Camari Mick, Class of 2015

Let Us Know What You Think @TRSatWHC

A Note From

President Liberatoscioli

As each new season comes around, I always ask myself about new opportunities, technologies and strategies that will advance Walnut Hill College as an innovative institution among other colleges and influencers in our ever-changing hospitality industry. Each year, the management, faculty and staff at Walnut Hill College look at technological, academic and industry trends that will enable our students to learn more effectively and efficiently throughout their college careers. This year, one of the initiatives that has presented itself through research is the move towards expanding our Main Dish Magazine and making it GREEN by going fully digital!

Through your readership support, we see an opportunity to bring you even more content and information about our students, the industries where they work and, of course, our valued alumni stories. In doing so, we think the best and most efficient way to get all of this goodness to you is to do it through your computer screen and/or your smart device, which you are probably using to read this magazine right now!

As the future leaders of our industry, we have a responsibility to find new and exciting ways of being sustainable, modern and most importantly, relevant. We have found our digital path and with that, we hope that you will support our “green” journey and keep reading!

Daniel LiberatoscioliPresidentWalnut Hill College

WINTER/SPRING 2015 3Camari Mick, Class of 2015

Spring 2014

Contributors:

Daniel Liberatoscioli | President

Valery Snisarenko | Editor-in-Chief

Kelly Vass | Senior Editor

Madeline Copp | Associate Editor

Rebecca Schwartz | Student Writer

To Submit A News Story:

Contact MainDishMag@

WalnutHillCollege.edu

4 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

SPRING CLEANINGUpdate & Upgrade: A Guide For College Students

LAUNCHOLOGY 2015WHC Gives A Rundown Of What Was Said & By Who

SLOW FOOD MOVEMENTCelebrating Food & The People Who Create It

BUSINESS OF BEEKEEPINGAdventures in Beekeeping: One Sweet Afternoon

LOCAL THYMEWorking with Community Supported Agriculture

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5 FORAGINGA Starter Guide For Local Foraging

22 ENTERPRISING ENTREPRENEURSThe Enterprise Center Connection & Scholarships

25 HAVE YOU HEARD?C’mon, you know you love the gossip.

A Starter Guide To

In the wild, foraging is an essential part of survival and the reproduction of an organism. In fact, scientists correlate the amount of fitness with the nu-trition that an animal can get out of foraging and how that effects its long-term survival. According to wikipidia, “in times of crisis such as depletion of resources, animals will gain from having foraging innovation abilities to survive.”1

For those of us who are not living in the wild, foraging may seem like a strange activity, since, technically, it is unnecessary. But, alas many of the modern day chefs have brought the idea of foraging to the forefront as a method of expanding on the true “Farm To Table” experience. Chefs, cooks and those close to the food industry have been foraging for years as a means of introducing their diners to local, unique and fresh ingredients - and hoping they create a new experience for their customers as well as themselves.

Here we have sampled information from www.wildfoodies.org to give you a quick guide on how to get involved!

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foraginghttp://www.meetup.com/Wild-Foodies-of-Philly/

Lynn Landes is the founder of Wild Foodies of Philly, one of the largest “wild edibles” foraging & education Meet Up groups in the world. Wild Foodies is a group of wild food enthu-siasts who got together in the sum-mer of 2010 to learn more about ev-erything having to do with foraging. The group was founded in response to concerns regarding the use of GMOs, chemicals and other farming practices.

Wild Foodies offers the ability for anyone, group or organization, to an-nounce a meetup if they are within 50 miles of Philadelphia! Additionally, Lynn offers FREE tour leader trainings and leads private tours on weekdays for students, chefs and other interest-ed groups. (http://www.wildfoodies.org/).

from WildFoodies.org

Wild edibles come in a wide variety of flavors: bland, bitter, sweet, sour, spicy, mus-tard, garlic, onion, pepper, mushroom, etc.. The same plant can taste differently depending on soil conditions, time of year, time of day, etc. Upcoming MeetUps

Tue, March 10 @ 6 pmNew Spring Garden

Market Wild Food ToursPhiladelphia, PA

Fri, March 13 @ 10 amFamily Foraging @ Manasquan Reservoir

Manasquan Reservoir, Howell, NJ

Sat, March 14 @ 9 amRancocas Creek - Forage On....

Joe’s Yard - Mount Holly, NJ

Sat, March 14 @ 9 amForaging and Tracks

Allaire State Park, Wall, NJ

more on site.

Always be sure of what you are eating. If you think you know, also look up “poison-ous look-a-likes”. If you haven’t positively identified it, don’t eat it. If you want to try it anyway, check out this website -- http://www.wikihow.com/Test-if-a-Plant-Is-Edible

Avoid certain areas, such as next to roads, former industrial areas, etc.. Lead contamination from cars or house paint can make plants taste sweeter. If you want to grow plants for food, have the soil tested. If it is contaminated, there are plants that can re-mediate thesoil over time.

Make sure that whatever you eat raw, is safe to consume. Otherwise, boil or cook it.

Some people say to forage in the morning when plants are at their best.

http://www.meetup.com/Wild-Foodies-of-Philly/ (Lynn Landes)http://www.meetup.com/Nature-Studies/ (Hugh Brenner)New Jersey Mycological Association (mushrooms!)http://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Mushrooms/ Mycological Association of Greater Philadelphia

Local Groups

David Siller - www.yosoybean.comSarah Murray - stellaloufarm.com/category/eventsChristopher Brown’s BLOG - foundationalskills.tumblr.comDan of Princeton, NJ area - returntonature.usVicki A. Hagel, Esquire - www.ColonialPlantation.org Tama Matsuoka Wong - www.meadowsandmore.com

Local Food Foragers

WINTER/SPRING 2015 5

4 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

Spring CleaningUpdate and Upgrade: A guide for college students.

Spring is a time for blossoming trees, more hours of sunshine and a renewed energy aboutthe year ahead.. It's also an ideal time for one of your dreaded activities - cleaning! But, before you skip to the next article, give these tips a chance.

We know that many of you don't have the best idea of where or how to start the cleaningprocess...and that is why we are here to help you on your journey! We have identified theTop 3 areas where you NEED to get organized and how to tackle each of those areas.

