding its industrial catering business, working with prisons and factories. He says he’s also been active in the ACF’s new Chef’s Table forum and has encouraged his chapter members to do the same to network virtually.

The push for more certification has also helped elevate the professionalism and skills of chefs in Jamaica. “In Europe, where there are many culinary apprenticeships, you can be assured that students who come in your kitchen have basic knowledge of the fundamentals,” he says. “We have long been searching for qualified people, and certification helps this. That’s the whole reason we came together to form this chapter.”

In the coming year, Chef Schweizer says he remains committed to pushing for new certification and recertification, but he also hopes to introduce more demos for members — online for now, and possibly in person when it’s safe to do so. In the meantime, he continues to connect with current and prospective members virtually through email and the ACF Jamaica Chapter page on Facebook, like so many other ACF chapters during this time.

" I HAVE TAKEN PROBABLY 30 COURSES MYSELF, AND I’M 57, BUT I HAVE ENJOYED CONTINUING TO LEARN NEW THINGS, AND MORE ABOUT THE SUBJECTS I ALREADY KNOW."

-CHEF DANIEL SCHWEIZER

PERFECTING PANETTONE

With the holidays upon us, a look at chefs revisiting panettone in pure and playful form

By Robert Wemischner

While its original recipe has evolved over the years, panettone’s popularity remains a constant. Rich in eggs and butter, this dome-shaped, natural yeast-raised bread has captured the hearts of Italophiles, holiday celebrants and lovers of sweets worldwide.

According to accounts by Carol Field, the late cookbook author and authority on all things in the Italian kitchen, the phenomenon of commercially made panettone arose in 1930s Milan, when Angelo Motta founded his eponymous company dedicated to producing this airy, porous sweet bread. Motta began the tradition of using natural yeast and a cylindrical form of his own design to make the dazzlingly tall, domed panettone, which has been going strong ever since.

More than one hundred years before that, the original centuries-old recipe — which used raisins and fruit peel — was revamped to promote the bread’s heritage, with bakers adding red cherries and green citron to reflect the colors in the Italian flag. Those bits of color may have lost their patriotic meaning, but not their place, in the bread; this style of panettone piles up in beautiful boxes at the doors of Italian bakeries and markets everywhere around the holidays —even Whole Foods has gotten into the act.

But as with all things mass-produced, there are always those who seek to create a more memorable and distinctive version by hand in smaller batches.

Take, for instance, Jeff Michaud, chefpartner with the Amici Hospitality Group in Philadelphia, who has lived in Italy, married

an Italian and declares himself a purist when it comes to the delicate, often challenging-to-make panettone. “After trial and error over four or five years, we came up with a recipe that works,” he says. “Simplicity is where we want to go. For the most part, we remain true to tradition — only adding a twist here and there with the inclusion of chocolate or hazelnut paste.”

Developing flavor over three days is key to the panettone’s tender and light texture. “We get the lievito madre, or starter, going on the first day; after it’s fully ripe, on the second day, we mix up the dough, adding eggs, butter, flour and sugar,” Chef Michaud says. “This dough then triples overnight during a cool

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flavor- and texture-building rise [in the refrigerator]. Finally, on the third day, the dough is given an intensive mix for about 25 minutes using a paddle [before] the dried fruit and housemade candied citrus are added. The dough is then placed into pans collared with parchment, allowing it to rise to its full height for as much as five hours before being baked. Oven spring kicks in to give it the final lift.”

There’s more to the process. After baking, the loaves are traditionally impaled with metal skewers and arranged to hang upside down on racks to help them resist the effects of gravity and retain their height and airiness. Echoing the importance of this step, Joseph Settepani, executive pastry chef, Bruno’s Bakery in Manhattan and Staten Island, New York, advises, “Inverting the bread during the cooling process is an absolute must. [It] is essential because — even though the bread may look heavy — it acts [like] a soufflé and likes to deflate quickly, so, to keep its beautiful peak, you must invert it.”

When it comes to modern panettone innovation, he continues, “We have many different flavors that we sell, and we are constantly trying to push the limits with panettone. Last year, I experimented with yuzu-infused chocolate from Valhrona and took out 80% of the water in the dough and replaced it with fresh strawberry puree. Let me say, it tasted like a strawberry lemonade bread. It was unbelievable.”

At the bakery, holiday panettone-making entails largescale production with artisanal ingredients. Chef Settepani’s team produces, on average, more than 2,000 breads each season — from the traditional citron-and-bleached-raisins version to one with chocolate, fig and pistachio, and another with pecans and cranberries. “It can drive you mad in a way, because of the length of the process, and if you mess up one step, you mess up almost 24 hours of work,” Chef Settepani says. “But with its growing popularity, it makes me feel that all the hard work is paying off.”

Emanuele Alaimo, owner of Villabate Alba, a Sicilian bakery in Brooklyn, New York, takes great pride in his panettone, but adds a whimsical approach, shaping the dough into gingerbread-like houses that are iced and decorated.

Chef Casey Shiller, CEPC, baker-instructor at St. Louis Community College in Missouri, takes pains to teach baking students the ins and outs of this demanding bread. “We let the students see that fermentation doesn’t apply only to savory sourdough or traditional lean doughs,” he says. “Favorably yeasty flavors can be carefully developed over time in a highly enriched bread such as panettone. The fruits we put into it are given a boozy bath first in marsala or amaretto. You can take your cues from Milanese tradition and serve a warmed slice with cream or, even better, fresh mascarpone.”

Chef Michaud says he will sometimes push the envelope with his panettone as well, turning it into a French toast and serving it with gelato.

Whether one takes a purist approach or creates a playful rendition, panettone’s ability to bring a little joy to the holiday table never fails.

Pannettone from Bruno’s Bakery in New York.

