National Culinary Review Article
On the weekend of January 16th, 2010 our chapter hosted our first ACF Practical Exam. We were extremely fortunate enough to have Certified Master Chef Fritz Sonnenschmidt, Certified Executive Pastry Chef Noble Masi and Certified Executive Chef Mark Wright as our judges.
For those of you unfamiliar with any of our judges here is a small bio of each.
Chef Fritz Sonnenschmidt is a Certified Master Chef, author/editor of The Professional Art of Garde Manger, Dining with Sherlock Holmes, The American Harvest, and Tastes and Tales of a Chef: Stories and Recipes, as well as a television personality, appearing on PBS in six seasons of Cook Secrets of the CIA and five seasons of Grilling Maestros. His lectures and cooking demonstrations are immensely popular, especially on kosher food, garde manger and charcuterie. Fritz started his culinary career with an apprenticeship in Munich, Germany, which lead to extensive international work experiences in hotel and club kitchens, including that of Executive Chef at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City. He joined the faculty of The Culinary Institute of America from which he retired as Culinary Dean in 2002. He is the past Chairman of the American Academy of Chefs (AAC), the honor society of the American Culinary Federation. Fritz is a repeated gold medalist at the Culinary Olympics and international culinary competitions, including the Jerusalem Gold Medal for Culinary Excellence for kosher food and the Geneva Gold Medal for cold food display. Fritz is one of the most recognized chefs among his peers and was recently voted into the AAC Hall of Fame.
Chef Noble Masi, CEPC, AAC, HOF, has more than 50 years of experience as professional baker, culinary educator, award-winning chef and author. Founding member of the Mid Hudson Culinary Association, Masi has served the ACF as chairman of his chapter's board and national treasurer for two terms. He retired as one of the three longest serving professors from The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y., with a 35-year career as a professor and director of education in baking and pastry arts.
Throughout his career, Masi has won numerous awards and has been recognized for his profound influence on the culinary industry. He was named U.S.A.'s Chef of the Year™ in 1999, received the ACF Professionalism Award in 1996 and the American Culinary Federation Education Institute Education Award in 1982. Masi is also the author of Baking Fundamentals (Prentice Hall, 2006).
Mark Wright, Certified Executive Chef (CEC), American Academy of Chefs (AAC) - Wright is currently a culinary educator at Erie Community College in Buffalo, N.Y. and executive chef at Crag Burn Golf Club in East Aurora, NY. An active member in ACF for more than 30 years. Wright has been active in the ACF of Greater Buffalo New York chapter as president, treasurer, sergeant-at-arms and chairman.
We also had Chefs William Vasvary and Stefan Ryll from Southern New Hampshire who participated in the exam as Apprentice Judge Evaluators.
We had 7 candidates from Cornell Dining and 2 candidates from around the Finger Lakes area. The candidates were testing at the Certified Sous Chef, Certified Executive Pastry Chef and Certified Executive Chef levels. We are pleased to announce that 4 of the candidates passed their exam. The exam was held at North Star in Appel Commons, located on Cornell University’s campus.
In the photo gallery you can view more pictures of how the day went. The day was a big success for all involved and we are very grateful to all of those who volunteered their time to assist us with the event.
For anyone who is interested in becoming certified through
the ACF please see the
certification page you can click on whatever level you wish to be certified and
it will let you know what the qualifications and steps are to complete this
process. We at the ACF NY Wine Country Chefs
are happy to assist you in this process. You can contact Steven Miller, CEC,
CCA, at sm107@cornell.edu or Barbara
Zimet at bz34@cornell.edu and they will
gladly answer any questions you may have about the process.