And remember, the best way to avoid cleaning is by keeping your space clean!Organization is the key to life!

New Beginnings

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By: Valery Snisarenko

23tidy your dorm

clean your workspace REARRANGE Your Dorm Room - A great way to solve theproblem of a boring and uninspiring room is just to rearrangeyour furniture and/or get a new sheet set & pillows - get aroom in just a few hours (or minutes if you are Hercules!).

SELL Old Textbooks & Things - A great way to clean andmake $ is to sell your old stuff online, at a store or through ayard sale. Check your local area consignment shops or postyour stuff on-line. But make sure to price fairly! Remember -it's always better to make some $ than let stuff pile up!

DONATE Clothes You Don't Wear - Donating your clothes isnot only good for those who are less fortunate, but also agood method of increasing your financial fortune. Some shopsgive you a slip that either you or your parents can usetowards tax refunds. You're Welcome!

1 update your image

Create a Cleaning Schedule

DELETE Old Files - Chances are your desktop screen looks likesomeone made it rain - with files. Organization will keep yousane and the best way to get there is to delete those onesentence docs - trust us, they will never win you a Pulitzer.

DECLUTTER Pesky Papers - Admit it, you are a hoarder ofpapers. It's OK, it's normal. But, everything is good inmoderation. Only keep the papers that are very important orthat you are proud of, everything else is just taking up space.

CLEAR Your Mind - The most essential part of organization isclearing your mind of clutter. Meditation, yoga or just a jog canhelp you prioritize your life and prepare you for the year ahead.

INSTAGRAM - If your profile is public and images on youraccount make your mom and dad squirm, it's time to delete.Employers definitely take your personal life into accountwhen making a decision to hire and to fire.

FACEBOOK - Your friends like to tag you in photos and thatseems cool - but not for your future employer. Make sure tountag yourself from any unflattering photos. Stat.

TWITTER - 140 characters doesn't seem like it would beenough to ruin your future - but it is. If you have postedanything controversial or offensive, its time to put your bigboy/girl pants on and DELETE!

LINKEDIN - This social media site may be your best friend oryour worst enemy when pursuing your career. Make sureyour photo is professional and that your information is up todate, including education, work experience and volunteer jobs.

3 Tips To Staying Organized

By Kelly Vass

8 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

Slow Food is an international movement which “links the pleasures of the table with a commit-ment to protect the community, culture, knowl-edge and environment that make this pleasure possible.” Begun in Italy by Carlo Petrini, it is a grassroots membership organization that seeks to protect the environment, encourage sustain-able growing practices and promote small grow-ers and food artisans. Its mission is “good, clean and fair food for all” and its educational lectures, programs and events seek to provide learning op-portunities and connect people to the small farm-ers and food craftsmen who create their food.

I sat down with the President of Slow Food Phil-adelphia, Joe Brandolo, to discuss the organiza-tion, sustainability and how students can get in-volved with the Slow Food movement.

WINTER/SPRING 2015 9

WHAT IS THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT AND HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH SLOW FOOD PHILADELPHIA?

The Slow Food Movement began in Italy when Carlo Petrini saw a McDonald’s at the foot of the Spanish Steps and in this moment realized that there’s a transformation going on in Europe…not just that fast food has arrived, but that they are going to begin to become like every place else. They’re going to become homogenized. It was a big fear that dovetailed with the formation of the Euro-pean Union. Despite joining, a lot of these countries still wanted to have their own identities and Slow Food gave Petrini a platform to be able to get governments to rec-ognize that Tuscany isn’t Tuscany if tourists can’t come and eat Tuscan cheeses and drink Tuscan wines. If they lose tourism, they’re doomed because Europe is not the most industrialized region in the world. So really every country is centered on food, culture and everything in be-tween and Petrini realized how important it was to pre-serve these traditions.

Slow Food is all about where your food comes from. It has very little relationship to fast food. It’s kind of a misnomer. I’ve had people ask me whether Slow Food is the oppo-site of fast food, or if it’s eating slow. It’s not any of that. It’s a matter of getting people to remember where their food comes from and how their food is produced. It has a lot to do with the quality level and with things that are done sustainability, how the field workers and employ-ees are treated. It’s expanded its scope over the years through Terre Madre. It’s expanded to include a lot of spe-cific projects relate to certain needs in specific places. For example, 1000 Gardens in Africa was created because in-dustrial farming was beginning to overtake small farming in villages as people were moving to the city. Therefore, this agrarian lifestyle was beginning to disappear. In In-dia, however, projects are different. In Japan, they deal with organic tea growers… it’s really all about celebrating where your food comes from and the people who create it.

I got involved about 15 years ago when I went to my first Salone de Gusto, which happens every two years in To-rino, Italy. It’s a two-fold event, composed of Salone de Gusto and Terre Madre. The former is the world’s larg-est food and wine fair. The latter is an international con-ference with international delegates who go to various events, tasting workshops and talk about the agenda that Slow Food internationally would like to work on over the next two years. So I went to Salone del Gusto and was to-tally impressed with the concept, having basically started my career in hospitality (front of the house). I’ve always been interested in food and wine, but mainly where our food comes from and where it’s produced—whether it’s the vineyard owners or the families that own the small farms, as opposed to the big corporations and industrial farming.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE AREAS OF FOCUS FOR THE PHILADELPHIA AREA?

Philly is a unique situation when it comes to agriculture, because as a region, we’re completely surrounded on all sides by farming—from West Chester County west of us to Bucks County in the North, New Jersey to the East and Delaware and Maryland to the South. Outside of some of the commercial growers who were growing in South Jer-sey at one time for Campbell’s, most of the farms that are growing now are small, family farms.

There’s also this connection to the respective state uni-versities. If you’re looking at New Jersey, for example, they have Rutgers University, which has a great agricul-ture department that works with Jersey farms to not only be profitable, but to also be profitable in a sustainable way. There’s a big connection to the academic world and innovation, showing farmers what crops they can grow to make them more profitable, so that they don’t have to become industrial farmers. We do the same thing here in Pennsylvania. We have PASA—Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture. These organizations that are part of a network to provide education and various other resources to help them to be profitable.

