Students at Arizona Culinary Institute are surrounded by a team of talented chefs who know what it takes to succeed in the industry. Our chefs have all been carefully chosen and provide a diverse and well-balanced range of expertise. When you have instructors who are dedicated and passionate about teaching, combined with a curriculum that focuses on personalized attention and small class sizes, you get amazing results.
Our chefs inspire creativity and guidance to prepare students to be culinary leaders in school, in the restaurant, and in their community. Our chefs all share one common goal: to provide a culinary education like no other. Their professional background along with the school’s hands-on curriculum and well-equipped facilities, offer an atmosphere of learning that’s second to none.
Arizona Culinary Institute Proudly Welcomes Chef Allison Newton as its New Basics Baking Instructor
Arizona Culinary Institute’s new Basics Baking instructor, Chef Allison Newton, is a self-confessed food nerd/geek goddess/social media dork who proudly wears the moniker “Newton-A-Pedia” with honor because she is always willing to find the answer! It’s then entirely fitting that this epicurean dynamo will now be educating the next generation of culinarians here at ACI.
Newton’s quest for knowledge began on a farm in Northern Iowa where it was a 45-minute journey just to reach the nearest grocery store. In this environment, completely connected to the land, she learned about canning and prepping game animals. Newton soon became a member of the 4-H Club and FFA, and her world consisted of livestock judging, dairy and cheese production, and the wholesale and retail aspects of farming and food creation. “I sincerely loved this lifestyle and found the knowledge so useful,” imparts Schroeder. “It truly prepared me for the culinary journey that I am still on to this day.”
Fast-forward to Scottsdale, AZ, where Chef Newton had family, and this determined go-getter finished culinary school in record time by taking both day and night courses at the same time.“My family is very education oriented – my mom is a teacher – so news, politics, and world events were the currency of the realm in my house,” reminisces Newton. “When I became passionate about food, I viewed my teachers as walking encyclopedias, and I hope that my students approach me in the same way.”
After a brief stint in Los Angeles where Chef Newton worked for David’s Events, a high-end event company where unlimited budgets and $10,000 candy buffets for celebrities like Will Smith were the norm, Newton returned to Scottsdale and she has been teaching ever since.
Her passion for food, especially baking, remains unbridled.
“For me, baking is such an art form because it involves biology, chemistry, math and imagination with flavor and shaping – that I can create with my hands,” effuses Schroeder. “Bread is alive and it’s a formula that must be followed exactly in tone and temperature.”
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Whether he’s summiting world-class mountain peaks or saucing world-class steaks, Chef Wolf always shoots for the stars—well five stars, to be exact. With successful tenures at renowned 5-star restaurants like The Inn at Little Washington, Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician, and Alex at the Wynn Las Vegas, Chef Wolf is a man who understands quality. And when he decided to set his sights on teaching, it’s telling that the first and only place he applied was the Arizona Culinary Institute. In his words, it was the only school to meet his 5-star standards.
