Dear Culinary Friends,

We had great representation at the National Conference from the Atlanta Chapter! There are many acknowledgments that will be forthcoming but I wanted to let you know of the Chapter Success portion of the General Session.  Our Chapter was awarded the opportunity to present our story before a crowd of upwards of 800 Chefs and Industry Representatives.  I asked Chef Mike Deihl to join me on stage as we proudly presented to the crowd the ways in which our Chapter has embraced the Atlanta hospitality industry in its entirety through all of the great works that each and everyone of you have participated in and accomplished for the benefit of so many in our city and beyond.  Our main focus of success for this presentation was our extraordinary accomplishments that have been sustained now for seven year at Operation Chefs Unite!  When I say “our” I mean every one of you that have made it possible to continue weekly lunches and have 13 annual Holiday themed buffets for our soldiers.

YOU have made it possible to reach a feeding plateau of 1,000,000 SOLDIERS… and that number continues to grow daily!

My sincere gratitude goes out to all of you!  The OCU feeding of the troops at the USO facility is a story that needs to be told over and over and over again!

Ron Horgan, CEC
Executive Chef
Ansley Golf Club

President
2006 Chapter Chef of the Year
ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter
American Culinary Federation
2008 Chapter of the Year

Share Our Strength
Give Me Five

On August 22, 2010, Share Our Strength hosted their annual Give Me Five benefit dinner to raise money to help in the fight against childhood hunger. Five of Atlanta’s top chefs and five of Atlanta’s exceptional sommeliers came together at East Lake Golf Club and presented an outstanding five course meal. The evening began with five dazzling choices of passed hors d'oeuvres that set the spirit for the evening. The chefs and sommeliers amazed all with their incredible pairings of gourmet dishes and fine wines. With the help of other local chefs and Le Cordon Bleu student volunteers, the evening raised a substantial amount of money that will be used locally to benefit Atlanta’s hungry children.

Course                     Chef                           Sommelier

Appetizer          Hector Santiago            Eric Cane
Salad                   Michael Deihl                Angela Head
Entrée                 Gary Donlick                 Stephen Clark
Cheese                Jay Yarbrough               Matt Bradford
Dessert               Kevin Walker                Andrés Loazia

2010 ACF National Convention

This year’s ACF National Convention was held in Anaheim with incredible events for attendees to participate in. Pre-convention started was a community service day where more than 40 chefs came together to help educate nutritionally at risk families on eating healthier. Children and parents alike enjoyed nutritional cooking demonstrations and hands on activities. The California beach party style ice breaker offered great food, music and the opportunity to reconnect with chefs whom you had not seen in a while. Throughout the week educational classes and demos were offered with an array of topics to choose from. At the Board of Governors meeting several new bylaws changes were voted on including a new Culinarians Code written by Chef Michael Deihl. Later in the week at the General Session one chapter from each region was chosen to present how their chapter is using the Power of Connection to make an impact. Atlanta was chosen to represent the SE Region and Chef Ron Horgan and Chef Michael Deihl shared our success stories about the Atlanta Chapter and Operation Chefs Unite.

At the trade show over 100 exhibitors were showing their cutting edge products for chefs to view and taste. The ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter was given the opportunity to showcase our up and coming 2011 SE Regional Conference to be held February 19-21, 2011. On display were our chapter and OCU banners along with chapter awards. Sharpie pens and sticky note pads were a big hit with the chefs as give aways. Thanks to Chef Natasha Capper and Chef Kerri Crean for helping to make that happen. Dietz & Watson deserves a big “Thank You” for their donation of an iPod Nano that was raffled off. Congratulations to Chef Chris McCook, winner of the iPod. Also raffled off was a $100 Chip Voucher for Casino Night that will be held Saturday night, Feb. 19, 2011. Chef Denise Baxter, president of the Nation’s Capital Chef’s Association was the winner of that drawing.

The 2010 ACF National Competitions were held on the trade show floor. Competitors from all over the country competed for the national titles. Congratulations to our very own Daniel Gorman from Cherokee Town & Country Club winner of 2010 National Student Chef of the Year. We are also very proud of Chef Jonn Nishiyama also from Cherokee Town & Country Club who competed for National Chef of the Year. In the Southeast Region Chef Andreas Proisl from the Central Florida Chapter won National Pastry Chef of the Year.