When I got involved, our chapter (Philly) had become sort of a dinner club, which is what had happened to other chapters in the US. These dinner clubs were great because Slow Food would take over a restaurant for the night and you could go to dinner where a chef would pre-pare a great meal for you. While that’s all well and good and it fits into a certain portion of our theme, it didn’t pro-vide an educational connection. What I wanted to bring to the chapter was not only the educational component, but also a celebration of restaurants who actually are doing the right things, like buying from local farmers through Zone 7 or Common Market. We researched it and created a Snail of Approval Program, which recognizes farmers, caterers, farmers markets, food trucks and restaurants who are doing the right thing.

We also do advocacy events. For example, we’re showing a documentary of the Slow Food story. It’s an evolution of Carlo Petrini and how he worked his way in through gov-ernment channels to connect Slow Food in Europe. Petrini was able to appeal to governments to put money into culinary schools in Europe. They teach everything from farming to cheese making and charcuterie down to bread baking and pastry. They have a much more rounded cur-riculum (than some schools in the U.S.). So the govern-ment stepped in and regents stepped in, various sponsors stepped in like Lavazza coffee, as an example. It really was an interesting dynamic because, by getting these large companies involved, it really made the companies think about where they were getting their product from and to commit to only buying fair trade coffee. It made them more responsible citizens, so it became a symbiotic relationship.

10 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

JOE BRANDOLO FROM SLOW FOOD PHILLY

It was a long process to get started—it took about 15 years to begin to get wineries recognized and to elevate the wine regions and quality of wines coming out of those regions by coming out with a publication called Gambero Rosso. Most presently, we have Eataly, which is in several cities around the world and was started in Torino as part of the Slow Food project. They opened up a store revolv-ing around the Slow Food concept and it’s all inclusive, in other words, it has bread, wine, cheese and everything you’d want in a grocery store, except that it’s all small booths as opposed to one giant supermarket. Everything is broken down and it’s all artisanal and made by one bread maker or one wine company. Those are some of the projects that have developed commercially.

WHAT ARE SOME EASY WAYS FOR YOUNG-ER PEOPLE (STUDENTS) TO GET INVOLVED IN THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT OR HOW FOOD IS MADE?

There are lots of opportunities to visit local farms. Wye-brook Farm in Chester County is a perfect example. There’s a gentleman who made a lot of money at a young age and decided he wanted to be a farmer so he brought some people on to help him raise chickens, cows, pigs and goats. There’s Stryker Farm up in the Poconos. There are a pretty fair amount of farms you can visit so you can see what free-range actually really means and to see the dif-ference when you cook a free-range chicken as opposed to an industrial-raised chicken.

There’s also plenty of urban farms here in Philly and they’re springing up everywhere. There’s a great opportunity to help out, volunteer at their farmer’s market or rent space. A lot of the urban farms here in Philly do seminars; I’d defi-nitely recommend Greensgrow. They have a satellite farm here in West Philadelphia. They do classes on everything from urban farming to beekeeping and candles.

WHAT’S YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY?

It’s having a complete awareness of what it is that you are doing and how you are living your life. I think that most people think that sustainability, in some ways, is a foreign concept. But really, it’s a practice. It can be something as simple as recycling. It takes a little extra effort to do that, but it’s a start. For me, it started as a kid—I’ve always had a culinary garden. And then later on, as an adult living in a place without my own outdoor space, I became part of a community garden. I always felt compelled to want to grow the foods I eat because I like better quality ingredi-ents like heirloom tomatoes. However, it was also a way for me to connect with a part of my lifestyle that was important to me like raising good food for myself. There are opportunities that you have to think about, like con-serving water, or driving a hybrid car. You have to look at what you do and think about what you do. Even buying green products is easy these days because supermarkets

and discount stores carry products that are better for the environment, whether it’s cleaning products or humanely raised pork. It may cost a little bit more, but it’s an effort to make an extra step that’s important.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUS-TAINABILITY AND ORGANIC?

Sustainability has nothing to do with organic. When you talk to traditional European growers, especially wine-mak-ers, they’ll tell you for them to try to do completely organic wines can be extremely expensive and risky. They need to produce a crop every year because if they miss a vintage, they’re in trouble. So, for a wine-maker, [sustainability] doesn’t mean that they have to do all of the applications of pesticides available, but if there’s something that their crops need, like getting rid of mildew on the plants, then there’s a certain amount of manipulation that may need to occur only to have a successful crop. But, keep in mind it’s done minimally and responsibly so the end result is not over-the-top affected like we would get with indus-trial farms. For example, I’m in the wine business and I prefer European wines because so many of them produce sustainably, meaning with little manipulation and only as much as they have to use to get a successful crop. So, sustainability doesn’t necessarily mean organic.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SLOW FOOD PHILADELPHIA

In April, the Philadelphia Chapter is doing the Slow Food story and we’re inviting local businesses and organiza-tions to table at the event, like Greensgrow Farm, PASA, and Urban Farmers. We’ll present an awareness aspect to this event. We’re calling it Terra Madre Day and it’s just a way of us bringing in a half dozen organizations that are doing the right thing that you can check out before you go see the movie. WINTER/SPRING 2015 11

“I’ve had people ask me whether Slow Food is the opposite of fast food, or if it’s eating slow. It’s not any of that. It’s a matter of getting people to remember where their food comes from and how their food is produced. It has a lot to do with quality and sustainability”

Joe Brandolo,President,Slow Foods Philadelphia

SUMMER 2014 1512 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

MARCH 2015 $25

Eco-friendly / Green / Natural Wines Tasting & SeminarMarch 25 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmThe Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College 4207 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104Slow Wine was a transformation that evolved because rating systems judged wine by their flavor profiles without consideration for how the wines were being produced. Slow Wine’s evaluation team visited the wineries to confirm the growers practices. Eco-friendly can refer to grapes grown organically, bio-dynamically, or sustainably. All wines are “natural” so a non descriptor that generally refers to the use of low or no sulphites, a necessary stabilizing agent used in many foods, highly regulated, and a very small… (read more here)

APRIL 2015

Celebrating Terra MadreApril 29 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pmThe Rotunda 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104Movie Screening “The Slow Food Story” a documentary following the founding of the move-ment by Carlo Petrini, in a town in Northern Italy, that has now spread around the world. We are inviting Urban Farming Organizations from around the region to man tables so if you are looking to volunteer or join a CSA here is your chance to meet leaders in our region. We will follow the movie screening with an onstage Q & A Forum discussion. (read more here)

