American Chefs Go For The Gold In "culinary Olympics"

As U.S. Olympic athletes return from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a team of six chefs are training for a culinary competition of international proportions. American Culinary Federation (ACF) Culinary National Team USA will travel to Erfurt, Germany, to represent America against teams from more than 50 nations in the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Art Competition, known around the world as the "culinary Olympics," October 19-22.

Much like the Olympics, the IKA "culinary Olympics" is considered the most prestigious competition in the industry. For four days, the world's best chefs are challenged to prove their culinary skills and vie for gold medals. ACF Culinary Team USA is expected to bring home gold, as they defend their title of World Champions in hot-food cooking.

Who: Six of the nation's best professional chefs, including three certified master chefs, of which there are only 61 in the nation. Chefs are from New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Nevada and Rhode Island.

What: The "culinary Olympics" is held every four years in Germany and dates back to 1900.

When: October 19-22, 2008

Where: Erfurt, Germany

Why: The team will represent American cuisine and defend its 2004 title of World Champions in hot-food cooking.

Visuals: Join ACF Culinary National Team USA for one of their final practices, held at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., as the team prepares their recipes. Or, have the team live in your studio performing a dynamic cooking demonstration with a mystery basket-you choose the ingredients, ACF chefs prepare a gold-medal winning dish.

ACF Culinary National Team USA members:

�Edward Leonard, CMC, American Academy of Chefs (AAC), ACF Culinary Team USA manager and executive chef, Westchester Country Club, Rye, N.Y.
�Richard Rosendale, certified executive chef (CEC), ACF Culinary National Team USA captain and executive chef/owner, Rosendales, Columbus, Ohio

�Joachim Buchner, CMC, executive chef, Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase, Md.

�Jamie Keating, chef/owner, The RiverMill Event Center, Columbus, Ga.

�Melissa K. Root, pastry chef, Payard P�tisserie & Bistro in Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas

�Daniel Scannell, CMC, executive chef, Carnegie Abbey Club, Portsmouth, R.I.

U.S. Team's History at IKA
The team's history at IKA is long and distinguished. When Americans began competing as an official team in 1956, they were clearly the underdogs. However, American cookery soon established itself as world-class cuisine. The 1960 team captured the first world championship honor for the United States, and ACF Culinary Team USA repeated the distinction in 1980, 1984 and 1988 by taking the prestigious hot-food competition all three times and establishing a new world record for the most consecutive gold-medal wins. The team's most recent IKA win came in 2004, when the team took home the gold medal in hot-food cooking, reestablishing ACF Culinary National Team USA as the leader in international cooking.

About ACF Culinary Team USA
ACF Culinary Team USA is the official representative team of the United States in major national and international culinary competitions. It comprises one national team of six members, two regional teams with five members each, and a youth team of five members less than 23 years old. Sponsors of ACF Culinary Team USA are Kraft Foodservice, Tyson Food Service, Uncle Ben's, Unilever, Club Managers Association of America, KitchenAid, Chef Revival, Fortessa, Friedr. Dick, Westchester Country Club and Blodgett. Visit www.acfchefs.org to learn more about the team.

About the American Culinary Federation
The American Culinary Federation, Inc., established in 1929, is the premier prof