ACF Culinary Team USA Wins Gold at Culinary World Cup

St. Augustine, Fla., November 21, 2006, American Culinary Federation's (ACF) Culinary Team USA, the official representative team for the United States in major international culinary competitions, won a gold medal today in the hot-food competition at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg.

ACF Culinary Team USA is one of four teams to win a gold medal in the hot-food competition. Sweden, Norway and Canada also won gold medals. The team will compete in the cold-food portion of the event on November 22. Scores in both the hot-food and cold-food competitions will be combined to determine which team out of the 24 national teams represented will become the new national Culinary World Cup champion.

ACF Culinary Team USA boasts three certified master chefs, of which there are only 61 in the country, and has already become a top contender on the world culinary stage. The team was declared the world champions in hot-food cooking at the 21st Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung International Culinary Art Competition, also known as the "culinary Olympics," and won gold in the hot-food and cold-food competitions at the Salon Culinaire Mondial 2005 in Basel, Switzerland, November 19-23, 2005.

ACF Culinary National Team USA members are: Edward Leonard, certified master chef (CMC), American Academy of Chefs (AAC), ACF Culinary Team USA manager and executive chef, Westchester Country Club, Rye, N.Y.; Richard Rosendale, certified culinarian (CC), ACF Culinary Team USA captain and chef/owner, Rosendales, Columbus, Ohio; Jamie Keating, certified chef de cuisine (CCC), chef/owner, Gourmet Events and the River Mill Event Center, Columbus, Ga.; Joachim Buchner, CMC, executive chef, Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase, Md.; Daniel Scannell, CMC, executive chef, Carnegie Abbey Club, Portsmouth, R.I.; and Patricia Nash, pastry chef, Westchester Country Club.

“The team was at the top of its game during the hot-food competition," said John Kinsella, CMC, Certified Culinary Educator (CCE), AAC, president of ACF. “The team displayed outstanding showmanship, great teamwork and an unbeatable hot-food display, and the ACF congratulates them for this incredible honor."

The 2006 Culinary World Cup competition is held from November 18-22, and occurs among two major tradeshows, EXPOGAST and Salon du Chocolat. The competition is held every four years, and is one of five major international culinary competitions sanctioned by the World Association of Chefs Societies. Contenders in the 2006 competition include twenty-four national teams, 10 national military teams, scores of regional and private teams, and hundreds of individuals are competing in an attempt to show the rest of the world whose cuisine is the best.

Sponsors of ACF Culinary Team USA are Chef Revival; Club Managers Association of America; Fortessa; Kraft Foodservice; McCormick Food Service; Tyson Foods, Inc.; Uncle Ben's; Unilever Foodsolutions; and Westchester Country Club.

The American Culinary Federation, Inc., established in 1929, is the premier professional organization for culinarians in America. With more than 19,000 members spanning 240 chapters nationwide, ACF is the culinary leader in offering educational resources, training, apprenticeship and accreditation. In addition, ACF operates the only comprehensive certification program for chefs in the U.S. ACF is home to ACF Culinary Team USA, the official representative for the United States in major international culinary competitions, and also holds the presidium for the World Association of Chefs Societies, the largest international network of chef associations with more than 8 million members globally.

AMERICAN CULINARY FEDERATION
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