Culinary School Readies Students For Trends In The Food Industry

"Everything old is new again." The saying holds true for a strong, growing culinary evolution, the Farm-to-Table movement. Restaurant chefs and home cooks alike are increasingly returning to farms, local producers and farmers markets to buy their food, just as it was a necessity less than 100 years ago. Today most of our food comes mass produced from enormous, far-away, industrial producers. But some savvy chefs, and now Stratford University's culinary students, are learning to use the incredible bounty of locally grown foods.

An innovative cooking class offered at Stratford University's Woodbridge Campus, taught by a world class chef, allows students to stand out from their peers by having an intimate understanding of the wide range of ingredients produced locally from fruit, to cheese, to poultry, to beef. Understanding the Farm-to-Table trend involves understanding the meaning of terms like organic and biodynamic, how to identify and select the best items from the hundreds of varieties that are not available at the supermarket or through typical food vendors. More importantly, these students, by adopting local, Farm-to-Table practices will be better stewards of both the environment and, ultimately, their restaurant customers.

"With local eating and organic food trends, it is an exciting time to be a chef," explains Michael Lund, adjunct instructor of the course at Stratford University, executive chef of Zynodoa Restaurant and former executive sous chef at the Mobil Five Star Inn at Little Washington. "The closer we can get to our food source, the better, for many reasons. Because of this, my mission is to help culinary students make that connection and get the most out of applying it to their career."

The "Farm-to-Table" movement is one that chefs across the nation are taking an interest in. It places a focus on preparing meals from locally grown foods and seasonal ingredients. Increasingly, consumers have also been seeking out such food options, as there are many benefits that come along with them, including:

- Environment: Food purchased from local growers does not require extra packaging or the need to travel thousands of miles by truck, boat, or plane to reach the shelf. Greenhouse emissions and carbon dioxide pollution are reduced.
- Community: Chefs and consumers who develop a relationship directly with growers support and nurture connections within their community. This creates more connected, happier people.
- Taste: Local foods are raised primarily to taste good, not to withstand long trips from far-away places (as industrial foods are). The result is simply better tasting food.
- Selection: The variety of foods offered by local farmers markets and producers far outstrips what is offered in most supermarket produce aisles. More ingredients to choose from equal more fun in the kitchen or at the table.
- Seasonality: Purchasing food in-season allows customers to taste foods at the peak of flavor and freshness. What is lost in constant availability is gained in the excitement of tasting a product at is absolute best.

"This is a movement that is really about getting back to the basics, closer to the way previous generations ate," adds Lund. "While we moved away from it in the last fifty years, we now realize that it is really the best way to eat. Farm to table is better for the planet, as well as the people."

Stratford University offers a variety of innovative degree and non-degree culinary arts, baking and pastry, and hospitality courses. Their American Culinary Federation (ACF) accredited programs focus on proper cooking technique, exposing students to the tremendous depth and breadth that a hospitality career offers, and instilling students with the customer service skills that are essential for success in today's job market.

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