MAY 2015 $25

Herbs and BeerMay 6 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmThe Restaurant School at Walnut Hill- College 4207 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104Tickets go on sale in April. We decided to merge two seminars in one. Since it is garden-ing season we decided to have an herb growing seminar but since that was not enough we have asked Victory Brewing to join us and taste some of their beers, particularly their herb infused beers. This one should sell out quickly so stay tuned! (read more here)

EVENTS CALENDAR

learn more at: www.slowfoodphilly.org

#beesAdventures in Beekeeping: One Sweet Afternoon

By Kelly Vass learn more at: www.slowfoodphilly.orgWINTER/SPRING 2015 13

BEEKEEPING

For three months of the year, Don’s brain is pre-occupied with nectar flow, the critical period between April and June when flow-ers and nectar sources are in bloom and the weather is favorable for bees to for-age. While many parts of the country get a fall flow as well in September and October, Pennsylvania is not as lucky. Philadelphia’s bees collect the majority of pollen and nec-tar in April through June so Don continually checks on “the girls” to make sure they pro-duce enough honey to last the winter.

Nectar is high in water content. To create honey, bees beat their wings, creating heat in the hive and evaporating water in the nectar. Amazingly, bees know exactly when the nectar has dehydrated enough and be-gin capping the cells with wax to preserve the honey for winter when water levels drop below 14%.

Because of Philly’s botanical history and the plethora of patio & rooftop gardens, com-munity gardens, parks and weeds grow-ing in the city, there is no single source for nectar. Therefore, Philly’s honey can only be classified as wildflower honey. Still, this makes for an ideal situation, as the biodiver-sity provides for a complex array of flavor notes and colors within the comb.

In fact, this range of vegetation also makes urban honey taste better than honey from

the suburbs. In Don’s experience, the mani-cured lawns and smaller variety of flowers, results in honey flavors that are one-note.

“Philly is a natural smorgasbord for the bees. When I see an empty lot filled with dande-lions, I do a jig!” he says, his face lighting up with a smile. “Honey is like wine. There are so many nuances and subtle notes. The fla-vors change with each harvest, even from frame to frame.”

Don recalls how his first year saw hot sum-mers and resulted in floral notes that, as he put it, “punched you in the face.” The following year was especially rainy and the bees’ honey reflected the mellow weather, producing a smooth, buttery honey with evenly balanced notes.

With so much talk about flavor notes and viscosity, I was anxious to try some of the golden elixir I had heard so much about. I had come to the Southward/Queen Vil-lage Community Garden to see the hives and taste some honey, but to do so, I had to pass muster with Don’s mentor, Carolyn Scott.

When Don introduced Carolyn, she exhaust-edly walked over and plopped down in a lawn chair next to him, letting out a sigh, as if we were inconveniencing her.

When asked what advice she would give

beginner beekeepers, she gruffly retorted, “Don’t start.”

Carolyn began working with bees eight years ago when the beekeeper at the com-munity gardens announced he could no longer take care of the bees.

“I thought it would be a challenge,” she re-calls, shaking her head. “I had no idea what I was getting into.”

Without much instruction, she was left to figure out beekeeping on her own, includ-ing learning to repair broken frames and treat bees for diseases.

In addition to navigating these problems, Carolyn had another battle with the bees themselves. A self-proclaimed control freak, she learned early on that bees are unpre-dictable.

“They’re far from consistent. They can either be exciting or frustrating, depending on the week they’ve had and depending on the week you’ve had.”

As she opens up about bees, her demean-or changes. “They’re fascinating creatures.” She smiles. “They are one of the most so-phisticated societies known to man—they have a hierarchy of labor, nurse bees, work-ers, foragers, drones, the queen and even undertaker bees.”

If anyone knows about bee character, it’s Don Shump. As owner of the Philadelphia Bee Company and head beekeeper at Greensgrow Farms, he has managed over 40 hives in West Philadelphia, Queen Village, Kensington and Old City for the past six and a half years.

Whether he is lecturing at the Free Library, answering questions of passing children or inspecting his beloved hives, he talks about the bees as if he knows each one individually. Female worker bees comprise roughly 58,000 of the 60,000 bees in a hive. As the burly beekeeper shakes bees off of frames, he coerces gently, “Off ya go, girls!” When he adds a new box to the hive for comb-making, he challenges, “C’mon ladies, let’s see what you can do!”

14 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

She pauses for a moment and then asks, “Do you want to help us harvest honey?” Within minutes, I am wearing a netted hat, silently assured that I have received Caro-lyn’s coveted approval.Don and Carolyn inspect the hive, looking for brood and making sure it is deemed “queenright,” meaning that the queen is alive and laying eggs.Don and Carolyn inspect the hive, looking for brood and making sure it is deemed “queenright,” meaning that the queen is alive and laying eggs.

The honey house is a wooden shed on the property of Southwark Bella Vista Commu-nity Gardens. At center stage is the star of the honey harvesting operation: the extractor, a shiny circular metal vat that is bolted to the cement floor. Frames are pulled from their boxes and uncapped by running a hot blade over the wax hon-eycomb to open the cells. Don attempts to use the blade before it is completely heated up and it stutters across the comb like Morse Code. After a few moments, it reaches the appropriate temperature and honey bubbles across the blade. A trail of smoke singes through the air wafting car-bon through the small space.

Next it’s onto the forking. An ordinary household fork is scraped quickly across the surface of any sunken cells, ensuring that every last drop of honey is extracted from the comb.

Finally, the frames are placed vertically in the extractor, ready to take a spin. The ex-tractor uses centrifugal force to draw the honey away from the comb and onto the sides of the machine. Therefore, it is vital that the frames are placed evenly as to not damage the cells. Comb is just as valuable to beekeepers as honey because bees consume eight pounds of honey for every one-pound of wax they make.