Robert Wemischner is a longtime instructor of professional baking at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and the author of four books, including “The Dessert Architect.”

ANTWON BRINSON

Founder/President, Culinary Concepts AB, LLC

By Amelia Levin

Chef Antwon Brinson didn’t plan to become a chef.

“My mother joked that I would burn water as an adolescent,” he says. It was only when he enrolled in a two-year vocational training program that the doors to the culinary world blew open. Little did he know that path would lead him to attend one of the most prestigious culinary schools in America, travel the world, work at one of the nation’s most legendary resorts, and found a culinary program dedicated to helping people of all ages and nationalities not only learn to cook, but also to succeed in any career they end up choosing.

Reflecting on his time in the high school trade school program, Chef Brinson says, “During my first year, I had a chef who was very strict, and we butted heads initially. I was constantly in trouble that year. But, during my second year, I had a different chef who saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. He took me under his wing, asking if I wanted to participate in competitions. I ended up doing well and making it to [the] state [championships]. I got my [behind] kicked, but it was the first time anyone gave me that type of direction or leadership opportunity.”

More doors began to open. “I was working as a dishwasher at a local hotel, and the chef and general manager recognized my work ethic and invested in me,” he says. “[One day,] a line cook called in sick, and they had me take over. I was always watching the cooks, so I was familiar with the dishes. In a case like this, you either sink or swim, and I thought, ‘I will not sink.’ In fact, ‘failure is not an option’ inadvertently became my credo.”

Chef Brinson has done more than just swim since then. Still, after graduation, he wasn’t 100 percent convinced he should go to culinary school, though he admits cooking was the only activity he truly enjoyed. After taking a little time off after high school, he applied to the Culinary Institute of America, knowing it was the best place he could go, even if he had no idea how he would pay for it. Yet, because of those competitions in high school and strong letters of recommendation, he was awarded a full scholarship in 2001.

“My mom wasn’t a cook, but she loved dining out,” Chef Brinson says. “She was also a dedicated foster parent and raised more than 250 children! I realized later in life that the exposure I had to different cuisines really [influenced] my palate. When I got to culinary school, I was able to identify and experiment with different flavor profiles.”

ON A MISSION

Born in Niagara Falls, New York, Chef Brinson says the love he received from his mother (who he notes is his biological mom) and her passion for food and helping others also made him passionate about the same things. “My mission is to [leave] a legacy that will create positive change in our world, one improvement at a time,” he says.

At the CIA, while his classmates looked to score jobs in New York City, Chef Brinson instead focused on fulfilling his lifelong desire to travel the world. “I grew up in a very diverse

community, with Italians, Germans, Puerto Ricans and Africans, and I learned about their cultures through food,” he says. Fascinated by the Caribbean, he ended up there for his externship, working at several top restaurants in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.

There, he says, “I never saw so many men in positions of power who looked like me. My journey has been less about my ability to cook and more about my relentless drive to succeed; this has allowed me to thrive in the kitchen. It was never about just being a chef for me; it was about mastering a craft.”

After graduating in 2006, Chef Brinson enrolled in a rigorous, three-year apprenticeship program under several Certified Master Chefs at the legendary Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia — a program he had learned about from a chef in the Caribbean. The opportunity continued to open more doors for Chef Brinson, who says he was “fortunate to learn, teach, inspire and be inspired by so many wonderful and skilled people;” he adds he enjoyed managing the resort’s 44-acre farm production kitchen.

After The Greenbrier, Chef Brinson continued to travel to cooking gigs in Hawaii; Palm Springs, California; and San Francisco. He ran multiple restaurants; managed a staff of 56; did banquets for up to 2,000 people; served as an executive chef of a private club with revenues of $5 to $10 million a year; and opened a restaurant in Charlottesville, Virginia, before deciding to open his own business. In 2018, he founded his company, Culinary Concepts AB, with the intent to “focus on developing individuals’ passions and abilities by teaching life skills through culinary arts,” he says, adding he has had the honor of helping 75-plus students achieve milestones in their lives and careers.

“I came from a neighborhood that most kids don’t make it out of,” he says. “Early in my life, people built bridges for me, and I was able to accomplish my dreams of going to the top culinary school and traveling the world. I always knew I wanted to teach and give back.”

INSPIRATION AND INTENT

The idea behind starting his own culinary program came when Chef Brinson noticed there were no programs designed to help aspiring young chefs gain important life skills alongside the necessary culinary capabilities. Creating a program like this, he realized, also could help the restaurant industry recruit and retain qualified, dedicated individuals by training them to be more than just chefs.

After developing a business plan and pitching it to investors, he secured funding and recruited his first group of six students. “I partnered with Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development, which provided scholarships for the students,” he says. “After that, I knew there were two major components that I needed to make this vision a reality: students, of course, but also chefs who believed in my vision enough to hire them. I would walk through the community, shaking hands, knocking on doors,

passing out flyers, trying to get people to sign up. Truth be told, I felt like a politician, but I knew that no one else believed in my vision like I did and that it was my job to make them believe.”

Chef Brinson says he would hit the pavement in a suit with a clipboard and go door-to-door in restaurants, asking the general manager or the chef for five minutes of their time so he could pitch his vision and get them to hire his students.

“The funny thing is, I never once told them that I am a chef!” he says with a laugh. “I’m not going to lie, there were a few times when I was asked to leave. Some people kind of turned their nose up at me. Talk about [a humbling experience],” he says.

Chef Brinson initially committed 25 restaurants to partner with his program. Fast forward three years: Chef Brinson now works with 70 foodservice partners in the Charlottesville area to employ graduates of his program, which, prior to the pandemic, saw classes of about 25 students of all ages. Chef Brinson’s program has even hosted students from other countries, including Syria, India, Ethiopia and Nigeria, thanks to a partnership with the International Refugee Organization.

