"CulinaryInstituteOfAmerica" news and stories

Have you heard of the Bocuse d'Or? A year or two ago, the answer would probably have been a firm no. But over the last couple of years, it's been popping up in the news and around the dinner tables of foodies more and more frequently.

Maybe you caught the "Top Chef" episode, where contestants competed in a Bocuse d'Or-inspired challenge. Or perhaps you've read about Andrew Friedman's just-released book "Knives at Dawn," which tells the tale of the most recent American team -- from the rigorous training to the big competition, which involves preparing two ridiculously complex dishes served on enormous mirrored platters.

The contest, often described as the Olympics of the culinary world, began in 1987 in Lyon, France, under the leadership of Chef Paul Bocuse, who Tim Ryan of the Culinary Institute of America described as "Elvis Presley and the Beatles rolled into one" at Monday's semifinals announcement. Despite America's recent thirst for cook-offs and throw-downs, the high-end culinary competition has been slow to gain recognition in the United States. But last year, heavy-hitters Daniel Boulud, also from Lyon, and Thomas Keller got behind the American effort to change all that.

To celebrate the impending graduation of its 40,000th student, the Culinary Institute of America will hold a one-day trivia contest on Twitter on Nov. 4.

Throughout the day, the CIA will ask trivia questions on its @CIACulinary Twitter about everything from its textbook and history to basic cooking techniques. The CIA's Twitter followers who correctly answer the questions will be eligible to win autographed books by CIA graduates such as John Besh and high-end cookware.

Click here to follow the CIA on Twitter.

For many foodies, becoming a professional chef is a little bit like running away to join the circus. It seems impossible, the kind of bold, crazy move that is compelling simply because it is so unlikely. On the other hand, after hearing dinner guests repeatedly praise your cooking and loudly declaring that you should open a restaurant, it is easy to get lost in daydreams of culinary glory, imagining yourself joyfully preparing outstanding food, day after day, for a dining room full of excited, appreciative customers.

To get a better feel for the realities of the cooking trade, I talked to David Herr, a former engineer who followed the ultimate foodie dream and became a professional chef. For him, the path to culinary contentment began with a job that was, increasingly, becoming unenjoyable. After 20 years in the structural engineering field, he found that "Work was drying up, I was burning out, and I wanted something new. Since cooking was an innate part of my life, I decided that that was what I wanted to do next." After a great deal of research, David determined that his best route would be to enter a chef training program at either the Culinary Institute of America or New York City's French Culinary Institute. After a great deal of consideration, he decided to go with The French Culinary Institute, as its six-month program was shorter and cost less than CIA's 2-year course of study.

I am often skeptical of big, multi-purpose cookbooks. I'm something of a Joy of Cooking girl myself (particularly the edition printed in the late sixties/early seventies) and so I don't always see the utility of having additional huge, all-encompassing cookbooks taking up space on my shelves when I'm always going to turn to Joy.

However, as soon as I opened up the Culinary Institute of American Cookbook, my dedication to Irma Rombauer's opus started to crack just slightly, making me think that it might be a good idea to open myself up to a few more large tomes. There are a number of useful tricks in the introduction, including one that made me slap my hand to my head with its useful obvious. They advise to keep a stick of butter in the freezer and then use a vegetable peeler to detach small bits which will then easily melt on veggies or toast. Genius!

This is a book written and designed for home cooks (as opposed to many of the CIA's publications that are intended for students at the Institute). It's printed on a combination of glossy and matte paper, so that there are several sections of gorgeous pictures, scattered among larger sections of recipes. I was a little disappointed in the recipes, as they seem to be the same collection of world cuisine we see all over these days. There were a couple of recipes that caught my attention, though. I've earmarked the Warm Black-Eyed Pea Salad (page 45), Garlic Cheese Grits (page 183) and Chedder and Thyme Muffins (page 254).

Bottom line: If you have a full-to-bursting shelf of cookbooks, you don't need this book. However, if you're shopping for a cook that is just moving beyond beginner status, this could be a great book to help them walk down that path.

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