When the frames have been checked, Car-olyn bestows upon me the highest honor: I get to start the extraction process. I turn the dial to 10% of the extractor’s speed, creating a gentle whirring as the frames be-gin to spin. Anticipation builds as the dial turns to 20% and the whirring gets louder and faster. Then 30%, 40%, 50% and finally, at 60% we are at the fastest speed Don and Carolyn have ever spun. Even more im-

pressive, within a few moments, a stream of viscous liquid gold has begun to make its languid descent out of the spout at the bottom of the extractor: the honey harvest has begun!

As the machine keeps spinning, more hon-ey is forced out at a time and it must be strained as it is collected in a bucket. I sud-denly find a spatula in my hand.

“Get to work,” Carolyn smiles.

As the comb spins, pieces of cut comb fly against the walls and find their way out the spigot. My spatula slowly scrapes the hon-ey around the strainer, pushing clear honey through the tiny holes toward the vat of deep amber below.

Comb-filled, honey-laden frames spinning in the extractor at 60% speed

Comb-filled, honey-laden frames spinning in the extractor at 60% speed

The entire process takes roughly an hour to harvest from two boxes, each contain-ing 10 frames of comb. Harvests generally take place in late summer, but because the weather has been so warm, Don was able to take honey. Temperature is important as warm temperatures make for less viscous honey and less viscosity makes for a quick-er spin in the extractor.Don recounts a time where he spent 3 hours to get one spin of honey on a 72-de-gree day. “After the first spin, I took the rest of the frames to the car and cranked up the heat to get them more fluid. I burned a lot of gas, but saved a ton of work!”As Don turns off the machine with sticky fingers, the moment I have been waiting for arrives. I dip a spoon into the freshly strained silky liquid and have my first taste of pure, sweet gold. The fresh honey had a deep flavor with floral notes and a burst of raspberry flavor that danced on my tongue. This was liquid bliss worthy of the risk of a hundred beestings, a ten mile bike ride up the hills of East Falls and a 90 de-gree afternoon spent in long pants and a beekeeper’s hat.

As a long day comes to an end and the sky begins to match the golden ombre tones of our newly harvested honey, I ask Don what advice he would give to aspiring bee ten-

ders, he jovially answers without hesitation. “Beekeeping is prooobably the coolest thing you can do. It’s a blast. I highly recom-mend you get into it.”

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

WINTER/SPRING 2015 15

Alum Chef Patricia Mulvey, Founder and Owner of Local Thyme, explains the innovative ways

that she is working with local CSA’s.

By: Kelly Vass

16 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

When it comes to eating lo-cal, Wiscon-s i n - b a s e d chef Patri-

cia Mulvey is an expert. As the founder of Local Thyme, she provides her local community with information, recipes and re-sources to make the most of their Community Supported Agricul-ture (CSA) memberships.

Though Mulvey did not origi-nally start her career working in food, she has always had a pas-sion for educating others. Prior to founding her company, she was a teacher and an education admin-istrator for ten years. When she decided she wanted to make a ca-reer change, she enrolled at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College to help her on her path.

Within a few months of working in a restau-rant kitchen, however, Mulvey realized that the life of a line cook was not for her and explored the world of personal cheffing.

“I realized that (as a personal chef), it would be constantly creating recipes and I’d have flex-ibility in my schedule. It was a perfect fit for me.”

Mulvey says that she also loved the creativity and personal touch that being a personal chef afforded her. Many of her clients were families looking for variety and hoping to be exposed to different ingredients and cuisines. There-fore, Mulvey is constantly tweaking recipes to fit the individual needs of each client.

In fact, the idea for a CSA recipe service came out of her years working for a busy family. The couple had just recently welcomed a baby into their family and had fallen behind on using their CSA share boxes. As she was about to prepare a meal one day, she discovered garlic scapes, potatoes and tomatoes all ready to rot because they were not stored properly. Though it was a ton of food to work with, Mulvey could not bring herself to only cook the four servings of three meals she normally made for

the family. Instead, she cooked everything in the house. It made so much food, in fact, that she filled their refrigerator, freezer and even had to bring some home to store in the freezer at her own house.

The family was incredibly thankful for Mul-vey’s thoughtful culinary gesture. She recalls, “When my clients got home that day, they were so happy and said, ‘You should just tell people what to cook! We had no idea there were this many ways you could make beets or this many uses for a potato.’”

At that moment, Mulvey got the idea to build a website where she could provide recipe ideas

for CSA members based on their shares each week. Using recipes from her two cookbooks, The Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook and the Farm Fresh & Fast cookbook as starting points, she set out to create a site focused on vegeta-ble-centric seasonal recipes to help members make the most of their CSA bounty.

As her business grows, Mulvey says she has a diverse blend of clients who utilize the Local Thyme service—anyone from open-minded, skilled home cooks hoping to expand their culinary horizons to novice cooks looking for easy recipes to families who want to get a sim-ple dinner recipe on the table fast.

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The novice cook tends to be environmen-tally minded and excited to be a part of a CSA, but has little experience. As Mul-vey notes, “They need basic instruction, but also tend to be trendier and into the latest diet whether it be vegan or paleo. That in turn makes me push myself when it comes to recipe development, because these are the largest group of my custom-ers.”

Additionally, families utilizing her site present an entirely different set of needs. For families with two incomes and young children, they are often looking to Local Thyme as a way to make their lives a lit-tle easier. Mulvey describes this group as “looking to try to get dinner on the table that is healthy, easy to make and that the kids will love.” Because the two largest groups of her clients are utilizing her site for completely different reasons, it is important for Mulvey to create different variations of recipes and ingredients to fit the needs of both groups. For example, for one week, she may create a recipe that is kid-friendly, one that uses every ingre-dient in the box, and another that is part of an ethnic cuisine.

Making multiple recipes each week is not the only challenge Mulvey faces. While the boxes usually include familiar, us-able ingredients, there are some weeks when the shares include a disproportionate amount of one kind of ingredient or particularly chal-lenging ingredients. One such box involved a variety of radishes.

“[The box] had plenty of ingredients that are easy to cook with, but it also had two daikon radish, two black Spanish radish and a beauty heart radish. I used the daikon radishes and beauty heart radishes in bahn mi sandwiches and grilled cheese and radish sandwiches. I personally am not a fan of black Spanish rad-ish, however, and I find it to be too close to the spiciness of horseradish. I decided to treat it as if it were horseradish and grated it into sour cream, served it with steak and put it with lox and bagels.”

