CIC Student Wins Dessert Category in Charleston Cooks Recipe Contest

CIC student Seth Purvin took home top honors in the dessert category of the Charleston Cooks Recipe Contest with his Benne Seed Cannoli with Carolina Gold Rice Filling. Upon tasting them, cookbook author and television personality Nathalie Dupree, who was one of the judges, declared Seth's cannoli to be "the best thing I've ever put in my mouth!"

For the recipe, see: http://www.charlestonmag.com/charleston_magazine/feature/charleston_cooks_recipe_contest

CIC Grads on Culinary Team at American Pavillion for Cannes Film Festival

On the left: Jessica Welenteichick, 2008 grad of the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

On the right, Jessica and CIC student Allison Smith.

Jessica wrote: I was fortunate enough to be selected as a member of the Culinary Team for the American Pavillion in May 2009 along with another student from CIC, Allison Smith. The American Pavillion is a sponsor at the Cannes International Film Festival. As members of the culinary team, we worked as chefs for the American Pavillion. We were sponsored by Chef Benjamin Black, who did a great job in seeking Allison and myself as good candidates for this wonderful opportunity. I had the pleasure of cooking for the film industry's elite, working at a French bakery, traveling the French countryside, and meeting many talented people from all over the world. I encourage CIC culinary students to seek this opportunity as I will never forget that trip to Cannes in May of 2009."

The 15- to 25-person American Pavilion culinary team enjoys pre-Festival tours of wineries, restaurants and outdoor markets in the south of France during the first three days of the program. Once the Festival begins on May 12, the culinary team prepares up to 1,000 meals per day—breakfasts, lunches, dinners and special events inlcuding receptions and parties. Work shifts average six to eight hours and the culinary team works every day of the program after the first two days of cultural tours. http://www.ampav.com/student-programs/cannes-culinary-program.php

Serving as a communication and hospitality center for the thousands of Americans in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival, The American Pavilion provides an impressive array of facilities and services to the international film community. For the corporate sponsors of The American Pavilion, the dozens of exhibitors and office holders, and the thousands of American participants, The American Pavilion accommodates the need for information, orientation, and recreation. For the duration of the festival, The American Pavilion provides both a dynamic business environment and an opportunity to relax in comfortable surroundings.

HCSA Feeds The Need

HCSA teamed up to meet the CIC committment to FEED THE NEED, the city-wide food and beverage community's movement to feed the hungry by cooking two hundred and fifty Thanksgiving Dinners for East Cooper Meals on Wheels. The menu of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread dressing, green beans, yeast rolls, and pumpkin pies called for roasting 17 turkeys and baking 35 pies. Several College of Charleston students joined the CIC students to assist with the packaging. Then the CIC students delivered the dinners to Meals on Wheels Headquarters.

Myrtle Beach Restaurant News Features CIC Grad Steve Musolf

CIC GRad Steve Musolf is Chef De Cuisine at Maverick Southern Kitchen's Pawleys Island restaurant, High Hammock Seaside Kitchen. The Myrtle Beach Restaurant News recently gave him a shout out.
" An avid reader of industry publications, Steven Musolf is the guy to turn to for cutting-edge culinary trends. As Chef de Cuisine at High Hammock, Steven brings a fresh approach to Maverick Southern cooking. The South Carolina native has always felt at home in the kitchen. As a young kid Steven was always there to lend a hand to his mother in the kitchen and could even be found preparing his own culinary creations on the stove when she was not around, much to her dismay. As Steven got older he began working front of the house jobs at various restaurants, but continuously found himself drawn to the camaraderie he witnessed among the kitchen staff. Though he was in school studying to be a respiratory therapist at the time, Steven made the decision to change career paths and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College. While pursuing his education, Steven worked as a line cook under Chef Frank Lee at Slightly Up the Creek, a former Maverick Southern Kitchens restaurant.

"Following graduation, Steven honed his culinary skills as Chef de Cuisine at McCrady’s restaurant in downtown Charleston for six years before packing his knives and moving to California in search of new adventures. While in California, he climbed the culinary ranks at several restaurants and became Executive Chef of a Bay Area restaurant. Though enjoying his time in California, Steven had begun thinking about returning to the Lowcountry when he learned about the opportunity at High Hammock. As Chef de Cuisine at High Hammock, Steven’s dedication to passing the torch of cuisine is evident. According to Executive Chef Frank Lee, 'Steven has quickly attracted the kitchen and service team into his culinary orbit with an exciting new menu.'