Chef Brinson’s program teaches cooking fundamentals, food safety and other technical skills, but also soft-skill development and how to network with other culinary professionals. He brings in contacts from the various boards on which he serves, including the Piedmont Workforce Network, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the local Black Professionals Network, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center, and the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center. Graduates of the program earn their Certified Culinarian certification sanctioned by the ACF, as well as the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute and ServSafe certifications. They have gone on to work at independent restaurants as well as at universities and country clubs around the nation.

“My goal isn’t just to teach people how to become a chef,” he says. “When you look at the hospitality industry, one major barrier to moving up the ladder is not hard skills, but soft skills, like the ability to communicate and show professionalism.” Each week of the program covers a different life skill, like how to dress for the job, in addition, of course, to cooking skills and tasting as many ingredients as possible.

During COVID-19, Chef Brinson has put the program on hold, but continues to teach others through Zoom classes. He also keeps busy as a father to a newborn son.

Chef Brinson continues to keep in touch with his students. “Whether you want to be a chef or something else, I tell them, ‘You need to pick a direction and start walking,’ he says. I showed up to work every day, and someone gave me an opportunity to keep walking, so I did, and the doors kept opening. Some people see obstacles and they stop. But you never know until you try.”

Classical

Financiers sound like something that belongs at a bank rather than on a restaurant’s dessert menu. That was the point in the nineteenth century, when an inventive baker whose shop was located near Paris’ financial district popularized the dense cake’s classic gold-bar shape. This clever marketing ploy helped capture the attention of the money makers who walked by the shop on their way to and from work. Financiers are versatile and easy to master; the flavorful cake — made with almond flour, egg whites and butter — can be dressed up or kept simple with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar and paired with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Modern

Chef Leslie Eckert, CCE, CWPC, academic director of culinary arts at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Tampa, Florida, created a modern version of financiers while working with hazelnut flour in another dessert. Tea was also on Chef Eckert’s mind at the time, and she found the floral flavors of chamomile worked well with the sweetness of pears. Her recipe for Hazelnut Financier with Chamomile-Roasted Pears features a chamomile caramel and a crispy pear chip garnish. Because financiers are a type of sponge cake, she encourages students to master the sponge-mixing method. “Don’t over-whip the egg whites,” she says, and recommends adding the whites into the batter in three to four parts. She also warns that hazelnut flour can burn easily, so take care when toasting it for this recipe. Spread the flour evenly on a sheet pan in a 300°F or 350°F oven for about 10 minutes, tossing frequently. See the classical and modern recipes, as well as more, photos at wearechefs.com.

by Amanda Baltazar

In the diverse landscape of the American culinary scene today, there’s something missing: Indigenous food.

This is the food that existed before restaurants, before kitchens. It’s the food of a specific region, made from ingredients that are in season, and traditionally cooked by elementary methods such as directly on fire or in clay pots buried in the ground.

Some chefs are working hard to create a renaissance of Indigenous food — including Sean Sherman, known as the Sioux Chef. A member of the Oglala Lakota Oyate, he grew up on a reservation in South Dakota and has won two James Beard awards, one in 2018 for his 2017 book, “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen,” and a leadership award last year.

In 2014, he established a food truck offering Indigenous meals in Minnesota, The Sioux Chef, which morphed into a catering business. Four years later, he co-founded a nonprofit, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, to spread the word about native foods.

And now, he’s opening the first of what will be several Indigenous nonprofit food labs, with the goal of educating people about this food, culture and history. He hopes to attract a broad clientele, both Indigenous and non. The first lab opened this fall, with digital classes due to COVID-19.

A group of chefs is working to reignite interest in Indigenous cuisine

Duck Pemmican is a popular dish by chef Sean Sherman.

“The idea is to get the notion of Indigenous foods out there,” he says. “We want to build a huge base of curriculum, and when it becomes safer to have classrooms, we will.” Eventually, he hopes to open Indigenous food labs across the U.S., then around the world.

The first lab will constitute a research and development kitchen, an education studio and eventually a nonprofit restaurant, which students will man. He’d also like to have a small market where Indigenous people can pick up food.

“Our goal is to work directly with tribal communities and help them design, develop, implement, train and support their own community kitchens, so they can have maximum impact for healthy Indigenous foods,” Chef Sherman says. For non-Indigenous students, it’s about spreading awareness, he adds.

Classes will focus on topics such as processing and preserving food, Native American farming techniques, seed saving, ethnobotany, language, and wholeanimal butchery. All classes will be in Spanish and English, and while there will be a cost, Chef Sherman also hopes to have a robust scholarship program.

His vision is to inspire people to think about the land they’re on and the struggles Indigenous people have experienced. He also hopes people will start to examine “how the food defines our really unique regions and how this can be valuable to connecting to our land, our resources, our people and our diversity. Food is a great way to understand someone’s culture. It’s bringing awareness [of] our Indigenous families, [who] have been here for millennia.”

Training Future Indigenous Chefs

In Canada, Chef Joseph Shawana is one of the people leading the charge to revive Indigenous cuisine. Chef Shawana, who grew up on the Wiikwemkoong reservation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, is the owner of Kū-Kŭm Kitchen, an Indigenous restaurant in Toronto, which is temporarily closed until next year. He’s also an Indigenous culinary advisor at Ontario’s Centennial College, through which he introduces Indigenous culinary curricula to hospitality courses across the country.

In January, he was named acting chair of the Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations (ICAN), which aims to share Indigenous heritage through food with the world. Before COVID-19 hit, ICAN’s focus had been on food tourism, but it has since changed its direction slightly, toward education. “In order for us to fully support and fully engage with culinary tourism, we first have to train the staff (front of house and back of house) who will be doing that,” Chef Shawana says.