Being forced to work with several varieties of the same ingredient also forced Mulvey to think differently about how to utilize ingredi-ents. By playing on the horseradish flavor of the black Spanish radish, she was able to use it in an entirely new way that she may not have thought of if it was the only ingredient in the share.

This culinary creativity also manifests itself in boxes where there is a disparate amount of one particular ingredient. For example, this past summer, Mulvey had to get creative with a share featuring ten pounds of kohlrabi. Rath-er than resorting to tried-and-true recipes, Mulvey thought about kohlrabi in a new light when developing new recipes.

She says, “It was that surplus of produce that led me to experiment. It made me curious as to how I could preserve the bounty of the harvest, which is not normally something I’m con-cerned about in the second week of the CSA… Because I had so much of it, I was forced to be creative in a way that I might not normally be.” With the kohlrabi, she made kimchi, an egg salad-style kohlrabi sandwich and a creamy kohlrabi dip that she took to a party.

When asked where she gets her inspiration, Mulvey says without hesitation, “I get a lot of my inspiration from reading cookbooks. I read them like novels!” She cites a few cookbooks as being her favorites, the first being Sheila Lukin’s The New Basics Cookbook, for being a straightforward, simple book with informa-

tive charts and guides on vegetables, various cuts of meat and fish. In a similar vein, she also recommends her own book, The Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook, for culinary students to check out. It features an alphabetical list of vegetables that grow in the growing region spanning from New England down to Phila-delphia and up to the upper-Midwest as well as basic descriptions with storage tips, cook-ing tips, history, fun facts and recipes. Lastly, she recommends Rick Bayless’s The Mexican Kitchen for its detailed, well-written set of au-thentic Mexican recipes.

Mulvey also credits Walnut Hill College with providing her with the opportunity to work with cookbook authors and give her the skills necessary to develop recipes. Aside from teaching her cooking basics, she says that her time at WHC gave her countless opportunities to cook in the community and network with great chefs. She had the opportunity to work with Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, and Sara Moulton through the now-defunct Cook the Books event in Philadelphia. Mulvey made the most at her time at WHC by participating in any opportunity that came her way in order to get experience and urges students to get in

volved. She says, “In addition to volunteer prep opportunities, I also took advantage of reci-pe contests on campus. It really helped me to hone the process of creating a recipe. I would urge students to take advantage of these kinds opportunities.”

Mulvey also suggests getting involved with a CSA as a great way to gain experience and in-depth culinary knowledge. “Almost every farm I know has a worker’s share where you can come to the farm for a few hours a month and you go out, get your hands dirty and do what-ever chores need to be done on the farm and you get a box of produce as compensation.”

Volunteering on a farm with a CSA is not only a great way to reduce the cost of membership, but it provides a great way to learn about farm-ing and individual ingredients. Mulvey says it’s a great way to learn where your food it’s com-ing from and when and how it tastes its best. Her advice? “Try kale before the first frost and try it after the first frost and notice the differ-ence in taste and its flavor profile. You’ll also learn which vegetables can freeze and thaw out and which ones cannot. Knowing all of that is going to be a useful tool as you go out and plan

menus and learn to manipulate the product to turn it into tasty food.”

If volunteering is not in the cards for you, there are still plenty of ways to afford a CSA share on a student budget or limited income. Many CSAs offer payment plans, which allow members to pay in increments, rather than all at once at the beginning of the season. Mulvey cautions against being deterred by the initial price-tag of a membership, as it is actually quite affordable.

“I think a lot of people hear $400 and they think it’s too much money but they’re not breaking the cost down by week and looking at how much they would spend at a grocery store.

With a well-stocked pantry of pasta, dry goodsand some herbs, supplementing with a CSA can be a very economical choice.”

Lastly, she recommends students explore the creative possibilities of CSA involvement, es-pecially for those looking for employment af-ter graduation. Many CSAs hire chefs to feed the workers lunch or do recipe development, so it’s a great opportunity for students who are looking for non-restaurant jobs in the industry. As Mulvey says, “From a chef perspective, it’s a perfect opportunity because you’ll not only be getting paid to cook, but you’ll have access to the freshest most perfect produce! Plus, you’ll get to work with growers who are passionate about their food and learn how to prepare it and experiment with it.”

Learn more at www.localthyme.com.

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PENNYPACKFARM.ORG/CSA-MEMBERSHIP HIGHLANDCSA.CSAWARE.COM/STORE/CSALANCASTERFARMFRESH.CSASIGNUP.COM

KIMBERTONCSA.ORG/INDEX.HTMLLANDISDALEFARM.COM

PHILLYFOODWORKS.COM

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LOCAL CSAJOIN A

Eat Local

As a newcomer to the Philadelphia Food & Beverage event scene, PHL Industree has quickly made a name for itself with an exciting and thought-provoking calendar. The Philadelphia branch of the rapidly growing event-based brand “cultivates a community of seasoned industry innovators, future trailblazers and everyone in between to provide the connections, tools and real-life advice that make opportunities possible,” as the Industree site explains.

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College’s Marketing team along with a number of our current students, had the pleasure of attending a recent event called “Launchology” on February 23rd. We had the opportunity to hear indus-try-specific content from leaders in the food & hospitality industry as well as those who make the scene happen here in PHL. Here is our account of what was said and who said it...

LAUNCHOLOGY 2015FEBRUARY 23RD

20 www.walnuthillcollege.edu

By: Valery Snisarenko

The first question of the day, posed by moderator, Philly.com producer, and “Table Talk” columnist, Michal Klein was “How many of you are currently in the Restaurant Industry?” Suddenly, the

room exploded with nearly 70 hands in the air and, unexpectedly, groans spread throughout the crowd like wildfire.

Admittedly, the addition of the next ques-tion, “How many are looking to get out of the industry?” left me a bit puzzled as a number of hands shot up like they were giving away free lunch tickets. I was con-fused. Why would all of these “industry” people be here and simultaneously be looking to get out of this fabulous indus-try? Suffice it to say, a few hours later and a book full of content richer, I understood one essential and fundamental require-ment for success in the all-consuming food & beverage industry, passion is not enough, you need knowledge! Launchol-ogy certainly delivered the knowledge.

