A team of five students enrolled in the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts’ associate and baccalaureate programs beat three other teams to win the 2015 National Baron H. Galand Culinary Knowledge Bowl at the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) National Convention & Show at the Orlando World Center Marriott on Monday.
The victory marked the third Kendall College title in the last six years of this. Earlier this year in Indianapolis, the Kendall team swept the annual regional competition for a sixth consecutive year to qualify for the national final.
The Kendall College team, consisting of team captain Alex Gabrielson (Pella, Iowa), Michael Lanzerotte (Bloomington, Illinois), Emily Mankus (Lincolnshire, Illinois), Nelia Salvi (Madison, Wisconsin), and Alex Szabo (Prescott, Arizona), competed against student teams from professional foodservice-training programs at schools in Riverhead, New York, Savannah, Georgia, and Kirkland, Washington, representing the ACF’s Northeast, Southeast, and Western Regions, respectively.
Culinary student Mike Kubiesa (Elmhurst, Illinois) served as a second alternate on Kendall’s team.
“It was our honor to represent Kendall College and the Central Region in the ACF’s Knowledge Bowl, and we are thrilled to bring the national title and gold medals home to Chicago,” says team coach Dina Altieri, CEC, CCE, CHE, dean of the School of Culinary Arts. “Competition has made each of us stronger, and we are grateful for the opportunity to participate.”
The annual Baron H. Galand Culinary Knowledge Bowl, sponsored by American Technical Publishers, tests the acumen of culinary-arts students via a “Jeopardy” style subject grid that includes challenging culinary, baking, nutrition, safety, sanitation, and math questions as well as sensory perception.
First held at the ACF’s 1992 National Convention in Washington, D.C., today the four geographic regions of the ACF hold the competition at their respective conferences in winter and spring to qualify teams to compete for the national title at the ACF’s convention in summer.
Kendall College won the National Baron H. Galand Culinary Knowledge Bowl championships at the ACF’s conventions in Dallas, Texas, in 2011, and Anaheim, California, in 2010. According to Altieri, a new Kendall team will compete at the ACF’s 2016 conference for the Central and Western Regions in Hawaii next March to vie for a spot in next summer’s national competition.
