ACF seeks to raise profile with RCA pact, networking forum

Nation's Restaurant News, August 11, 2003 by Bret Thorn

WASHINGTON -- Inclusion was the theme of this year's American Culinary Federation convention, which featured the signing of an agreement between the ACF and the Research Chefs Association, a day devoted to pastry chefs, and networking forums for African-Americans and Latinos.

In addition, for the first time, the ACF Leadership Award was given to someone other than a caucasian man.

During the conference's general session, president Edward Leonard said he wanted the ACF to be equated with what's going on in the culinary world as readily as Starbucks is equated with coffee. He advocated partnering with international counterparts, such as the Canadian Culinary Federation and the World Association of Cooks Societies.

Leonard also proposed a new six-month apprenticeship program that foodservice operations could implement and would teach basic culinary skills and end with the presentation of a certificate. He said the apprenticeship would be for people who did not have the interest or wherewithal to undertake the ACF's 6,000-hour, three-year program that confers an associate's degree. He also announced the reintroduction of a two-year, 4,000-hour certification program.

A new level of accreditation also was introduced during the Washington, D.C., convention: the certified chef administrator, or CCA--for chefs who run hospitals, hotels and other institutions and whose job no longer actually is cooking. Unlike other certification levels, which this year for the first time have included mandatory practical exams--previously required only in the 10-day certified master chef test--the CCA would not include a practical test but would test knowledge of financial and human resource administration, Leonard said.

The ACF president challenged the association's membership to bring in new members and said that if a total of 1,500 new professionals joined, annual dues would be reduced by $5. If 2,500 new members joined, dues would be reduced by $10 and an extra $5 would be removed for every additional 1,000 members recruited from October through next June. The new dues schedule would be effective for 2005, Leonard said.

He also advocated presenting an image of greater diversity to the rest of the world, noting that in the past the ACF's publications had showed just "white, middle-aged men." He awarded this year's Leadership Award to Dennie Streeter of the Birmingham, Ala., ACF chapter, who Leonard said was the liaison for the Latino and African-American groups who met at the conference for the first time this year.

Streeter was the first African-American and the first woman to win the award, Leonard later said.

Another change this year was the Chef of the Year Award. Previously, it had been a sort of lifetime recognition for contributions to the ACF. This year, underscoring Leonard's emphasis on cooking, it was a mystery-basket cooking competition.

The winner was Roderick Smith, executive chef of the Country Club of Florida, in Village of Golf, Fla. Smith was the finalist from the Southeast region. He competed against Keith Coughenour, executive chef of the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh; Donald Miller, executive chef at the Morris Inn at Notre Dame University in Notre Dame, Ind.; and Jacques Wilson, executive chef at Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

The previous Chef of the Year Award was replaced by the Hermann G. Rusch Award, which this year was given to each region's nominees instead of just to one person. The winners were Joseph Amendola, executive vice president of Fessel International in Orlando, Fla.; Darrel Anderson, a retired chef from the Washington State Chefs Association; Manfred Bast, chef-instructor at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia; and Oliver Sommer, chef instructor at Southwest Illinois College.

In addition, Tom Recinella, an instructor of culinary arts at the State University of New York at Delhi, was named National Educator of the Year.

Derek Spendlove, chairman of baking and pastry arts at Sullivan University in Louisville, Ky., won the Chef Professionalism Award. The other nominees were Michael Carmel, director of the Culinary School at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago; John Fisher, director of the School of Culinary Arts at Renton Technical College in Seattle; and Rene Rawraway, assistant professor at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.

The ACF National Student Member of the Year competition, which also was a cooking contest for the first time, was won by Laura Bellus-Kaltenecker of Chicago.

For the second time, the convention began with a day devoted entirely to cooking. The "Skills for Culinarians Day" was implemented last year by Leonard, who said he wanted to underscore his opinion that a chefs' organization should be about food.

This year the skills displayed were those of pastry chefs. Featured chefs included David Guas of DC Coast and Tenpenh restaurants in Washington, D.C.; Susan Notter of Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College in Birmingham, Ala.; Jennifer Kopp of Chevy Chase Club in Chevy Chase, Md.; and Mark Ramsdell of L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md.