The event brought together leaders in the Philadelphia food industry and included panelists like Marti Lieberman of the Mac Mart Truck, Rob Keddie of Garces Group, David Robkin of Honeygrow, Kristopher Serviss of Blue Duck Sandwich BYO (Alum of TRS@WHC), Nicole Marquis of Hip City Veg, Vincent Stipo of a.bar, Jason Brooke of Zavino, Dave-Roger Grovesnor, Doug Green of MSC Retail, Ed Eimer of Eimer Design and Alice Cheng of Culinary Agents. The panelists were divided into categories depending on their special-ty, namely, Real Estate (& Legal), Design & Build, and Operations. The first panel dealt with Real Estate and Legal issues and included Rob Keddie, David Rabkin, and Doug Green.

“The Philly food scene is as good as in any other place in the country. But you need to bring your A game...Rittenhouse does not need anymore ‘farm to table’ restau-rants,” said Doug Green of MSC Retail, a group responsible for real estate con-cepts, strategies, and solutions for the world’s leading retailers, restaurants, ho-tels and developers (www.mscretail.com).

Doug is alluding to the importance of a concept in restaurant planning. “You have to ask yourself ‘who is my customer and who is coming through the door? Yes, you want to cook with your heart BUT, you have to make sure that your food match-es the neighborhood [where you plan to open].’”

Rob Keddie, Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer and General Counsel of the Garces Restaurant Group, adds that with over “2.6 million square feet of retail space coming to Philadel-

phia in the next year,” restaurateurs need to keep their eye on competition and be mindful of concept planning when decid-ing to open in the city.

In fact, Keddie candidly urges restau-rateurs to “have something to say. Have a concept. Have something unique and new. Don’t make a new version of Ama-da or Parc because they will fail.” In ad-dition, restaurateurs have to figure out what they are passionate about and what they are willing to say 7 days a week -

“You can’t be ev-erything to every-body. Be realistic,”

declares Keddie with passion and enthu-siasm.

But as I figured out during this event, pas-sion is not enough and when asked about the all-too-important issue of location, Keddie went on to make a strong case for the importance of finding the right professionals in the industry to guide you along the path of opening a restaurant, particularly an accountant, a lawyer and a real estate professional.

To add to the importance of real estate, Green mentions that despite the common misconception, “real estate is literally the last step of opening a restaurant.” In fact, he calms the audience by clarifying that for the most part landlords do not go into details regarding partnership agree-ments, as long as they get their rent and the company is backed by investors with enough capital to see it through, land-lords will not be a problem.

Moreover, Green warns us that although “broker” has become a “dirty” word in recent times, the importance of hiring an attorney and a broker who know the restaurant industry as well as the city is vital. As he mentions, “they [brokers] know what is going on [in the industry] and who pays the rent!.”

Among the other topics discussed was the weight of “culture” on the success of a restaurant brand. And while David Rabkin, Co-Founder and President of Honeygrow conveys the importance of culture for any restaurant, Keddie counters that “if you want your venture to be scalable, then culture is important, but if it is only one location, it will function as it functions.”

To close out the panel, Rabkin, shines light onto what is probably the best explana-tion on why so many people in the room were groaning about being in the restau-rant industry in the first place --

Photos courtesy of Twitter #Launchology

“sometimes Chefs don’t want to deal with the business side, but that is what separates the men from the boys!.” Amen.

Continued on page 24

WINTER/SPRING 2015 21

Something noteworthy is happeneing in West Philadel-phia. An organization has been growing and helping as-piring young and minority entrepreneurs break through the barriers of entry into the food and beverage indus-try. This organization helps by providing a safe and af-fordable haven for young and able minds to work on their ideas without the hassle of paperwork and the fi-nancial burdens of rent. This organization is also an ac-tive leader in the community, spearheading programs for minority leaders, youth, scholarship, business devel-opment and education and much more. This organiza-tion is, of course, The Enterprise Center in West Philly.

Recently, a group of Walnut Hill College students had the pleasure of touring the facilities at The Enterprise Center and speaking with their leadership about the available services and benefits the Center offers young entrepreneurs. Here is an account of the trip from one of our Culinary Arts students, Rebecca Schwartz.

ABOUT THE ENTERPRISE CENTER

THE ENTERPRISE CENTER MISSION STATEMENTFounded in 1989 by the Wharton Small Business Devel-opment Center, The Enterprise Center (TEC) provides access to capital, building capacity, business education and economic development opportunities to high-po-tential, minority entrepreneurs. Through our portfolio of business-acceleration initiatives, TEC seeks to better position minority enterprises to compete in the local, regional, and global economies.

THE ENTERPRISE CENTER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONThe Enterprise Center Community Development Corpo-ration’s mission is to build vibrant neighborhoods where low income residents in the economically distressed section of Walnut Hill neighborhood of West Philadel-phia are willing, able, and organized to achieve their common goals. 22

By: Valery Snisarenko

LIST OF UPCOMING SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SCHOLARSHIPS http://www.bestvalueschools.com/entrepreneurship-scholarships/ entrepreneurship-scholarshipsSince start-ups are vital parts of a healthy economy that provide new jobs, consume goods, and generate more revenue, many orga-nizations are now offering entrepreneurship scholarships to help new innovators keep America out of recession. No matter how far along you are in starting your own business, there are several scholarship options available to reward your cre-ativity, ambition, and entrepreneurial spirit with free money for college. If you’re looking to lower the financial burden of your degree, below we’ve highlighted 20 of the most lucrative scholarships for future entrepreneurs that you should pitch to yourself.