"When not in the kitchen, Steven can be found cycling, a hobby he picked up while living in California, or spending time with his girlfriend and three dogs."
Photograph courtesy Southern Maverick Kitchens.

Sally Burnett, Community Volunteer Coordinator for 2-1-1 Give Help/Trident United Way, is Guest Speaker for Hospitality 132

Community Volunteer Coordinator for 2-1-1 Give Help/Trident United Way Sally Burnett (center, holding volunteer catalogue) and Instructor Shannon Hartman (on left behind Burnett) pause for a group photo following their discussion of hospitality leadership and community volunteer opportunities in Hospitality class 132.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

This month, cookbook author and television personality Nathalie Dupree taught entertaining classes at the CIC, including how to organize your Thanksgiving dinner. Here's her famous recipe for mashed potatoes. It might be just what you need.

“Beaten” or Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt
1/3 cup cream, heated
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground black pepper

Cover the potatoes with cold water by an inch in a heavy pan. Add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well.
Return the potatoes to their pan over a low heat and beat with an electric hand mixer or mash with a sturdy fork. Add some of the hot cream and the butter and blend well. Continue adding the cream until the desired consistency is reached. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If not serving immediately, cool the potatoes to room tmeperature and store in a plastic bag for up to 24 hours. Reheat, adding more cream if necessary.

Variation: Everyday Mashed Potatoes: Use milk, buttermilk, or skim milk instead of cream.

Thanksgiving News Includes CIC

A Nov. 18th Post and Courier feature on Thanksgiving titled "Good Times, Good Food," includes the traditional family Thanksgiving desserts of CIC Adjunct Instructor M. Kelly Wilson.

"M. Kelly Wilson Pastry chef at Kiawah Island Club

"About Wilson: She was born in Barnwell but the family moved to Hartsville when she was 8. Graduated from the University of South Carolina with history and English degrees. Graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, became pastry chef at Cypress. She held that post for seven years until going to Kiawah this fall.

Wilson also teaches baking classes and a course on jams and jellies at the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

"'The other food tradition in our family is the inclusion of a coconut cake and fruit salad in the dessert lineup. Grandma made the cake. My grandfather had two food-related jobs on Thanksgiving. The first was to crack, clean and grate the coconut meat that was included on the cake and sometimes in the fruit salad. Carving the turkey was his other responsibility. In the days leading up to the holiday, my aunt Mary Jean would crack pecans for the fruit salad, too. Since we always had the cake and fruit salad, I have come to feel over the years that it isn't Thanksgiving without the pair.'"

For the recipes, go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/nov/18/18chefs/

CIC Grad Lisa Robinson Energizes a Benefit for Nkosi's Haven, an Orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa

"Keeping Nkosi's Legacy Alive: From Charleston to South Africa," a benefit for Nkosi's Haven, an orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Felix C. Davis Community Center at Park Circle.
The event will consist of various gospel choirs, singers, jazz musicians, poetry, spoken word, and African dancing and drumming. Admission will be free, but donations for Nkosi's Haven will be solicited. Also, vendors will be on hand to sell food and other items.
For information about how to "adopt" one of the children or mothers at Nkosi's Haven this Christmas holiday or to be a vendor or participant, call 801-2211.

Executive Director of the Royal Foundation and professor of business at Webster University, Lisa was featured in the Post & Courier's MOXIE section on Friday, October 30th. To read the exciting story of Lisa's life and her involvement with Nkosi's Haven, see:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/30/lisa-robinsonabout-her-upcoming-trip-to-south/

CIC Grad Kelly Franz Featured in Post & Courier

Going down memory lane with Magnolias Uptown Down South Chef
By Angel Powell, Special to The Post and Courier
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Kelly Franz is the chef de cuisine at Magnolias Uptown Down South, where she has worked for six years.
Franz has done charity work for Meals on Wheels, Darkness to Light, and is proud that she has cooked for two Guerrilla Cuisine dinners.

Q: What made you decide to become a chef?
A: I was 17, working as a server at a restaurant in Columbia, and my favorite part of the job was chopping parsley! I asked the GM if I could move into the kitchen, and I became so passionate about learning more that I decided to move to Charleston and go to culinary school. Chef Bill Stacks got me the job at Magnolias while I was still in school, and the chefs there have taught me discipline and leadership without stifling creativity, which makes me want to keep learning.
For the rest of the story, go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/29/kelly-franz/ Photo by James Connelly.