A special thank you to our local Dietz & Watson, Schwan’s Food Service and S&D Coffee for helping to sponsor the ACF National Convention.

The National Convention is a great place to learn and grow as a food industry professional. Make plans now to attend next year’s convention being held in Dallas Texas.

New Culinarians Code Adopted

The American Culinary Federation Board of Governors voted overwhelmingly to adopt the proposed new culinarians code at the 2010 ACF National Convention in Anaheim on August 3, 2010. Executive Chef Michael Deihl, CEC CCA AAC, from the ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter and the 2008-2010 ACF National Ethics Chair, began working on this project in 2008 and the long awaited culinarians code revision finally came to fruition in Anaheim. Along with support from the ACF National Board of Directors to move forward on this project, the historic 53 year old culinarians code was updated to reflect the needs of today’s chef. Chef Deihl said, “keeping the original tradition and history alive was paramount in my opinion during this project”.

Please use this when you are printing the code in your newsletters and various chapter communications.

This is also available on the website under Online Resources as well as downloadable from the Presidents Portal.

Linda Leo
Membership Manager
American Culinary Federation
180 Center Place Way
St. Augustine, FL  32095

Culinarian’s Code

As a proud member of the American Culinary Federation, I pledge to share my professional knowledge and skill with all culinarians. I will place honor, fairness, cooperation and consideration first when dealing with my colleagues. I will keep all comments professional and respectful when dealing with my colleagues. I will protect all members from the use of unfair means, unnecessary risks and unethical behavior when used against them for another’s personal gain. I will support the success, growth, and future of my colleagues and this great federation.

Adopted at Board of Governors
August 3, 2010

CMAA Fundraiser

We would like to thank all the chefs that helped make this year’s CMAA Fundraiser a big success. Attendees enjoyed an array of foods provided by chapter members with all the proteins generously donated by Prime Meats. The chapter raised $5,000 that will go into our Charitable Trust Fund to be used in the various community services we help with throughout the year.

Chris McCook – Athens Country Club
Eric Karell – The Athletic Club
Jay Yarbrough – Piedmont Driving Club
Karl Johnson – The Standard Club
Michael Deihl – East Lake Golf Club
Ron Horgan – Ansley Golf Club
Steve Barron – Marietta Country Club
Tom Warrell – St Ives Country Club
Rick Morris – Prime Meats
Howard Cooper

Carman-Girard Associates is a very active member of The ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter. At the April Monthly Meeting, Don Girard on behalf of EJ Morrow and APW/Wyott presented an APW hot dog cooker to the President of the ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter, Chef Ron Horgan. The donation to Operation Chefs Unite helps support the USO and volunteer chefs to feed our troops through-out the year. There is nothing more American than hot dogs and due to the generosity of APW our fantastic service men and women will now be able to taste a little bit of home as they pass through the Atlanta Airport! Thank you Carman-Girard and APW/Wyott for your continued support of OCU and our military service men and women.

Thank you General Manager Malcolm Stanchfield, Golf Professional Scott Curiel and Chef Karl Johnson of The Standard Club for a terrific day of golf and great food. We would also like to thank all of our tremendous purveyors and sponsors for their ongoing support and dedication to the ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter. We hope you enjoyed the day.

Photo Gallery

Congradulations to the
2009 ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter
Award Winners

Chef of the Year: Jay Yarbrough, CEC CCA
Educator of the Year: Kerri Crean, CSC CCE
Humanitarian of the Year: Patrick Gebrayel, CEC
Vendor of the Year: Sunbelt Foodservice
Junior Member of the Year: Dominique Fallings
Presidential Award of the Year: Cheryl Glass

In October 2009, the ACF Greater Atlanta Chapter participated in a UNCF fundraising golf tournament. With efforts from all, the golf tournament raised in excess of $118,000 for the day! Chefs Ron Horgan and John Szymanski were invited to Spelman College for the presenting of the check from this year’s UNCF golf tournament. Among the invited guests was Laila Ali! Thank you to all the chefs that gave of their time to help with this event.