In his role at Centennial College, he’s creating an Indigenous curriculum that includes developing recipes and sharing stories that have been passed down orally, as well as discussing the importance of ingredients and cooking techniques. “Everyone will have a chance to learn about the native food of Canada,” he says.

He anticipates change ahead: “I’m excited to see where we’re going to be in 10 years. Hopefully we’ll have Indigenous restaurants across Canada.”

“WE WANT TO BUILD A HUGE BASE OF CURRICULUM, AND WHEN IT BECOMES SAFER TO HAVE CLASSROOMS, WE WILL.” -SEAN SHERMAN, THE SIOUX CHEF

Chef Joseph Shawana’s Arctic Trio: smoked char, beetrootmarinated Chinook and seal tartare.

Chef Shawana has met his share of opposition — there was an outcry about his restaurant serving seal meat (he still does). And he’s become frustrated that he can’t serve some Indigenous foods; he’s not allowed to serve certain meats like wild moose, deer, elk and beaver, although farm-raised versions (which are regulated by a federal inspection agency) are permitted. “With wild versions, you’d have a truer flavor, because farm raised are not raised in a natural habitat,” he says.

Chef Shawana sees his work as his destiny. “Anybody who knows our culture has a duty to preserve that knowledge and pass it on to other generations,” he says. He gets his knowledge, he says, through talks with older Indigenous people, and he wants to spread it to “anyone who’s open to learning.” He also wants to clear up some misconceptions — fry bread is not Indigenous cuisine, for example, he says: “Our food is flavors of the land.”

Chef Leonard Bailey is the ACF New Mexico chapter president and a culinary instructor at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he teaches Indigenous cuisine, history and techniques.

“We try to create a connection to the students’ culture,” he says. He teaches foraging, traditional cooking techniques, recipes, and developing a respect for the earth and where food comes from. Students also look at how the Spanish and other colonial settlers changed the Native diet, and how that has affected the health of Indigenous people.

In his role, he’s teaching students, mostly aged 18 to 45, to respect their culture, Chef Bailey says. “One of the things we do in this country is we change food and make it our own. But we don’t want to change Native American cooking and take away from it. I don’t want to see it twisted or disrespected, as we’ve done with a lot of food.”

Naturally Healthy Ingredients

The Native American diet is simple, and most proponents of it prefer to focus on precolonial foods and dishes: no sugar, no dairy, no flour, and only foods that are available locally and seasonally. This means the foods vary from region to region, but common to all tribes’ food are “Three Sisters” — squash, corn and beans. Game meat is also common in the Indigenous diet.

Beyond education, Chef Sherman has another hope: that his Indigenous food labs will improve the health of many Indigenous people.

Indigenous cuisine, he says, “is one of the healthiest diets out there — low glycemic, healthy proteins and fats, and extremely diverse because of the regionality and the seasons.”

Clockwise from above: Chef Nompumelelo Mqwebu; isinkwa sombila; imbuya. Below: Chef Sean Sherman’s duck pemmican (credit: Dana Thompson).

And especially now, he says, it’s “really applicable, with the COVID-19 crisis exposing how vulnerable our food systems are. We should move toward more community-based foods.”

Before the Europeans arrived, Indigenous people didn’t have health issues like diabetes and obesity, Chef Bailey says. “They ate natural diets [then], but now they’re eating high fat, sugars, dairy.”

Diabetes and heart disease are now enormous problems for Native Americans. And it began, he says, when federal governments moved them from their lands to new areas that were not rich in the food sources they were used to: “Moving from forest and wetlands to the reservations, not all tribes had access to Native food sources.”

However, things are improving with the younger generation, he points out. “They’re seeing what needs to be done to improve their diets.”

Chef Sherman hopes to see more food manufacturers producing Indigenous foods for mass consumption: “A lot of communities have struggled with health and access to food, and many struggle still. We’re hoping we can create more food production in tribal communities. It brings a lot of pride to them to have access to these foods, and they could have marketable products, too.”

Another Indigenous Revival: Africa

The desire to preserve and celebrate Indigenous cuisine isn’t only happening in North America. Nompumelelo Mqwebu

is a professional chef who runs a company, Mpume’s African Cuisine, in Johannesburg, that offers curated food experiences; trains women farmers on value-adding; trains and mentors young chefs; and advocates for Indigenous food.

In addition to giving food talks, she also owns and coordinates the Mzansi International Culinary Festival, which focuses on African gastronomy and culture. And her 2018 book, “Through the Eyes of an African Chef,” shares her joy of African cooking, which she says is “oddly unknown,” through recipes and narrative. She says she’s “married South African cuisine with food from other parts of Africa, such as Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Chef Mqwebu is driven, she says, by “the loss of African cuisine in our own country and the loss of our Indigenous knowledge systems in food.” The book, she explains, “was intended to make fellow Africans feel proud of how Africa is represented [as well as keep] a foreign national edutained.”

Reviving Indigenous cuisine “is at the core of my food career,” she says. “Indigenous cuisine forms part of my identity; without it, I have no food history or culture. It’s vital to research and document it to educate future generations. It also renders some solutions to some of the climate change issues we face today. Indigenous knowledge systems have much to contribute to our future as long as we’re willing to learn and make the necessary changes.”

From left: Chef Joseph Shawana; seal with roasted beets. Opposite: Corn is one of the “Three Sisters,” an essential element of Indigenous cuisine in North America.

Chef Mqwebu is part of a global revolution. “The move to bring back Indigenous cooking, forgotten skills and crops is gaining momentum the world over,” she says. “We need to continue researching, sharing knowledge, doing more collaborations — and document, document, document.”

Chef Mqwebu believes everyone in the world can and should work together. Because the world. Because, she explains, “we have a lot in common. Clearly Pangea’s history and its culinary explorations have not been investigated. Some ingredients may be unique, but we also have a lot of ingredients in common. The preparation methods tend to differ amongst various cultures, even within one country.”

