News
Arizona Culinary Institute is excited to announce the addition of Chef Tracy DeWitt to the faculty. Chef DeWitt will be teaching Advanced Baking and Pastry beginning January 9, 2012.
Bio:
Chef Tracy DeWitt started her baking career in a French-Viennese pastry shop in northern New Jersey when she was fifteen years old. She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America with two degrees, one for Culinary Arts and one for Baking and Pastry. Her most recent accolade was the gold medal she won (with teammate David Smoake) in the 2006 National Bread and Pastry Team Championship. In 2006, Chef DeWitt was invited to participate in two Food Network Challenges. She competed in a Gingerbread Mansion competition, and was honored with a bronze medal in the Rock and Roll Sugar Showpiece competition.
- 2010 Food Network Challenge: Gold Medal Winner Sugar Destinations Showpiece
- 2010 ACF: Top Finalists for Pastry Chef of the Year
- 2010 ACF: Western Region Pastry Chef of the Year
- 2009 National Pastry Team Championship: Silver Medal Winner and Best Chocolate Showpiece
- 2009 Food Network Challenge: Gold Medal Winner “Extreme Candy Carnival” Sugar Sculpture
- 2009 Food Network Challenge: Silver Medal Winner “Extreme Choc Coasters” Chocolate Piece
- 2006 National Bread and Pastry Championship: Gold Medal Winner and Best Degustation
- 2006 Food Network Challenge: Bronze Medal Winner for “Rock and Roll Sugar” Sculpture
- 2005 Food Network Challenge: Incredible Edible Gingerbread Mansions
Check out the Food Networks YouTube video of Chef DeWitt
My name is Christie Clothier and I am a casting assistant for Food Network Star, Food Network’s hugely successful culinary reality series. We are currently casting for season 8 and would like to inform you that we are holding an open casting call in Las Vegas on August 20, 2011. I have attached a copy of our flyer that further details what we are looking for. Please feel free to send the information below out to any student, faculty, or alumni list serve you may have or forward it on to anyone you think might be right for the show. Any help spreading the word about our search is greatly appreciated!
We are looking for people who are full of life, passionate about cooking, and knowledgeable about food to meet us in person at our open casting call. Please help us reach out to any chef, home cook, caterer or culinary enthusiast who might be interested in becoming the host of his or her own cooking show on Food Network!
The details of our event are as follows:
Las Vegas Open Casting Call
Date: Saturday, August 20th
Time: 10am- 2pm
Location: The Westin Casuarina
160 East Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
If you have any questions or require further information, please feel free to contact me or visit our website:
Click on link below for Flyer
http://www.foodnetworkstarcasting.comFNS 8 Las Vegas Flyer
Thirst For Knowledge
Wine Education & Food Pairing
Bruce Sandground, Management Instructor and Dave Woods, Marketing Director for Frank-Lin Wine Distributor offer a four lesson wine education and food pairing program, after school and free to all students. The first class discusses white wine production and different varietal characteristics. The students tasted four different wines from various regions and scored them using the American Wine Society Evaluation Chart. The second class has four red wines to be discussed and evaluated. The third class introduces sparkling wines and fortified wines in to the program. The top scoring wines are brought back for the final lesson. The students are divided into teams and pick one of the top wines. Then, the student teams produce small plates to pair with their wines. Prior classes have produced dishes like fried shrimp, beef short ribs , bbq pork ribs, pecan pie and flourless chocolate cake. Students that participate in all four classes receive a certificate. The program just started its third run on Tuesday, July 19, with 25 day and night students and will finish Friday September 2. I can not wait to see what this class will produce.
Here are some pictures from Saturdays “Open House” at Arizona Culinary Institute.
ACI would like to thank
Lady La from 101.5 JAMZ Radio
Fook from KFMA Tucson
Chef Villarico for holding the free fruit and vegetable carving class
All the Faculty and Administration Staff
Glaceau Beverages
Monster Energy Drinks
And all the ACI students who helped out .
Hello,
My name is Jennifer Dubin and I am a casting producer for a new cooking show with Cooking Channel and Good Housekeeping. We are currently in search of a healthy host and thought you might be helpful in spreading the word about our search! Attached, you will find a flyer that further details what we are looking for. Please feel free to post our flyer on your website, send out to any alumni list serve that you may have or forward it on to anyone you think could be a good fit for this project. Any help with spreading the word about our search would be greatly appreciated!
We are looking for someone who believes in a healthy conscious lifestyle, someone who may have struggled with their weight in the past and has a charismatic personality to host their own cooking show.
