Greetings American Academy of Chefs Fellows!

Another exciting year is about to begin, complete with Academy functions, dinners, meetings, social gatherings, and an election. In addition, we will be selecting a new Vice Chair as Rico is moving up to the Chair position, having assisted me for four years with many of our Academy functions. We have three very qualified candidates for Vice Chair consideration, and the Academy’s Election and Nominations Chair, Frank Leake, has reviewed their candidate statements and resumes. These Chefs will present their respective platforms at the regional Chef Connect series, and the election will take place beginning in May (in sync with the election of our national officers).

We have two very distinctive regional dinners to look forward to this year, as well. In Atlantic City, we will be gathering at the Borgata Hotel and Casino for a special dinner prepared by their site’s very talented chefs, both of whom are AAC Fellows. The menu they are planning promises to provide everyone in attendance with an excellent evening complete with a delicious meal and wonderful wine.

Following Atlantic City, we move west to the Twin Cities, where Chef Chris Dwyer will be our host at the Crowne Plaza Northstar Hotel. Chris is looking forward to hosting us and has set the menu in preparation for the event. Dinner preparation will include the participation of several other Academy Fellows as well. We have been treated to some truly exceptional dinners in the past, and, once again this year, we will be well taken care of by talented Chefs from both venues. In regards to our annual Induction Dinner, we are currently in negotiations with the Marriott World Center in Orlando, Florida and will update you soon.

Rico, Katelynn, and I met in early January, and we reviewed the Academy applications for the 2019 induction. This year there will be 20 Fellows inducted at our 49 ^th Annual Dinner and Induction Ceremony. This was the first year we received online portfolios and applications for induction, and we were very pleased with the new system. We will continue tweaking and refining it as we move forward. We have six Honorary Academy Fellows eligible for induction, as well.

We reviewed the Hall of Fame portfolios and were very impressed by the Fellows seeking Hall of Fame status. A great amount of effort was required on the part of the six candidates (three new candidates and three existing candidates). Hall of Fame information has been sent to the Chair, John Kaufman, and the committee. They will review and select this year’s Hall of Fame recipients, and we certainly appreciate their hard work. We also would like to announce Chef Gale Gand has been selected to be our Celebrated Chef and Honorary Member of the Hall of Fame. Chef Gand is a renowned Pastry Chef and partner in Tru, the prestigious restaurant in Chicago.

In other news, our trip to the Bocuse d'Or was a huge success thanks to Chef Michel and Liz Bouit. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend. Both Rico and I wish we could have been present, but our schedules and work obligations got in the way and prevented us from participating. I know there were quite a few AAC Fellows in attendance, and I am looking forward to them reporting on this very special excursion.

Our Policies and Procedures continue to be updated, and we will discuss a few more changes this July when we meet for our annual meeting. Our Policies and Procedures match ACF Policies as much as possible. These changes will allow our governance process to run more smoothly, and, as a result, we will not need to change things in the near future.

This year, LibbeyUSA will be providing wine glasses at our two regional Academy dinners. In addition, they will provide the commemorative plate provided at the annual dinner in Orlando.  LibbeyUSA is a proud American company with affiliates all over the United States and the world. Remember Chefs, if it wasn’t for the generous support of our sponsors, we would surely be required to pay much more than we currently do for our dinners and functions. Please give them a friendly “Hello” and a sincere “Thank you” when you visit them during this year’s functions.

The “Dinner of the Century,” celebrating the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs and the Academy, is still in the early planning stages. 

The St. Louis Chapter will be holding their annual dinner on Monday, March 11, 2019.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who continue to forward generous donations—they arrive daily at the office. It is you, the Fellows, who provide us with funds to support our Junior Teams, our Scholarship programs, and grants for certification and continuing education. Your support and enthusiasm are genuinely appreciated.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all very soon. 

Mark 

 

Mark Wright, CEC®, AAC® 

Chair, American Academy of Chefs



Greetings American Academy of Chefs Fellows!

In October of 2018 I had the pleasure of flying to Incheon, South Korea on the invitation of the American Culinary Federation’s newest chapter, the ACF Korea Chapter, to represent the AAC and the ACF.

The occasion was to attend the 25th Annual World Gwangju Kimchi Festival. Chef Will Beriau, CEC, CCE, AAC, was invited to accompany me and we were warmly welcomed by the Korean ACF members. On the first night, Chefs from around the globe were honored to be invited to participate in the opening ceremonies hosted by the Mayor of Incheon, Yoo Jeong-bok , along with many politicians and celebrities.

On our second day, we were off to the Gwangju University Hotel & Food Art Culinary Department where we were asked to do two cooking demos for the students, who wanted to see demos of Chefs cooking the regional cuisine of their country. To make these demos special, we brought with us 35 pounds of New England seafood, including Maine lobster meat, Maine lobster tails, New new bedofr scallops, shucked Massachusetts oysters, Ipswich frying clams and Maine crab-meat, as well as a variety of classic spices to enhance our demos.

The next two days were spent judging culinary completions with an international jury of Chefs, and we did two more cooking demos with New England seafood.

One of the highlights was when all the Chefs were asked to take a class on how to make kimchi. When we arrived to take the class, we quickly found out there was about 100 people waiting for us who also were there to help make kimchi. We soon discovered that this class is run annually, as a way to give back to the community. We are proud to announce that when the class ended, we all had produced 45 cases of kimchi which will given to those less fortunate in the Incheon area.

Rico

Americo S. DiFronzo, CEC, CCA, AAC

Vice Chair, American Academy of Chefs