Some of Chef Mqwebu’s favorite ingredients are amadumbe (taro root), baobab, imbuya (amaranth), amabele (sorghum), inyama ye nyamazane (game meat), fish, and sweet geranium. Her favorite dish is amadumbe (taro) served with imbuya, ushatini (cooked tomato and onion), ono pelepele (chile peppers) and eland steak.

She’s hopeful for the future as she sees Indigenous foods and recipes being incorporated into restaurants. But change also needs to happen at culinary schools, she points out.

“The biggest challenge in South Africa and other parts of Africa is that our culinary schools don’t teach Indigenous food,” she says. “Thus, we produce chefs who have no regional or country food identity. The chef is then left to their own devices to try and learn more about Indigenous food. This is the main reason I mentor young chefs: to push them to explore their own food identity and let them find expression in their professional cooking.”

Indigenous Foods in North America

There is no specific Native American food or dish, because available ingredients vary from region to region, though some some overlap. Here’s what’s popular and where:

New Mexico

• Green and red chiles

• Corn, especially blue corn

• W ild spinach

• R iver onions

• W ild sage

• Mutton

• Q uinoa

• A maranth

• P rickly pear

Traditional dishes: Calabacitas (squash, corn and green chiles); pozole (stew with pork, hominy and chiles); carne adovada (slowcooked pork with red chiles).

Ontario

• Game meats (moose, deer, elk, bison)

• Freshwater fish (salmon, trout)

• R amps

• W ild rice

• Berries

• Cedar tea

• Bannock (fry bread)

Chef Joseph Shawana’s favorite dish: his grandmother’s fish pie, made with whitefish, potatoes and onions.

South Dakota

• W ild rice

• Heirloom versions of beans, corn, squash and sunflower seeds

• Botanicals (tubers, berries, fruits, ginger)

• Game meats (venison, bison, rabbit, elk, and wild birds like turkey, duck, geese and quail)

• L ake fish (walleye, whitefish, trout)

Chef Sean Sherman’s favorite dish: wojapi, a chokecherry sauce.

Amanda Baltazar is a food and beverage reporter based in the soggy Pacific Northwest, who writes for and about chefs and restaurant operations.

COVID-19 changed everything for our industry, and personal chefs were not exempt. Before the pandemic, my team and I cooked almost exclusively in people’s homes. When our state quarantine happened (in March, seemingly overnight), I moved the entire business to a delivery model, working out of a licensed commercial commissary kitchen and delivering packaged meals to clients. This fall, we have been actively working to move back into clients’ homes with the proper safety protocols, mostly because our business is built on relationships — we like to know how little Timmy and Suzy are doing and what’s going on with our families.

Being a personal chef is a very fulfilling job — not just because of the lifestyle it offers, but also because of these close relationships and the ability to be highly creative with your menu development. If you’re considering making the switch, here’s one more reason: a potential pandemic-related increase in demand.

Families have long turned to the services of a personal chef for convenience and dietary reasons, but during COVID-19, I have been seeing more people hire private chefs as they seek the safety of dining in instead of out. In July and August, we had people coming out of the woodwork looking for us to host outdoor dinner parties at their homes. One client recently said she would like to go to a restaurant, but just doesn’t feel comfortable dining that way right now.

Still, it’s not that easy to just jump in and declare yourself a personal chef, or simply walk into a person’s home to cook without the proper documentation, licensing or even marketing. Here are six key steps to doing so successfully.

Develop an online presence.

This is priority No. 1. Many clients have found our website simply by searching. I made sure I implemented keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) when I developed my website. You should also promote yourself through social media channels if you have a strong following.

Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to build a website or hire someone to do it for a relatively low cost, and there are many existing freelance services that offer connections with graphic designers, copywriters, website developers and SEO strategists.

IT’S PERSONAL

A personal chef and caterer offers tips on how to transfer your culinary skills from the restaurant to clients’ homes

David Boyd Owner/Chef, Down To Earth Cuisine

Secure the proper licensing and insurance.

Being a personal chef requires a catering license to enter and cook in someone’s home for payment. I would also suggest investing in liability insurance. We have a $1 million policy — not just in case anyone gets sick from our food (heaven forbid), but also if we chip a countertop or break a dish.

Of course, you’ll want to make sure your sanitation certification is up to date. I also maintain my personal chef certification through the United States Personal Chef Association, which is sanctioned by the ACF. Find a small business coach and/or networking opportunities.

If you want to take a small, in-home catering or personal chef business to the next level, I strongly recommend finding a business coach. The U.S. Small Business Administration runs the Small Business Development Centers program and maintains coaches in different areas of the country. Get this — it’s free! I have been working with my business coach since I started my company five years ago and I have not paid a dime for her services, because they are funded by the government. My coach helped me with developing a business plan, forecasting and much more.

I also strongly recommend tracking down some networking groups. I was able to connect with others to recruit some of my first clients this way. Of course, belonging to the ACF offers many opportunities for networking and sharing best practices.

Think about how you might get clients, who and where they might be, and what you will charge.

When I intended to start my personal chef business, I knew I wanted to cook for people who cared deeply about eating responsibly sourced, nutritious food — and were willing to pay a little extra for it versus looking for the best cost value.

It’s also important to establish your pricing structure early on. Most personal chefs in my area charge a service fee in the form of a flat or hourly rate, and bill groceries separately. We charge a flat fee. I have five chefs working for my company; the clients pay me and I pay my chefs a competitive hourly wage, plus benefits.

Work with your clients to determine their specific needs.

Working with clients as a personal chef is a great way to develop a niche and demonstrate the diversity of your cooking capabilities. Some might want gluten-free and allergenfriendly meals, others might want to focus on a particular diet or lifestyle, and some might want to try new and exciting dishes. The first thing we do with a client is send out a detailed

questionnaire so we can do a deep dive into their food preferences (and aversions). Also, switch up your menus each week so your clients don’t get bored. Most of us would do, and have done, the same in a restaurant setting.

