ACI News Letter: June 2016
From the Chef Christopher Wolf, ccc, cce, csw, cpi
Hello from Arizona Culinary Institute! I hope you’re having a wonderful June thus far. We are preparing for our summer shutdown which will happen over the week of the 4th of July. The office will be open during normal business hours during most of the week, but there will be no classes in session.
If you’ve been paying attention you’ve noticed that details have been released concerning our partnership with the Roca Brothers coming up this August. In case you missed it, the Roca Brothers run a restaurant in Girona, Spain called El Cellar de Can Roca. In 2015 it was voted Best Restaurant in the World. They are coming to Arizona for a series of events, and they have asked ACI to help them out with some student volunteers. In exchange for our help, they will be doing a Master Class at ACI on Tuesday, August 16th. The class is free to students and alumni of Arizona Culinary, but we do have to cap the class at about 100 people. So, if you’re interested in attending, please contact Chef Wolf at the school to let us know you’re coming. It is unlikely that this will happen again, so don’t miss the chance!
We’ve also recently announced that we will be working with the Wynn Las Vegas as a potential internship and employment site for our students. We are very excited to be in a position to send qualified candidates to this world-class resort. If you think that an internship or a career in Las Vegas is something you’d like to pursue, again, please contact Chef Wolf at the school for information about the process.
The ACF National Convention is coming to Arizona this year, and they need volunteers to help with this massive event. The ACF National Convention will have something for everyone, including educational seminars, product information, and endless networking opportunities. If you’d like to volunteer your time for the event, we can put you in touch with the right people. It is sure to be an amazing event, and volunteering your time gets you inside to all of the action! Contact the school for more details.
Last week we had the opportunity to work with 5 other Chefs from around Arizona, and 6 Arizona winemakers, to serve 6 courses to 200 people for a charity dinner at the Tilted Earth Festival up in Cottonwood, Arizona. It was a blast! 3 ACI instructors along with 11 wonderful student volunteers acted as the glue to hold this enormous event together. We were involved in a little bit of everything, and it was great. The feedback from the guests about our students was truly amazing. I never get tired of hearing people rave about our students, and now we have established several more employment opportunities for our students in Northern Arizona. Great job everyone!
Lastly, I wanted to announce that the ACI Modernist Cooking Club will be on hiatus for the month of June, but we will return with a vengeance in July. We will be starting a new set of AM and PM students in Basics when we return from summer break, and that seems like the perfect opportunity to relaunch the club. Old members, new members, and anyone else interested, are all welcome!
Keep it cool out there in the heat folks. Those kitchens can get pretty hot in the summer. Stay hydrated, take care of yourself, and stay in touch!
Chef Wolf
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