Anyone who is interested can email us at cookinghealthyhost@gmail.com. If you have any questions or require further information, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time and assistance.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dubin
Casting Producer
212.359.9454
CCandGHFlyerV3
Congratulations to CCAP Finalists Taylor Beck and John Vasquez recipients of the 2011 Arizona Culinary Institute Scholarship. Taylor and John were both presented the awards by CCAP Director Richard Graussman and ACI’s Placement Director Glenn Humphrey, CEC, CCE on March 28, 2011. Congratulations to both of them and we can’t wait to see you on campus.
“A Thirst for Knowledge”
A Series in Wine Education
The Arizona Culinary Institute (ACI) in Scottsdale, Arizona is training the newest generation of Chefs. Frank-lin Spirits and Fine Wines Marketing Manager, Dave Woods has been working with Chef Mattox, Bruce Sandground and the institute President, Chef Wilson, developing a Wine Education Series designed to enhance student’s wine and food pairing skills.
Over 2 months, the students participating in the wine program, attend a series of classes learning about white, red, sparking and fortified wines. Students have the opportunity to taste different wines during the series and six wines are selected for food pairing. Student teams, with the guidance of their Chef Instructors, work together to create a dish paired with each wine.
In the final class of the series, the student teams prepare the dishes and the pairings are tasted and evaluated by the students and Chef Instructors at ACI. The curriculum at the Arizona Culinary Institute is designed to teach students real life career skills. Tasting wine and creating a food pairing is an essential skill these students are learning.
It is exciting to see the enthusiasm of the students during the class sessions and the intensity with which they approach the wine/food pairing class. Devon, a student, said “When I started this class, I really didn’t like wine. I learned so much, I have pages and pages of notes. I actually bought my first bottle of wine last week. It’s awesome!” During the final class session, the wine/food pairing, a Student, Dave, said “This is awesome. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
Programs like this are inspiring for both the students and instructors alike; the excitement of the learning process and the real world application of the learned skills was summed up by Brittney, “I’m so glad I picked this school; I never knew this could be so much fun!”
The Arizona Culinary Institute, in Scottsdale, is founded on the principles of traditional, proven French Method cooking skills combined with the best of modern techniques. Students gain practical skills and experience in all areas, and work alongside professional chef instructors with real world experience.
Frank-lin Spirits and Fine Wines, in Mesa distribute wine, beer and spirits to retailers and restaurants throughout Arizona.
“ACI’s herb garden”
…another example of how we’re still moving our program forward.
As our program continues to evolve in a positive direction, another asset we’ve added to our campus is an herb/lettuce garden. The project was started a few years ago, and now, after some trial and error, we’ve created a wonderful bed of fresh herbs and micro greens. A majority of the credit goes to our very own Chef Mattox, CCC,CS, CPI, FMP for taking so much time to care for the plants. At a recent dinner service in our on-campus restaurant, Du Jour, almost every single dish on the menu had at least one component pulled from the garden THAT DAY. It doesn’t get any fresher than that. In an environment that seems to be moving toward more computer driven classes, our on-campus herb garden is very NOT computer driven. In fact, I’d say it’s moving the opposite direction: doing things the right way, more hands on, more personal, and more like it used to be done in the “old days”. It’s not over either. The vision is still growing. As we continue to figure out what grows well and what doesn’t, we’re looking toward higher yields, more variety, and MAYBE even heirloom tomatoes! Keep watching, and get involved!
Battle of the Rising Chefs – Shamrock Food Show 2011
On Wednesday, March 9th, two of our students (Justin Richardson and Shaye Graves) competed at the Shamrock Food Show’s “Battle of the Rising Chefs”. The competition involved culinary schools from around the state of Arizona. The menu needed to showcase one of the items from Shamrock’s “Pierport Seafood” as the center of the plate. After having our own cook-off here at Arizona Culinary Institute, we chose one team to represent us at the show. Justin and Shaye put together a great dish utilizing Halibut as the main item. At the show, they performed very well, and were able to earn 3rd place honors! All of the schools represented produced very nice plates, and it was very encouraging to see so much young culinary talent all in one place. The 3rd place prize was $500 dollars for the school, and $500 dollars for the two competitors to split. Congratulations Justin and Shaye!
Congratulations to the ACI Junior Culinary Team for winning a Silver Medal at the Robert Bland Salon State Junior Culinary Competition. The competition was held on Friday at EVIT in Mesa, Arizona. Each student was in charge of a different recipe (with an emphasis on Escoffier originals) What makes this extra special, is that, opposed to other teams that competed last year and have been practicing for a year, our team members all just started culinary school five months ago! To be competition ready in that amount of time is phenomenal. Team members are: Team Captain- Kevin, Donna, Matthew, Nicholas, and Rennetta. Special thanks to Chefs Phil Sayre, CEC, CCE, WCC, CPI and Glenn Humphrey CEC, CCE for their time and dedication to teaching the team what they needed to be on top .