Make sure safety remains the highest priority.

Now more than ever, safety is so important when cooking in someone’s home. We wear masks the entire time we are in someone’s home, and we frequently change gloves. We also sanitize high-touch surfaces in the kitchen as well as doorknobs, cabinets, light switches, bathroom doors and anything else we touch.

We continue to offer delivered meals as an option as well. About 30% of our client base currently prefers this contactless dining method. In addition, we follow strict ServSafe protocols for cooking and cooling to temperature, and we use glass containers over plastic to prevent chemicals from potentially leaching into food upon reheating. We use compostable containers for our delivery clients.

We take safety and sanitization very seriously; this is our livelihood and our reputation is on the line. In such a tough economy and an increasingly competitive industry, offering anything but the highest level of quality and safety makes it that much harder to not just survive, but also thrive.

Chef David Boyd graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in Atlanta with honors and spent 16 years working in a wide variety of restaurants, from Japanese steakhouses to high-end hotels and award-winning fine dining operations, before founding his personal chef business in 2015. Down to Earth Cuisine (downtoearthcuisine.com) provides meals that are sustainable and responsibly sourced, using GMO-free and organic products as well as wild-caught seafood approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program.

Chef Boyd is one of approximately 70 Certified Personal Chefs through the United States Personal Chef Association nationwide and is in the process of becoming certified through the ACF as a Certified Personal Executive Chef.

CLIMATE-FRIENDLY CROPS

By Liz Barrett Foster

The move toward touting sustainability on menus is facing a predicament. Environmental concerns continue to be top of mind for many consumers — yet people also struggle to understand what, in fact, counts as a sustainable ingredient on store shelves and menus.

In a survey of 1,012 Americans ages 18 to 80 for the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2019 Food and Health Survey, 54% of respondents said environmental sustainability was important in the products they purchase. However, 63% of those surveyed noted it is difficult to know whether the food choices they make are sustainable or not.

This is where chefs and restaurant operators can, and should, step in to help. There are many naturally sustainable ingredients that can easily be added to and promoted on your menu today. All of them are nutrient dense, simple to prepare, and generally easy to obtain through a local or national distributor. Here’s a look at these top crops.

These 5 ingredients taste great and can handle harsh weather changes, reducing their environmental impact

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MILLET

Ancient and heirloom grains have been trending for several years. Caroline Sluyter, program director of Oldways Whole Grains Council, says chefs can benefit from this consumer interest via their menus, by specifying “ancient grains” as an ingredient for any dish that uses them. She notes that while many factors go into growing and processing grains, from milling to transporting to storage, the water requirement is the most straightforward way to compare one grain’s sustainability to another. With that in mind, she considers drought-tolerant millet to be the most sustainable grain, of which there are several types, including foxtail, finger, and pearl millet.

Millet can be cooked in varying amounts of liquid to achieve different textures, according to Sluyter. Use less water and millet is fluffy and light, like couscous. Use more water, and it becomes mashable and creamy, like polenta. “Millet is warm and buttery and pairs especially well with mushrooms, herbs, warm spices and squash,” Sluyter says. “It adds creaminess and texture to vegetable soups, and — in its fluffier, drier form — can be added to light grain salads as you might use quinoa or couscous.”

If you want to test out a new grain, Sluyter suggests asking your distributor about mixed cases of whole grains. You won’t need to invest in large quantities of one grain, and you’ll have the chance to experiment with different recipes.

CACTUS

In Mexico, the cactus plant has always been an important symbol, according to Hector Saldivar, founder and owner of Tia Lupita Foods. “The Mexican flag even has an eagle sitting on top of a cactus,” he says.

It’s also a sustainable ingredient because of how hardy it is. If there’s cactus growing somewhere, Saldivar says it means you can survive, because there will always be something to eat. It can grow in a barren wasteland, produces two crop cycles per year and

protects itself against predators with sharp spikes, according to Saldivar. If your distributor does not carry cactus, try your local Mexican supermarket for nopales, the cactus stems that are ready to cook.

While Saldivar has been eating cactus his entire life, he says it needs to be integrated into American menus in an approachable way. “You can’t just cut up cactus and put it in a salad; it can be very polarizing,” he says. “Try chopping it up and integrating it into a black bean stew, or grill it with other vegetables as a side (remember to remove the spikes).” Once you get comfortable with it, Saldivar says, you can create a wide variety of recipes, from salsas to chips to chocolate-covered cactus.

Above: Depending on how much liquid you add to a recipe, it's easy to change up the texture of millet, a highly sustainable crop (credit: Oldways). Opposite: Fonio can be used in place of any other grain to increase the nutritional benefits of a dish (credit: Yolélé).

OYSTERS

Is it possible for an ingredient to improve the world around it? That’s exactly what oysters do, according to Marcelle Gonzalez, director of marketing for Taylor Shellfish Farms. Oysters are self-sustaining filter feeders that do not require external feeding or fertilization. “Oysters’ filtering action cleans the surrounding water, adding clarity and removing excess nutrients like nitrogen,” Gonzalez says. Oysters remain one of the healthiest and most sustainable protein choices available, according to Gonzalez, providing lean protein, healthy fat, and micronutrients. “The easiest way to serve oysters is raw, with a simple mignonette sauce,” she says. If you prefer a cooked oyster, Gonzalez says that they bake up nicely with a simple herb butter.

FONIO

The gluten-free, ancient African grain fonio is versatile and easy to cook, according to Chef Pierre Thiam, co-founder and president of Yolélé. The company carries the highly sustainable grain, which is part of the millet family and grows in the Sahel region of West Africa. Thiam offers fonio in his own restaurant in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, Teranga, which serves fast-casual West African fare. “Fonio has a neutral and slightly nutty flavor that can be adapted to various styles of cooking,” Thiam says. “It’s a grain that’s quite delicate and light.”

