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PRESIDENTS MESSAGE FROM TONY PARKER
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WSCA President
Tony Parker CEC, ACE
January 2015
Greetings Culinarians and Associates,
Welcome to a new year and new challenges.
Hot Food Competition
Three teams competed for the WSCA student hot food team on Saturday January 10th at Bellingham Technical College. The teams that were vying to represent WSCA at the Regional Competition in Las Vegas, NV on March 20th, 21st were Wine Country Culinary Culinary Institute, Walla Wall, WA., Le Cordon Bleu, Seattle Wa., and Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham ,Wa. Teams did a great job and showed nice skill sets under pressure. Le Cordon Bleu finished with a Bronze Medal, Wine Country Culinary Institute finished with a Silver Medal, and Bellingham Technical College finished with a Gold Medal. Bellingham Technical College will represent the WSCA in Las Vegas. Congratulations to all teams, Students, and coaches for their devotion to the long hours of practice and competition. All teams did a great job and there was a great turnout of spectators in attendance to watch the competition. A job well done by all! Click here to see pictures of this event...
Ice Carving 101
We had our first educational seminar on the 17th at Rainier Golf and Country Club. It was Ice Carving 101 with instructional and hands-on carving. The weather was a little wet but the participants did not seem to mind and all had a great time. Photos of the event are on the WSCA website and we will have a link to a short video of the seminar up as well.
Presidents Awards Dinner
Our Presidents Annual Awards Dinner is just around the corner. It is being held at Cedarbrook Lodge in Seattle on February 9th starting at 6pm for drinks and canapes. The cost is $50.00 for members, $35.00 for students, and $60.00 for non-members. This is a plated 3-course dinner that promises to be exceptional. We have a full night with awards and revealing the Chef of the Year. Please make reservations soon on the WSCA Meetings page.
WSCA Promotional Videos
Going into 2015 we have a plan to create a series of short videos of our competitions, educational segments, meetings, dinners and community events. The short clips will be on the website as they are finished and the final result will be a video of our chapter documenting what we are about. Alex is a videographer that has already documented the competition at BTC and the ice carving seminar. Look for the short clips on the website soon.
Chef and Child Program
Our other focus this year is to promote our chapter's Chef and Child program by purchasing a food truck that will be out in the community doing events and fundraisers focusing on healthy eating and children. We have a chair and committee formed to create the business plan for this endeavor. We are excited about the opportunity to get our association out in the public forum in a manner that will benefit the Chef and Child program. If anyone has thoughts on the food truck please send me an email and I will pass it on to the chair.
Coming Events
- We have a new workshop, the Molecular Workshop by the John Koerner Company on Feb. 28th at Renton Technical College Cafeteria.
- Our March board meeting will be held at Bates downtown campus.
- Our April dinner will be the Bite of Apprenticeship at RTC.
- Our May board meeting will be at Le Cordon Bleu in Tukwila.
- The Culinary Salon Competition will be held May 16 & 17, 2015 at Bellingham Technical College.
- Our June meeting is Food Truck Wars - Location TBD
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FEBRUARY 2015 BOARD MEETING
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Date:
February 9th, 2015
Location:
Cedar Brook Lodge
18525 36th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98188
Times:
6pm - Cocktail Reception: Drinks and Canapes
7pm - Plated 3-Course Dinner
Members: $50 Non-Members: $60
We have a full night with awards and revealing the Chef of the Year. Please make reservations soon. This is a plated 3-course dinner that promises to be exceptional.
Menu:
Cocktail Reception
Chef's choice of Canapes, three seasonal varieties
Plated Dinner
Salad:
Mixed Baby Lettuce, Toasted Hazelnuts, Breakfast Radish, Fines Herbs Vinaigrette
Entr�e:
Grilled All Natural Chicken Breast, Caramelized Onions,
Garnet Yams, Swiss Chard, Roasted Garlic Emulsion
or
Chef's Choice Seasonal Vegetarian
Dessert:
Hazelnut Daquoise, Chocolate Ganache,
Candied Navel Orange
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MOLECULAR WORKSHOP
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Date:
February 28th, 2015
Time:
8:30am - 12:30pm
Location:
Renton Technical College Cafeteria
Benefiting:
Professional Culinarians
Student Culinarians
This educational seminar is available to Professional Chefs and Student Culinarians. This is a hands on approach to Molecular Gastronomy. Attendees will have the opportunity to use various ingredients, tools and techniques in molecular work.
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EMILY'S CORNER - A STUDENT FORUM
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What's in a Chef's Whites?
Chefs were the white knights of the stainless steel round table. They would sweep in and smite all culinary evil doings. For example, saving souffl�s in distress from over enthusiastic prep cooks... or that's what they used to be. They led by example, and fear.