Charleston Currents Gives Great Review to 181 Palmer

REVIEW181 Palmer
"Looking for a restaurant to have a fantabulous, elegant lunch without costing an arm and a leg? Head over to 181 Palmer, a 50-seat restaurant off Columbus at Trident Tech's Culinary Institute of Charleston. The restaurant is a student-centered food lab where new chefs prepare outstanding food. For the $15-per-person prix fixe lunch, you get an appetizer, entrée and dessert. We thrilled to a goat cheese tart with two kinds of roasted beets, a succulent piece of sautéed mahi-mahi on winter vegetables and an artisanal Camembert with fresh figs and candied kumquat for dessert. Our luncheon companion also had the tart, accompanied by tantalizing oyster po'boy sliders and a lemon torte. Not only is the whole experience yummy, but it's fun too - you can watch the cooks prepare the meal via live video displayed on the restaurant walls. Lunch is served Monday through Thursday starting at noon. Reservations are highly suggested."
-- Andy Brack

http://www.charlestoncurrents.com/issue/09_issues/09.1029.htm#review

Photo courtesy of Ls3P.

CIC in Article on Chef Brock

"Table to Farm"
The farm-to-table movement has come full circle, with chefs bringing the cooking process back to the land.
by BETH D'ADDONO - Oct. 2009
Published in GO, AirTran's inflight magazine

"A COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING heirloom strains of grains and vegetables- original strains that haven't been manipulated in any way-is what inspired Sean Brock to start farming a 2.5-acre tract of Low Country land on Wadmalaw Island, about 20 miles outside Charleston, SC. When the executive chef of Charleston's McCrady's restaurant is up to his elbows in rich soil harvesting Sea Island red peas, he sees much more than just bushels of humble legumes as the payoff for his toil. For Brock, who hosts occasional meals and teaches a class on sustainable agriculture to Culinary Institute of Charleston students on the farm, this heritage vegetable has an important story to tell."

For more of the story, see: http://www.airtranmagazine.com/features/2009/10/table-to-farm

CIC has Big Bite of Taste of Charleston

The 2009 Taste of Charleston kicked off on Friday, October 9th with an Iron Chef Competition in the CIC's Palmer Campus amphitheater. The team of Chef Instructor Kevin Mitchell and Francis Marion Chef/Adjunct Instructor Simon Andrews made a tight win over their competition Chef Nathan Thurston of the Ocean Room at The Sanctuary and Chef Kevin Johnson of Anson.

On Saturday, the CIC hosted two sessions of "Taste of the Kitchen," with beer and food pairing in the morning and wine and food pairing in the afternoon.

And on a beautiful Sunday, both HCSA and The Baking Club had booths at Boone Hall.

The Post & Courier covered the story:"Chefs to serve up advice on perfect pairings" http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/10/chefs-serve-advice-perfect-pairings/

New Reality Show, The WineMakers, Premiere at CIC

On Thursday, October 8th, South Carolina ETV premiered their newest Presentation, The WINEMAKERS, at the CIC amphitheater at Palmer Campus.
Pictured above are at top: Emily Bane, CWE, Field Sales Manager-Charleston, of Ben Arnold-Sunbelt, demonstrating CrushPad's blending kits and showing off the winning wine.
Second Row: Intro to Wine student Othel Plowden taking notes and Hospitality Department Head Patricia Agnew sitting with Ben Arnold's John Julius.
Third Row: (l) Cheesemaker Farrah Hoffmire (Giddy Goat), whose goat cheese lollipops also made their premiere at the event, and (r) Charleston Restaurant Association President Steve Kish (82 Queen), sitting next to SCETV President David Couch.

Slated to begin airing on Public Television September 2009, The Winemakers joins twelve men and women as they compete for a chance to create and launch their own wine label nationwide. Produced in a reality television series format, this first season of six 30-minute episodes follows a passionate and diverse group of contestants from the vineyard to the boardroom as they struggle to make their wildest dream come true. The winner of season I of The Winemakers will launch their own 15,000-case brand nationwide in September during the series’ debut. The winner’s wine was produced at Crushpad, an urban crush facility located in the heart of San Francisco. Season II of The Winemakers began shooting in Arroyo Grande on California’s central coast in August 2009. Only the survivors of this first challenge will continue on to France’s Rhone Valley where the competition will kick into high gear.
The Judges: Leslie Sbrocco, well-known wine writer, author and host of Public Television’s "Check Please;" Mark Oldman, author of the bestselling "Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine," and Los Angeles-based wine writer Corie Brown. A host of guest judges also include Food & Wine magazine writer Lettie Teague and Doug Frost, who holds the distinction of being only one of three people worldwide to hold both a Master of Wine and Master Sommelier title.

