Happy Halloween everyone!
I wanted to kick off this month’s newsletter with a big “thank you” to everyone that was involved with our ACI Family Day and 5k Fun-run at our October 14th open house. It was a wonderful event. Whether you showed up to work, play, run, or eat, we appreciate everyone that took the time to join us. It was the third year we hosted this event, and I feel like we set a new bar with this one…I can’t wait to see how we try to top it next year. And, the best news of all, we were able to raise about $7,000 to continue our Veteran Culinary Boot camp classes on campus!!! Thank you for helping make that possible.
On Saturday, November 18th we are hosting a really cool event in Du Jour. We are doing a wine dinner in honor of the former 5-star, 5-diamond Arizona restaurant “Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician”. Several years ago, while the restaurant still existed, two members of our staff (myself and Jim Baker) worked at the restaurant. We thought it would be fun to dig up some of the old menus and try to re-create, as best we can, an evening at Mary Elaine’s in our Du Jour dining room! We are limiting the reservation count to 36 people so that we can really focus on the quality of the service and the overall experience. We have a pretty solid kitchen staff in place for the event, but we could probably use a few more folks for Front of the House if any of you are interested. Plus, we really want to fill those 36 spots, so go to our website and register if you want to enjoy a night of fine dining with us…we promise it will be worth the price tag.
Lastly, a quick reminder that there are a few days coming up in November where the campus will be closed. We are closed on Friday, November 10 for Veteran’s day, and we are also closed on Thursday and Friday, November 23 and 24, for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Don’t forget to stay in touch with us…we always love hearing about the great things you’re accomplishing out in the industry. Have a wonderful November
Chef Christopher Wolf, ccc, cce, csw, cpi
Executive Chef Arizona Culinary Institute