Loan Co Named To Aac Culinary Regional Team Usa

Loan Co, assistant pastry chef, San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco, has been named pastry chef for the American Academy of Chefs (AAC) Culinary Regional Team USA, one of the four teams that make up the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Culinary Team USA, the official representative culinary team for the United States in major national and international culinary competitions.

Co will put her pastry skills to the test as she competes with AAC Culinary Regional Team USA for the gold on the world culinary stage against more than 50 international teams at the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Art Competition, commonly known as the "culinary Olympics," in Erfurt, Germany, October 19-22.

"Loan has demonstrated her dedication and skill in pastry arts, and will bring a fresh perspective to the team as we prepare for the 'culinary Olympics,'" said Darrin Aoyama, executive pastry chef, River Oaks Country Club, Houston, pastry coach for AAC Culinary Regional Team USA, and echoed by Jill Bosich, CEC, CCE, AAC, team manager. "We are confident that she will rise to the occasion and help our team achieve success on an international level."

Co, a member of ACF San Francisco Chapter, came to the United States in 1982 and moved to San Francisco in 1985. It was then that Co decided she wanted to be a chef. In 1989, she began working in the pastry department at the San Francisco Marriot under the guidance of Chef Ewald Notter. Today, nearly twenty years later, she works as assistant pastry chef. She is also baking and pastry chef-instructor at Professional Culinary Institute, Campbell, Calif.

Co has received numerous culinary awards, including the 2005 Antonin Careme Medal, 2005 J.W. Marriott Excellence Award, 2005 San Francisco Hotel Hero Award for Lifetime Achievement, and 2004 Chef of the Year Award from the Chef Association of the Pacific Coast. The competition arena is a creative outlet and a means to learn from top industry professionals for Co. She won a silver medal in 2005 at an ACF state competition in Campbell, Calif., a silver medal at the 2004 IKA in Germany and a gold medal in the 2003 Nevada Culinary Challenge.

Members of AAC Culinary Regional Team USA:
�Jill Bosich, CEC, CCE, AAC, team manager and owner of Cowgirl Cookie Co., Newport Beach, Calif.
�Loan Co, assistant pastry chef, San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco
�Christopher Desens, CEC, AAC, executive chef, The Racquet Club Ladue, St. Louis
�Scott Fetty, chef-instructor, Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, Pittsburgh
�Daryl L. Shular, corporate executive chef, PFG-Milton's, Oakwood, Ga.
�Randy Torres, director of culinary education, Professional Culinary Institute, Campbell, Calif.

The team's history at the 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.
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.

About the American Culinary Federation
The American Culinary Federation, Inc., established in 192