New gold standard

Operators in non-commercial foodservice never get enough credit, it seems, for the work they do. Often they are judged, unfairly, against commercial restaurants and found lacking.

How many news articles and opinion pieces have been written over the years attacking the quality of hospital food or school cafeterias? How often have foodservice workers in “institutional” settings been made the butt of jokes in cartoons, movies and TV shows?

Instructors and chefs at the Culinary Institute of America know this and, frankly, are more than a little peeved by it. Volume food preparation takes a special skill that few people outside the industry—and even in the restaurant business—truly appreciate.

Even when foodservice operators in schools, colleges, hospitals, military operations and the like are recognized, they are still often considered second-class citizens when compared with most restaurant operators. How often, for example, has an IFMA Silver Plate Award winner been honored with the prestigious Gold Plate? I can recall only a couple of operators.

And yet, there are gold standards being set out there, and the CIA believes that it’s time those best practices are recognized. So, last week at the conclusion of our eighth annual MenuDirections conference, FoodService Director and the Culinary Institute of America announced that we are partnering on a new awards program, to be called “The Goldies.”

Brad Barnes, associate dean at the CIA, came up with the idea and presented it to Scott Allmendinger, group publisher of Ideal Media, several months ago. Criteria for the awards are being drafted by a committee made up of CIA faculty, and judging also will be done by the CIA. More details about the awards will be announced within the next couple of months. The first “Goldies” are scheduled to be presented at the 2011 MenuDirections conference, next March in New Orleans.

“What you do has such a big impact on a huge portion of this industry, and we should celebrate that,” Barnes told MenuDirections attendees.

We have been talking for a couple of years about various types of awards we could hand out, similar to our FSD of the Month program. The chief stumbling blocks, of course, have been what criteria would we set and how would we, as “outsiders,” judge those standards.

The CIA’s involvement removes those obstacles. Who better to measure quality than those people who preach it and try to teach it to hundreds of culinarians every year? And how much more value would such an award have, compared with one a trade magazine like ours would present on its own?

We’re excited that the CIA has chosen us to be their partner in this venture. Brad Barnes is passionate about food and eager to recognize the achievements of men and women who succeed while overcoming challenges most restaurant operators never even face.

This experience will be a learning one, not only for us as we work together to craft a program to match the quality of the people we’ll honor, but for the non-commercial foodservice industry as a whole, as best practices are laid bare for all to see and benefit from. We hope you’ll all want to participate.