Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Villa St. Benedict Chef Receives Top Honors

Villa St. Benedict Chef, Chris Moore selected to Attend Culinary Institute of America in New York City

Chris Moore, the main chef at Villa St. Benedict has been a little busy lately. After a surprising nomination by the Regional Director of Operations for Morrison Dining, Chris was selected out of 850 chefs to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York City for 1 week. The intensive week long training focused on new concepts, new ideas and great ways to help conserve and lessen our carbon footprint.

Being from England, Chris was excited about traveling to New York City as he has never had the opportunity to visit. Unfortunately the training was so intense he did not have the opportunity he had hoped to explore the city. “I did get to see the Statue of Liberty as we were driving in”, said Chris.

The training started immediately after the arrival of all 25 carefully selected participants. Chris said the most interesting part of the process was how secretive everything was. “They did not tell us a thing. Each of the chefs had no clue what to expect. One person had heard that it would be a lot of training and non-stop cooking, that person was very right”.

During the six day training each of the chefs spent time in the kitchen while also spending equal time in intense classroom style training. Each participant was encouraged to take back new recipes and ideas to their place of business. Master Chefs encouraged them to think beyond the ordinary and explore new and eventful meal choices. Celebrity chef, Cary Neff who most recently joined the Morrison team as VP of Culinary, conducted several demonstrations and shared with the small group new concepts for Morrison Dining. Most recently, Neff partnered with Morrison to create Flavors 450, a culinary concept that brings simple, nutritious and flavorful food to the dining experience. Working with Morrison executive chefs, he developed a menu featuring an array of more than 60 rotating recipes, each under 450 calories.
Post training Chris has been asked to put together a plan of action to implement some of the new concepts. “I am anxious about incorporating some of the wonderful things I learned. I can not wait to get started. I am most excited about a possible Mediterranean Cuisine night which will feature a different country or style of food each week”, said Chris.

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