A C F Culinary Team Usa Teams Win Gold And Silver Medals

American Culinary Federation (ACF) Culinary Team USA earned four gold medals and one silver medal during their first day of competition at the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Art Competition, or "culinary Olympics," taking place Oct. 19-22 in Erfurt, Germany.

ACF Culinary Team USA comprises one national team, two regional teams and one youth team. These highly skilled U.S. chefs are among those representing 53 nations in what ACF Culinary Team USA Manager Edward Leonard, CMC, AAC, has called the "largest culinary event on the global circuit."

"We are pleased with the first day of results. ACF Culinary National Team USA won two gold medals and a silver, AAC Culinary Regional Team USA won a gold and ACF Culinary Youth Team USA won a gold," said ACF National President John Kinsella, CMC, CCE, WGMC, AAC, from Erfurt, Germany. "This puts us in a good position going into the second day of competition."

Competition results
ACF Culinary National Team USA earned two gold medals and one silver in three categories against 31 international teams. They earned gold in Category A Culinary Art, which included show platters, one festive cold display platter for eight, and six different hors d'oeuvres, and Category C Patisserie, which included one showpiece, one platter and four different exclusive desserts on plates. They also earned silver in Category B Culinary Art, which included one vegetarian platter as a main course for four, one three-course menu for one, and four different main courses, prepared hot and displayed cold.

AAC Culinary Regional Team USA and ACF Culinary Youth Team USA each won a gold medal in cold-food competition. In addition, the following ACF members received a medal or diploma in the individual competitions.

Category A: Culinary Art; one cold festive platter, six different hors d'oeuvres, individually prepared
Silver: Scott Green, CCC; executive chef, Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment at Fairgrounds Gaming & Racing; Hamburg, N.Y.; ACF of Greater Buffalo New York
Silver: Eric Watson, CCC, CCE; instructor, The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Phoenix, Phoenix; ACF Chefs Association of Arizona, Inc.

Category B: Culinary Art: restaurant platter or dish for two, prepared hot, displayed cold; one menu for one person consisting of three courses including a dessert, prepared hot, presented cold; four different, separate plated innovated main courses/plates, prepared hot, displayed cold
Silver: Michael Nenes, CEC, CCE; assistant vice president, The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Houston, Houston; ACF Professional Chefs Association of Houston

Category D1: Culinary Artistry-cold food: showpieces
Diploma: Robert Childers, CEC; chef-instructor, The International Culinary School at The Illinois Institute of Art Chicago; Chicago; ACF Windy City Professional Culinarians Inc.
Bronze: Stafford DeCambra, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC; corporate executive chef, PCI Gaming Authority, Atmore, Ala.; ACF National Chapter
Silver: Bernard Urban, CEC, AAC; chef ambassador, Ben E. Keith Foods, Houston; ACF Texas Chefs Association

America's history at IKA
The U.S. 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.

At the last IKA in 2004, where more than 1,20