IACP 2007 Convention

Kathy Shaw, Patrick Martin, Christian Faure, Nicholas Bernarde and Yannick Anton
Chef Nicholas during his chocolate demo

The chefs with IACP attendees chocolate expert Elaine Gonzales, Author and Food Network star Shirley. Phyllis Simmons, the Cake Lady of Seattle. Chef John Montanile,myself, and one of our students
CHIC student volunteers with Andre Cointreau

Chefs from LeCordon Bleu Paris and LeCordon Bleu Ottawa converged in Chicago for the 2007 IACP Convention at the Conrad Hilton Hotel, Saturday, April 14. Chef Cristian Faure, MOF, of LCB Ottawa came with Kathy Shaw, Chef Armando Baisas, Yannick Anton, executive chef of Signatures, and Tony Garcia. Patrick Martin came with Nicholas Bernarde, MOF. CEC, our parent company, was very well represented at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton as well. Lloyd Kirsch, Marshall Shafkowitz, Kirk Bachmann, Ken Rubin, and I thought I saw Paul Ryan in the crowd, too.

The surprise of the night was the appearance of Andre Cointreau, owner of Le Cordon Bleu and Cointreau liqeuer and Remy Martin. The instructors, nor the students did not know he was coming. Mr Cointreau came to the back kitchen were we were setting up all the desserts to greet everybody, shook hands with the students and graciously posed for pictures.

Before their demo at the convention on Saturday all the International Chefs spent a full week with our students. Chef Nicholas did a demo on chocolate showpiece and Chef Armando on ice carving and garde manger. Patrick Martin demoed Julia Child's final practical. These classes were also part of the IACP continuing education program. Also, all of close to 10000 pieces of petit fours were made at school. It was such a thrill for the Baking and Pastry students to work with the two MOFS and Yannick.


Thank you to all the students who helped produce the petit fours, and everybody who volunteered to help at the Conrad Hilton. Thanks to all the visiting chefs who were wonderful, accomodating and with such sense of humility shared their skill and expertise. We all had a great time.

The CHIC World of Petit Four

Cross Training with LCB International: Christian Faure

Two or three times a year, the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago , Baking and Patisserie, gets an official visit from LCB International. This week and next, we are happy to have Chef Christian Faure of Ottawa. Chef Christian is a Meuilleur Ouvier du France (MOF) from Lyon and has worked all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Chef Christian has not only shared his expertise on sugar and petit four, but also his stories of his travels as pastry chef, his family and his lifelong experiences. He is an amazingly nice man, is all we can say.

with Chef Nancy Carey and myself
the Baking and Pastry Department minus the photographer, Tom Beckman and Karyn, who was sick
at the Osteria Via Stato for lunch
Chef Nancy and myself teamed up to do this showpiece

CHIC Welcomes FENI

With gracious hospitality, passion for culinary education and a chance and desire to show what the LeCordon Bleu North America is about, CHIC faculty and staff welcomed FENI attendees from all over the US. Several classes were held in both the South and North Campuses, some full hands- on Master classes, some demo only, and truthfully, quite a few more interesting than the others. Some classes were lacking in content and organization, but overall it was four days of learning, sharing, getting to know colleagues from every culinary school imaginable. Here are some pictures:

Cooking and Hospitality Istitute of Chicago SupportsFor the Love Of Chocolate-Chicago

CHIC faculty and students created a sweet table, participated in the fashion show and entered in the Student Chocolate Wedding Cake Competition in the French Pastry School sponsored "For the Love of Chocolate" to benefit C-CAP.

The students' wedding cakes were in strict adherence of rules that included specific height and girth measurements, and at least 50% chocolate. To top it all off, students used tempered chocolate for the entire chocolate with scratch-made chocolate rolled fondant. We think they all did a wonderful job, considering they are in an intensive cohort requiring them to be at school most of the day for their regular classes.

Sugar Baskets from February 2006 Start

Congratulations and Good Luck February Start