While some describe fonio as a cross between couscous and quinoa, this grain differs in its nutritional makeup. In addition to being gluten-free, fonio is rich in fiber, cysteine and methionine (sulfur-

Oysters are one of the most sustainable proteins on the planet (credit: Matt Mornick).

containing amino acids that are lacking in other cereals, such as rice, wheat and barley), and boasts a low glycemic index score. According to Thiam, fonio is easy to cook, makes great salads and sides, and can even be used in baking when ground into flour. “I recommend chefs be creative by substituting other grains in their recipes with fonio,” he says. Fonio cooks similar to couscous: Bring half a cup of fonio, one teaspoon of oil, a pinch of salt and cold water to a boil, cover, turn off heat and let sit about five minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Beyond being tasty and easy to prepare, fonio is drought resistant and fast maturing, taking only two to three months to mature. Fonio’s deep roots retain water, helping to restore topsoil, slow desertification and mitigate climate change, according to Thiam.

PULSES

Lentils, chickpeas, beans and dry peas are all considered pulses. Part of the legume family, pulses are the actual dry seed inside the pod, according to the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council. Not only are pulses low in fat and high in protein and fiber, but they also possess the ability to convert nitrogen in the air into nutrition for plants; this type of crop is referred to as a nitrogen-fixing crop. This process reduces the need for nitrogen fertilizers, thereby improving the soil underfoot as well as the surrounding environment.

Not only do pulses leave behind nutrient-rich soil after they’re harvested, according to the Global Pulse Confederation, but many pulse crops can grow in drought-prone environments, pulling water from shallower depths, and leaving deeper water behind for the next year’s crop.

Environmentally friendly and versatile, pulses integrate easily into salads, soups, meatless burgers and pastas. With many consumers opting for higher-protein options, menus offering more pulse-based dishes can attract an additional customer demographic.

Whether you decide to try one or all of these highly sustainable ingredients, be sure to promote their sustainability and educate customers about where they come from, how they grow and what makes them remarkable. It’s the perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation on social media, in a personalized email, or at the table.

Liz Barrett Foster is an award-winning business journalist specializing in the restaurant industry. Learn more at lizbarrettfoster.com.

Cactus is a drought-resistant, versatile ingredient in Mexico that’s slowly gaining traction among American palates (credit: Hector Saldivar).

SUPER SUSTAINABILITY

A look at a few organizations going the extra mile to create eco-friendly food systems

Shopping locally and creating dishes with sustainably grown and produced ingredients is always a good practice. But how are those ingredients being harvested, and what happens to the debris after service? How can something sustainable become “super sustainable?”

It’s possible when groups of people take the time to create systems that can help the environment before and/or after the harvesting of an ingredient. We found a few great examples.

of the Chesapeake Bay. Similar oyster shell-recycling programs have cropped up in other coastal towns, but ORP is one of the largest recycling networks. The partnership reports annual collections of 36,000 bushels of shell from 340 restaurants and operates 70 public drop sites within its region.

Crab Trap Retrieval

Oyster Shell Recycling

In 2010, the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) in Annapolis, Maryland, started the Shell Recycling Alliance. The program collects oyster shells, free of charge, from restaurants and seafood businesses. The organization then takes those shells, which would otherwise end up in landfills, and returns them to the waters

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) established the Derelict Crab Trap Rodeo Program in 2004 to help remove some of the abandoned crab traps in Louisiana state waters. During designated times each year, areas are closed, crab fishers are asked to remove

From left: The Oyster Recovery Partnership collects oyster shells and returns them to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay (credit: Jay Fleming Photography); Rappahannock Oyster Bar at Union Market in Washington, D.C., is one of ORP’s oyster shell pickup locations (credit: ORP).

FoLlOW ThAt ShElL

active traps, and LDWF and volunteers collect and dispose of abandoned crab traps. Since the start of the program, 41,000 abandoned traps have been removed, but more than 93,000 visible (floats attached) derelict traps remain in the Louisiana Coastal Zone, according to LDWF. The widespread issue has led to similar retrieval programs in Texas, Florida and Alabama. In Mississippi, the Derelict Trap Reward Program, led by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, pays a bounty to shrimpers who turn in abandoned crab traps they find.

Produce Rescue

Sometimes, no matter how much produce we think we may need, we have too much. That’s where organizations like Borderlands Produce Rescue come in. In operation for more than two decades in Nogales, Arizona, near a land border crossing to Mexico, Borderlands works with distributors in the area that are unable to sell the produce they’ve received from Mexico. Instead of the produce going to a landfill, Borderlands redistributes the fresh — and sometimes organic — produce to local families. -Liz Barrett Foster

After collecting, cleaning and preparing the oyster shell, ORP is able to help grow new oysters in the recycled shell (credit left: Jay Fleming Photography; right: Jess Lockoski).

NOT SO STUFFED

Just in time for Thanksgiving, here are some ways to lighten up a traditional Turkey Day favorite // By

Jody Shee

The traditional winter holiday meals aren’t the same without all of the trimmings for the turkey — the stuffing being chief among them. But just where that stuffing standard came from is hard to pinpoint.