A presentation of South Carolina ETV, the series is a production of Doc City Productions, whose founder Kevin Whelan has developed several wine programs, including WINE 101 with David Hyde Pierce, Tales From the Vineyard and Uncorked: Wine Made Simple with Ted Allen. Clips from the show can be viewed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/winemakerstv and on the series’ website http://www.thewinemakers.tv/.

The WineMakers will run the week of Oct. 26 - 30
10/26 7:00pm WineMakers 101 10/26 7:30pm WineMakers 102
10/27 7:00pm WineMakers 103 10/28 7:00pm WineMakers 104
10/29 7:00pm WineMakers 105 10/30 7:00pm WineMakers 106
On Saturday, October 31, the program will run straight through, beginning at 12:00 noon to 3:00pm.
The City Paper had a few words: http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/a-reality-show-for-winos-plus-thoughts-on-top-chef/Content?oid=1429047

Chef Mitchell is a Contestant in The Taste of Charleston Iron Chef

The Taste: Iron Chef Competition
Hosted by Greater Charleston Restaurant Association with US Foodservice and the Culinary Institute of Charleston

DATE: Friday, Oct. 9
TIME: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
LOCATION: 66 Columbus Street
MORE: This event kicks off the 29th annual Taste of Charleston weekend, and will take place at the Culinary Institute of Charleston's Palmer Campus. This year's competitors are: Chef Kevin Mitchell from the Culinary Institute of Charleston and Chef Simon Andrews from the Swamp Fox Restaurant, Francis Marion Hotel vs.Chef Kevin Johnson from Anson Restaurant and Chef Nathan Thurston from The Ocean Room at The Sanctuary.

It's Great When Two CIC Alums Are Featured in the Newpaper on the Same Day!

Rue De Jean Chef Quickly Moves Up Culinary Arts Food Chain
By Angel Powell, Special to The Post and Courier
Thursday, October 1, 2009

Aaron Lemieux studied at the Culinary Institute of Charleston under some of the best chefs in the world, including his mentor, the late William Stacks.
After graduating in 2005, he began working at Magnolias under Donald Barickman and Donald Drake, who are widely respected as pioneers in the Charleston culinary scene. Advancing quickly, he soon became butcher and later sous chef.
In 2007, Lemieux joined 39 Rue De Jean working under Holy City Hospitality Executive Chef Jason Murphy. A welcome addition to the company, he swiftly earned the position of sous chef and later chef de cuisine.
Q: What's your first food memory?
A: I grew up in New England, so soft shell clams or "steamers" would have to be my first memory. My parents would get a giant pot and steam a bushel then we would dip in hot water then in hot butter. Amazing.
Q: What do you cook at home?
A: Since I am always cooking French cuisine, all bets are off at home. It might be stuffed shells one night and fajitas the next night. It all depends on who I'm eating with and our time frame.
For the rest of this story, please see:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/01/rue-de-jean-chef-quickly-moves-up-culinary-arts/

Sunrise Bistro
By Rob Young,
Thursday, October 1, 2009
... Sunrise, a fine lil' breakfast/lunch bistro from Jessica Welenteichick and chef Brian Appelt. ... Sunrise bakes its own breads, including biscuits, house herb bread, and pizza dough: perfect for the Suns Up Pizza omelet with sausage gravy ($4.25-$4.75), served in three variations. Beyond breakfast, Sunrise leans to lighter fare, such as greens, chicken and Caesar salads and wraps, and the hummus platter ($5.95).
But it leaves room for more filling items, counting the grilled pimiento cheese ($5.95), rich and gooey, the cheese clinging to the insides of Texas toast. Try the crab bisque on the side; it's substantial, thick and dreamy, with small bits of crab swimming in the soup.
For the rest of this story, see the link below.
Address: 1797 Main Road, Johns Island Phone: 718-1858
Hours: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun., 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Tues-Sat.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/01/sunrise-bistro/