Hamilton Featured in Times WV

Photo by Danny Snyder/Times WV.
Pam Hamilton, MS, RD Associate Professor of Food Service Management was recently featured in a Times West Virginian article, A Healthy Lifestyle. Read about Mrs. Hamilton's tips for avoiding the wrong kinds of fat, and about how to focus on portion to maintain a more healthy diet.

Read more at:
http://www.timeswv.com/homepage/local_story_056012430.html

A Culinary Event

Pierpont Culinary recently announced they will offer:
A Culinary Event~enjoy a semi-formal evening of fine dining with the Culinary Team, Saturday March 28th. The fundraising dinner will feature a variation of the four course menu that the team prepared for the American Culinary Federation Northeast Regional competition.

Table sponsorships are available, and exciting updates and announcements about the program are being planned. Champagne Reception begins at 6:30pm and the Food & Wine Dinner begins at 7pm.

Contact Chef Floyd to see how you can be involved brian.floyd@pierpont.edu

Culinary Team Wins Bronze Medals

Building on the third place finish of the Knowledge Bowl Team, the Culinary Team members (Ted Hastings, Captin; Amanda Emerson; Joseph White; Kellie Smith; and Sarabeth Cox; Chef Jay Mahoney, Coach) were awarded bronze medals for there performance at the 2009 Amecian Culinary Federation Northeast Regional.

Eight teams competed in the event. Pennsylvania Culinary Institute won the competition and Hocking Community College (Nelsonville, Ohio) was second. The standings were announced at the Vice Presidents Gala Monday night.

Medals are award to teams reaching an industry competition standard. Some culinary competitions are won with only one team receiving enough points to be awarded a medal. However, this year's Regional fielded a very talented group of teams, and Pierpont was very proud to have received a score between 28-31.99 out of 40 to qualify for a bronze medal.

Congratulations to the Culinary and Knowledge Bowl Teams on a very solid performance in Boston.

See photos from the entire conference at:
http://www.digiproofs.com/ Password: ACFBOSTON

Boston Day 3

Today was both a rewarding and trying day. The Culinary Team has been operating the past few days with little sleep, and with high tension and anxiety. At the same time, undoubtably the competition has been the fulfilment of literally 6 months of preparation and practice.

The day began at 7am with the Skills portion of the competition. Each team has 80 minutes to complete four skills (de-boning a chicken, fabricating a fish, classical vegetable cuts, and pastry). The four team members draw to see which skill they will randomly select. Joe White drew the first spot, and de-boned the chicken. Ted Hastings followed and cleaned the Dover Sole fish. While the first two spots are usually the fastest parts, they demand much attention from the judges, and both guys were very precise.

Perhaps, one of the longest and most exact parts is the vegetable cuts section, and Amanda Emerson pulled this lot. Amanda julienned butternut squash, diced onion, concassed two tomatoes (blanched, peeled, small diced the petals, and coarsely chopped the center), and tourned eight potatoes. Kellie Smith anchored the team with Pastry Skill (roll pastry for blind-bake, peel and segment an orange, and prepare a quart of pastry cream). Sarabeth Cox kept the group organized and managed from the floor as our alternate. The ladies each turned in some of the their best performances.

The Culinary Team competed against seven other schools from the entire Northeast Region which included: New England Culinary (Vermont), Conneticut, New Jersey, Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island), Hocking Community College (Ohio), Pennsylvania Culinary Inst., and New York. For the final leg theTeam competed in the Four Course Hot Food Competition.
Each team had 75 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to plate a four course meal for four. The dishes included: the classical course- Paupiettes de Sole a la Trouvillaise (stuffed, poached Dover sole, shrimp, mussels, and Sauce aux Crevettes (shrimp sauce)); Fried Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Salad with toasted pumpkin seeds and autumn-apple vinaigrette; Boneless Saddle of Rabbit in Caul with Vegetable Ribbons, whipped Celeriac and Potato Puree, and Truffle Sauce; Nutty Buckwheat Cake with White Chocolate- Mascarpone Mousse, cherry ice cream, Cherry sauce and Honey Tuile.

The team was well poised and performed at a very high level. The judges, led by culinary legends Roland Shaffer, Certified Master Chef (CMC) and Gunther Heiland, Certified Master Pastry Chef (CMPC), and joined by Tom Recinella, Certified Executive Chef (CEC) and former National Champion Student Team Coach, gave a fair critique. Their remarks touched on a number of positive features of the Team’s food, but also exposed some areas for improvement. Pierpont was certainly among the top tier of competitors, but the official results won’t be revealed until the Vice President’s Grand Gala Monday night. Keep your finger’s crossed…

Boston Day 2

Saturday began very early. The Culinary Team began work on their cold platter around 5:30am, and the Knowledge Bowl Team got together around 7am to prepare for the day's competition.

Fortunately, both of the teams' efforts paid off. The Knowledge Bowl Team finished third in ACF Northeast Region. Baltimore International Culinary won first place and Pennsylvania Culinary Institute finished second. Our team lost their first match of the day, but rallied to carry themselves to the semifinals of the Jeapordy-style event. Ultimately, just a few questions and points separated the team from the finals, but it was a very impressive effort on Pierpont's part.
While the brain team was competing, the Culinary Team was busy slicing, glazing, cleaning, and organizing for the cold platter competition. Platters are to be presented as cold food served cold. This is the food that literally looks too good to eat. Pierpont spent extra time insuring that their product was as clean and perfect as possible. This extra effort pushed the limits of time, but paid off with the judges. Two Master Chefs and one CEC judged the competition, and they could not have been more complimentary of the our team.

Even though the food for the platters are for display only and not eaten, the judge's first comment to the team was, "I just want to pick up the food and eat it." This was a very good sign, but it is still very early in the two-day culinary competition.

The team's enjoyed dinner at a local favorite--No Name Restaurant. Many experienced their first lobster and other seafood favorites.

View photos from today's competition:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chefbrianfloyd/CulinaryKnowledgeBowlTeamBostonDay2#

Culinary&Knowledge Bowl Teams-Boston Day 1

After a grueling 14hr trip in very cold and sometimes snowy conditions, the Team arrived in Boston Thursday evening around 7:30pm. Friday began with a trip on Boston’s mass transit system (the T) to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. The marketplace featured souvenirs, historic facts and treasures, and local specialties. The morning finished with lunch at America’s oldest restaurant: the Union Oyster House (est. 1826).

In the afternoon, the Knowledge Bowl took their qualifying exam, and faired well (they qualified as the 4th seed). The Culinary Team set up their mise en place for tomorrow’s cold platter competition and Sunday’s hot food competition.

The day culminated with a student forum sponsored by Chartwell’s foodservice provider. The one-hour presentation covered: résumé writing, interview techniques, and employment opportunities in the industry, and was followed by a reception were the students could network with some of the industries’ leading chefs.

Check out photos from today at: http://picasaweb.google.com/chefbrianfloyd/CulinaryTeamBostonDay1#

A special thank you to our sponsors:

US Foodsevice http://www.usfoodservice.com/

American Culinary Federation WV http://www.wvculinary.org/

New Chef Fashion http://www.newchef.com/