The concept of stuffing birds and animals traces back to the first century, notes Melinda Burrows, CEC, CCA, executive chef at Hickory Hills Country Club, Springfield, Missouri. She cites the collection of recipes from Imperial Rome called “De re coquinaria” (“On the Subject of Cooking”): “The Romans stuffed chicken, suckling pig, castrated rooster, rabbit and dormice, for starters,” she says. A few common stuffing ingredients from ancient times included eggs, cooked brains, pepper, nuts and wine-soaked raisins. In American culture, the only traceable holiday stuffing date stamp is 1972, when General Foods (now Kraft Foods) launched Stove Top stuffing. “It allowed consumers to have stuffing away from the holidays, and they didn’t have to deal with the bird, making it fast and convenient,” says Nina Curtis, director and executive chef for Adventist Health’s Vitaliz Café, Roseville, California. She adds that “stuffing” is the term most often used in the Northern U.S., while “dressing” is the preferred term in the South.

Stove Top stuffing paved the way to safer stuffing, she says. Traditional stuffing prepared in the bird’s cavity is a salmonella infection waiting to happen, considering the temperature challenges. “In culinary school, we learn professional techniques, and the first is always food safety,” Chef Curtis says. “Culinary school helps [refine] things we did traditionally as a family [by] setting aside the emotional factor to focus on health and safety.” For that reason, she

and other chefs only prepare stuffing outside the bird.

Additionally, stuffing prepared separately allows for greater volume and improved quality management. “It can help you better control the moisture content of the turkey, as stuffing inside the cavity of the turkey absorbs the bird’s natural juices while cooking and can dry out the meat,” says Chef Jason Potanovich, associate professor of culinary arts –restaurant education and high-volume production at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York.

REFORMING FOR TODAY

With some creativity, traditional stuffing prepared outside the bird can be made to fit the eating styles of today’s consumer. Consider vegetarian and/or vegan versions stuffed inside something else, or present the side as a trendy, hearty bowl dish.

Chef Curtis, who is vegan, stuffs portabella mushrooms that she marinates overnight in a mixture of coconut aminos, minced garlic, and herbs such as rosemary, lemon thyme and oregano, first poking holes in the caps to help with absorption. “You could also use a little liquid smoke,” she says. She then grills the mushrooms before filling them with her stuffing and finishing them in the oven.

For her wild rice stuffing, she combines the grain with sautéed onions and chopped celery along with minced garlic, dried cranberries and diced sweet potatoes. For a less-sweet version, she might eliminate the cranberries

To make a healthy bowl or side of stuffing, Chef Burrows suggests aiming for color and texture, and then reverse engineer the dish by preparing each layer separately. Perhaps use wild rice for the base, topped with mirepoix and some green herbs like Italian or curly parsley or chives; then, for additional color and flavor, add fresh or dried cranberries, dried apricots and perhaps butternut squash cubes. For crunch, add walnuts or pecans. Top it with a fried sage leaf.

SUBSTITUTIONS THAT WORK

Though stuffing isn’t traditionally gluten-free, vegan, low carb or plantbased, you can achieve those ideals with some substitutions.

If vegan stuffing is your goal and you plan to use bread or cornbread, you can’t use eggs. Instead, make a liquid slurry using a quarter-cup each of chickpea flour and water. It equates to one egg in baking, Chef Curtis says.

In stuffing or dressing that would be more complete with the addition of some plant-based protein, walnuts are a handy choice. The nuts stand apart as an excellent plant source of omega-3 fatty

acids, with 2.5 grams per ounce, says Juliet Greene, consulting chef for the California Walnut Board. The omegas from walnuts receive a boost when paired with omega-3rich quinoa and chia in a stuffing.

To make a walnut “sausage,” combine walnuts, fennel and sage with a little oil in a food processor and pulse it to achieve a crumble that you can sauté and add to a rice or lentil stuffing, she says.

English walnuts come in several shades, depending on the position on the tree and the varietal. The Livermore walnut, which is cranberry red, is “a show-stopper, and great for holiday stuffing,” Chef Greene says.

One of her favorite stuffing recipes combines roasted cauliflower, brown rice, walnuts and the walnut sausage. To that, she adds fresh herbs and spices, and sometimes finishes it with dried fruit or apples for a bit of crispness and sweetness.

The possibilities for healthful holiday stuffing or dressing are limitless if you begin with a side dish outlook and the ingredients that make sense to you and your guests. Let your stuffing help bring holiday cheer this year. For recipes, visit WeAreChefs.com.

Liven up dishes like this cornbread with walnuts and currants (opposite); Walnuts add healthy omega-3 fatty acids to this sausage stuffing (left); Rice and a walnut "sausage" crumble are the stars of this rice salad, which can be used as a salad topping (right) (credit: California Walnut Board). and sweet potatoes and add oyster mushrooms. For a little liquid, she uses vegetable stock.

Jody Shee is a Kauai, Hawaii-based freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years of food-writing experience. She blogs at sheefood.com.

NCR Quiz

November/December 2020

By LeeAnn Corrao, CFC®

The concept of stuffing birds and other animals dates back to the 1970s.

a. Tr ue

b. Fa lse

Who wrote “The Sioux Chef ’s Indigenous Kitchen?”

a. Sean Sherman

b. Joseph Shawana

c. L eonard Bailey

d. David Wolfman

What are considered the “Three Sisters?”

a. Corn, Carrots, Beans

b. Squash, Corn, Beans

c. Squash, Corn, Radishes

d. Squash, Carrots, Beans do not require external feeding or fertilization.

a. Cacti

b. O ysters

c. Fonio

d. Pulses

Lentils, chickpeas, beans and are all considered pulses.

a. Dr y peas

b. Peanuts

c. Hazelnuts

d. Bamboo Shoots

What type of flour is used to make classic financiers?

a. A ll-purpose flour

b. Bread flour

c. A lmond flour

d. Buckwheat flour

Where were financiers created?

a. Paris

b. L ondon

c. Monaco

d. St. Petersburg

What is another term for “stuffing”?

a. In nards

b. Dressing

c. Casserole

d. Hodgepodge

See the rest of the questions, finish the quiz and earn 4 CEHs toward your certification on ACF’s new Online Learning Center at acfchefs.org/olc.