Mark Linden, CEC AAC APRIL 2013 From the Range Greetings Fellow Culinarians and Associates I addressed the need in my last letter to begin to focus on what we are as a chapter. I also broached the idea of a task force designed to search out how we can offer the best meetings possible for each of our members. The board decided to add to its structure a student and apprentice member. This will allow for us to continually have a voice on the board of directors speaking from the student and apprentice perspective. After all as chefs it is in our best interest to mentor this group along so that they can have the best form of education they can get. We will be searching out some members for this very important task as we cannot afford to fall behind in terms of offering the best educational seminars we can. So we will look to the task force recommendations and to set a good blueprint of how these meetings are structured and the fundamental principles of how they are developed. These values will become critical in how we look at future events. As well as to determine what our core values are in terms of educational content, aspirational goals and some fun included. We are beginning to develop a great seminar for September by bringing in a guest chef. More to come on this later. March 2013 Presidents Awards Dinner A special thanks to the Columbia Tower Club for hosting our annual Awards Dinner. Congratulations to our distinguished chefs for their accomplishments in 2012. We recognized Chef Pratt as our Chef of the Year, Chef Baldwin as our Professional Chef of the Year and Chef Parker for our Humanitarian of the Year. In addition our Allied/Associate of the Year went to Eurest at Boeing for all the behind the scenes support they have given us for Special Olympics and the Governor's Inaugural Ball reception. Presidential Medallions were given to Chefs Dimeo and Waters for their dedication to their students and the resulting national honors in the Culinary Knowledge Bowl and to Chefs Fisher and Duncan for all the hard work in starting up and maintain our apprentice program and the recent successful ACFEI accreditation. Certificates of appreciation as well as a picture disc and plate were given to each school and participant for their assistance to us for the 2013 Inaugural Ball Reception. The schools not in attendance will have these mailed to them. Check out the website for photos of the event. A special thanks to Hollie Yu for always providing great pictures. April 2013 Bite of Apprentice Please be sure to attend our next meeting at the Renton Technical College on April 8th. We will be featuring our annual "Bite of the Apprentice" - an event that will feature 12 local restaurants who sponsor an apprentice as well as 6 local culinary schools. Click here to visit the meetings page for more info. We will also be fortunate to have as a special guest our National ACF President, Michael TY, for the April meeting to discuss what he feels are the best choices to make in the upcoming election for national officers. Please click here for information needed to vote. Western Regional Conference
April 11th-15th brings the Western Regional Conference to Idaho this year. I hope to see many of you there. Some great educational opportunities will be presented as well as the chance to meet up with old friends and meet new ones. Lake Washington Institute of technology will once again be sponsoring a team for the Culinary Knowledge Bowl and Bellingham Technical College will host a student competition team. We wish both of these schools the best in their endeavors. Click here for more info on the conference... June 2013 Volunteer Appreciation Event I draw to your attention the June meeting being held at Muckleshoot Casino. This will be a volunteer appreciation event, free to all who participated in the Special Olympics and Governors Ball events. Unique Employment Opportunities We have been presented with a great overview of the food service program at Century Link Field (home of the Seahawks and Sounders) by Chef Pascal Beaute. Delaware North Companies is offering career opportunities within the sportservice industry. Truly an exciting chance to develop great line skills, organizational habits and have fun while you are at it and see a few games for free. Contact Chef Beaute at pbeaute@dncinc.com. You can also learn about the company at www.delawarenorth.com. Our very own Roland Henin CMC also works for this company. Click here for more information. ACF National Elections ACF National President Michael Ty will visit our chapter for the April meeting to discuss what he feels are the best choices to make in the upcoming election for national officers. Please click here for information needed to vote. Volunteer Opportunities -The Governors Inaugural Ball -Apprenticeship Demo Chefs Individuals are needed to help in the instructing of the apprentice's. It always adds extra credence to the program by having guests doing demonstrations in areas that the students may not see. The current focus deals with Nutrition. Join us on WE ARE CHEFS and FACEBOOK Gouter a la Cuisine Mark Linden CEC ACE AAC Washington State Chefs Association Website |