As the Culinary industry evolves, chefs have become instead the bad boys of the kitchen. Rather than noble knights, they are eccentric artists with tattoos and piercings. They are avant garde and cutting edge.
Old ways are lost. An iron fist is no longer permitted. We gain perhaps a friendlier work environment, but lose tradition and respect for it. Gone is the cravat, the black shoes and in some cases even the hat. Why wear silly clothes to work? Why make consomm� when half of your guests don't know what it is?
Well, culinary means, for many, 20 hour work days, sleeping in your car and bingeing on your days off. Such a chaotic life style leaves the young craving the kitchen's orderly stability. But if the traditional order and respect for methodology is lost everything begins to dissolve.
The new generation is self-centered and distracted and sometimes popular role models encourage rebellion. If their chef cuts corners so shall they. We all see those young, bovine creatures that simply don't care about anything we hold dear. This can't be blamed on video games or texting alone. It is also the result of training to ignore authority.
Chefs are the great ring masters, leading a motley crew of misfits, they must be respected or everything is lost. With "old-school" virtues such as respect, modesty, discipline and grace there is order. You can't create beauty or perfection without order.
This is the plea of a 17 year old Culinarian to chefs and young people like myself. Please remember the old ways and respect them. Let us not lose the order and skills passed from Careme to Escoffier.
And that's what's in a chef's whites, a reminder of a world of order and higher things.
By Emily Romnes
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ICE CARVING 101 FOLLOW-UP
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Location:
Rainier Golf and Country Club
The Ice carving workshop was a tremendous event that went great. We had a little rain but the venue at Rainier Golf and Country Club was perfect with plenty of floor to ceiling windows for members to warm up and still observe. President Tony Parker, owner of Tony's Ice Creations and Vance Huber, owner of Studio Ice discussed and demonstrated techniques for ice carving. Over 40 culinarians were able to jump in and start carving ice and work on pieces for over 3 hours. Members worked with ice chisels, electric chain saws, die grinders and very specialized expensive bits. Member and nonmember comments ranged from "Excellent workshop!" to "It was amazing! Teach us more.
For more info and pictures from the event,
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STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
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Are you a culinary student? Looking for some green?
Our local American Academy of Chefs and our ACF Washington State Chapter student scholarship applications are available online. To find out when our next scholarship will be awarded and the application due dates please visit the scholarships page on our website for details.
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Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have ideas for the association.
Sincerely,
Tony Parker
Washington State Chefs Association
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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2015
February 9th, 2015
Presidents Awards Dinner
Cedar Brook Lodge
SeaTac, WA
Click for details...
February 28th, 2015
Molecular Workshop
By John Koerner Company
Renton Technical College
March 9th, 2015
March Board Meeting
Bates Technical College
Downtown Campus
April 2015
Bite of Apprentice
Renton Technical College
May 11th, 2015
May Board Meeting
Le Cordon Bleu
Tukwila, WA
May 16th & 17th, 2015
Culinary Salon Competition
Bellingham Technical College
June 2015
Food Truck Wars
Site TBA
MORE EVENTS
Visit the
WSCA Coming Events page for more event details...
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2015 WSCA OFFICERS
| PRESIDENT
Tony Parker CEC ACE
VICE-PRESIDENT
Dan Lewark CEC CCA
TREASURER
Jeff Pratt
SECRETARY
Janet Shaffer CWPC
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Mark Linden CEC AAC
BOARD MEMBERS
Charles Ramsayer
JJ Meland
Michael Baldwin CEC CCE
Tamas Ronyai
Brandon LaVeille
Jennifer Sohonie CEC
TRUSTEES
Jim H. Douglas CEC CCE AAC
Walter Bronowitz
CCC CEC AAC
John Fisher CEC CCE AAC
Chris Plemmons CEC AAC
Karl Hutter
CHAIR POSITIONS
& COMMITTEES
Membership Chair
Lori Taylor
Co-Chair
Gary Fuller CEC CCE AAC
Education Chair
Jennifer Sohonie
Co-Chair
Dan Lewark
Chef & Child Chair
Brandon LaVielle
Culinary Salon Chair
Michael Baldwin
Co-Chair
Tamas Ronyai
Certification Chair
Jeff Duncan
Co-Chair
Janet Waters
Sergeant at Arms
Steven Schrader CCA
Apprentice Coordinator
John Fisher
Photographer
Holli Yu
Food Truck Chair
JJ Meland
Food Truck Committee
Gary Fuller CEC CCE AAC
Stephanie Branica
Matt Dimeo
Maria Ancira
CONTACT INFO
To find contact info for any of the WSCA Officers,
please visit the
Contact Us page. |
PRESS RELEASES
| WSCA Press Releases
We added a new page for WSCA Press Releases with information on important news and events within the Washington State Chefs Association.
Click here to view the Press Release page
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