November Holiday Dinner

One week away from our annual Holiday Dinner and Apprentice Silent Auction on November 14th at the beautiful Suquamish Clearwater Casino resort. If you haven't made your reservations for dinner yet, you need to hurry and get them in. Take advantage of the great special rate that they have for our group in the hotel and enjoy the casino for a day. You will not be disappointed.  Click for more info on this event.  

Our annual elections are taking place at our dinner that night.  Please make sure to come out and vote.  Every vote can make a difference.

Governor's Inaugural Ball 

We are working with the Governor's Ball Committee now for preparations for the next Inaugural Ball on January 11th 2017.  Our revised letter with all the updated information will be going out in a couple weeks to all the schools, caterers and restaurants that are a part of this event.  We are still looking for a few more vendors to participate in this inaugural ball. We have set the bar high in the past events and plan on making this event even better.  This event will help supply the necessary funds for us to be able to grant scholarships for our membership for the next four years.

Apprentices

Our Chapter signed up two new apprentices in our area this month. We are looking for houses that meet the criteria for having an apprentice. Keep in mind that you do not have to be a certified chef to have an apprentice.  You just need to be at a level of chef de cuisine if you were certified. Your house needs to do at least two meal periods, lunch, and dinner for example. Maybe breakfast, lunch. The benefits for apprenticeship are many but one of the most valuable reasons would be that you have an apprentice for three years working with you. In today's workforce we have all seen the high turnover from workers that are just looking for a paycheck and are not on a career path. If you are looking for a more stable workforce and are able to mentor and train our upcoming culinarians, please  reach out to me. We are also looking for apprentices.  We have businesses that are looking for apprentices but currently we do not have any without houses.

Elections

Our elections are open now for 3 board positions and two office positions, Treasurer and Vice president. Dan Lewark has been a strong supporter of our chapter, stepping up when needed and asked.  He is not running for another term as VP. He will continue to be active on committees and a possible chair position.  We do have candidates running but ask that if anyone wants to run for office to send an email in or show up at the next board meeting in October to throw their hat in the race.  We do have many new members joining our chapter that have experience in other chapters around the country. We welcome our new chefs and culinarians into our Washington family.  We look forward to working with you at our upcoming events.

We are always looking for chef's that want to help out and volunteer their time, but taking on a board or higher position is a commitment that you need to make sure you can fulfill. Chefs have a very busy schedule and attendance at the board and dinner meetings is required so that our business can be conducted.  I appreciate all the members that give their time and knowledge to our chapter.  You are the reason that makes this chapter what it is and what will make it bigger and better going forward.  Thank you all for your support.  

Practical Exams

We have five practical exams this month at Renton Technical College.  Four are for CEC and one is for CSC.  It is great to see chefs in the area step up and get their certification.  If you have been in the culinary industry working for a while, you need to start looking at levels of certification for yourself. You can reach out to anyone on the board or myself for help in determining a path for you.  Our chapter hosts 4 practical test dates a year for those that are in need of testing.  You can look at the dates on the website or on the National web site for ACF.   

Upcoming Events

Our next board meeting is at Bates Technical College on January 9th.   We do not have any meetings in December as a rule.  We might have a special meeting for the Governors Ball committee to go over last minute details.  Our February Presidents Awards Dinner is at Double Tree Seatac on the 13th of February.  Information regarding the Presidents Awards Dinner will be on our events page soon.