CIA, Cargill team up for sales-manager certification

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 18, 2002

HYDE PARK, NY -- The Culinary Institute of America teamed up with Cargill Foodservice Meat Solutions, the Milwaukee-based supplier of beef, pork and turkey products and a division of Cargill Inc., to develop a certification program for foodservice sales managers.

The inaugural plan, which began in August and is scheduled to run through mid-December, will graduate its first class of CIA-certified culinary sales professionals. The class includes 11 Cargill foodservice salespeople from Cargill Foodservice Meat Solutions and five from Sunny Fresh Foods, a Cargill subsidiary.

While the first program was offered exclusively to Cargill representatives because of the company's initial interest, it eventually will be open to all qualifying foodservice suppliers.

The four-month program was designed to provide sales representatives with a better understanding of operators' issues and concerns. It consists of four components: distance online learning, trailing foodservice culinary professionals, taking on-site courses at the CIA in Hyde Park and completing a case-study thesis.

Students will be instructed in culinary concepts, menu development and product management; analytic understanding of menus, purchases and profit; culinary, product, equipment and food-safety areas; and routines of culinary professionals.

At the end of the course, each student will present an oral case study before a panel of culinary professionals. The analysis must demonstrate the student's ability to apply information learned in the program to develop a strategic culinary solution addressing a client's problem.

"We wanted a training program -- not about product, but about understanding operators' real issues and concerns so we can work with them more intelligently," said Arnie Stone, vice president of marketing for Cargill Foodservice Meat Solutions. "We want the professional foodservice community to expect more -- and get more -- from us."