AFCEA YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR SCHOLARSHIP Deadline: May 1stThrough the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), a Young Entrepreneur Scholarship program was created to provide $2,000 to stu-dents aged 40 or under who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree while employed by a small business. All applicants must be at least second-year students, be enrolled in an accredited U.S. institution, carry a minimum overall GPA of 3.0, and exhibit entrepreneurial talents. With the application, candidates should attach an official transcript, a letter from their current small business employer, and a letter from a faculty member displaying their potential as an entrepreneur.CONTACT - AFCEA Young Entrepreneur Scholarship4400 Fair Lakes Court | Fairfax, VA 22033(703) 631-6174 | smallbusiness@afcea.org

CEO OF TOMORROW SCHOLARSHIP Deadline: June 1stWith the intent of being a source of inspiration for future chief executives, the CEO of Tomorrow Scholarship is awarded each year for $2,500 for outstanding college students interested in entrepreneurship and/or business leadership. Eligible appli-cants must be legal residents of the United States, be at least 18 years old, have current full-time enrollment in an accredited university, and compose a 600-word original essay describing their entrepreneurial talents. All potential winners will be required to submit an affidavit of eligibility, publicity release form, headshot photograph, IRS Form W-9, and copy of their driver’s license digitally.CONTACT - CEO of Tomorrow Scholarship772 East Utah Valley Drive | American Fork, UT 84003

DR. DENNY KO FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS SCHOLARSHIP Deadline: March 21stIn honor of his contributions in promoting venture capital investments and man-agement consulting services to many Pacific Rim communities, the Dr. Denny Ko Future Entrepreneurs Scholarship was created in 2003 by the Southern California Monte Jade Science & Technology Association (SCMJ) to award up to $3,000 an-nually. The scholarship is open to all Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepre-neurs who are graduating high school seniors, full-time undergraduates, graduate students, or young professionals. Along with the application, applicants must cre-ate a four-page essay or business plan describing how their innovative products/services can help better the economy.CONTACT - Dr. Denny Ko Future Entrepreneurs Scholarship2870 Zanker Road | San Jose, CA 95134(408) 428-0388 | scholarship@scmj.org

GRASSHOPPER ENTREPRENEUR SCHOLARSHIP Deadline: April 30thSince its inception in 2003, the Grasshopper Entrepreneur Scholarship has grant-ed $5,000 annually to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to afford rising costs of college education and trek down the road to entrepreneurship. All current college students or incoming freshman who are enrolling full-time in an under-graduate or graduate degree program at an accredited American college are wel-come to apply. Candidates must submit a 500-word original essay free of typos discussing what the greatest barriers are for entrepreneurs starting businesses today and their plans for overcoming these to become successful.CONTACT - Grasshopper Entrepreneur Scholarship197 First Avenue Suite 200 | Needham, MA 02494(617) 395-5700| scholarships@grasshopper.com

GREENPAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEUR Deadline: May 30thAs an evergreen scholarship funded each year for $2,000, the GreenPal Scholar-ship for Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur is designed to assist motivated, driven college students who will utilize their entrepreneurial spirit to become future CEOs and leaders. Applicants must be currently enrolled or accepted into an accredited college of business, maintain a minimum overall GPA of 3.0, have full-time enroll-ment, and demonstrate a clear desire to be an entrepreneur. With the application, students must attach an official transcript, a letter of support, and a 1,000-word essay describing their current or future plans for starting a business.CONTACT - GreenPal Scholarship for Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur1312 5th Avenue N Suite 108 | Nashville, TN 37208(866) 798-4485 | scholarship @yourgreenpal.com

Enterprising Entrepreneurs Find A Center. By Rebecca Schwartz, Culinary Arts

We all need help getting our foot in the food & beverage industry door; The Enterprise Center does just that - they help open the doors for en-trepreneurs and small businesses alike. Located at 4548 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, the Cen-ter was built in an abandoned supermarket, and turned into a growing facility with four commis-sary kitchens. The Center offers a wide array of opportunities that help lessen the threshold of small time restaurateurs into the corporate realm.

The Enterprise Center rents out each kitch-en incubator for $30 per hour. Every kitchen is equipped with standard appliances such as ov-ens, mixers, etc., however, utensils and specialty equipment are at the renter’s expense. And, in case you are wondering, you must also provide your own food! Renters may also rent storage cages at $36 per month at the facility. The cages may contain equipment, dry storage, refrigerat-ed or frozen items, allowing you to get started as soon as you enter the kitchen - no heavy lifting or unloading required!

The reality is that many people who want to be in the food business do not have a venue of their own, and, their home kitchen is not made for mass production. The Enterprise Center solves this problem by providing professional kitchens for those who are serious about getting ahead. Another invaluable benefit is that the Center has a Commercial Cooking License, which also cov-ers anyone who uses their facility. This means that all of the people who cook in the commis-sary kitchens are able to sell their food to the public as well as other vendors at any time. Cur-rently, those who take advantage of this perk are catering companies, food truck vendors, bakers and those selling pre-packaged goods.

The Enterprise Center, as part of their mission, is also integrated into the West Philadelphia com-munity. Along with renting out their facilities, they are a host to many corporate events, class-es, filming opportunities, and also have a com-munity farm.

Recently, the Center even started a fellowship program called ‘The Common Table”. Those who are enrolled in the fellowship get to showcase their own concept by running a pop-up restau-rant in-house. What’s great is that the Center has all of the legalities, rent, overhead and stor-age taken care of before you even step through the door - and there’s also the added benefit of industry advice from staff and fellow restaura-teurs.

In summary, The Enterprise Center helps entre-preneurs and small business owners break down the doors that block their path to success. 23

The second panel focused on my person-al favorite: build & design. Admittedly, I obsess over each element of a restaurant experience, from the flowers to the floor-ing - and don’t get me started on the re-strooms! As they say in the world of hos-pitality - if the bathroom isn’t clean and tidy, imagine what the kitchen looks like!

Panelists Nicole Marquis, Ed Eimer, Kristo-pher Serviss (WHC Alum) and Dave-Roger Grovesnor provided insight into the de-sign and build process of the restaurant business - and the one thing that they all agree on was the importance of help and guidance from industry professionals.

As in the first panel, the level of knowl-edge that industry-specific professionals bring to the table cannot be matched and should not be short-changed. Kristo-pher Serviss was very vocal in saying that when it came time to design and build his Blue Duck Sandwich BYO in Northeast Philadelphia, he knew that to get the job done right he couldn’t cut on costs and had to reach out to Dave-Roger Groves-nor, a man that each of the panelists called “their walking Bible.”

Dave-Roger Grovesnor is undoubtedly an interesting man. With an air of confidence that can only be expressed by someone who has “been there and done that” (in the Philadelphia world of building per-mits and licensing), he explained that to get the job done right and to avoid prob-lems down the road, restaurants have to ensure that all codes are met during the building phase.

Nicole Marquis of HipCityVeg vehement-ly confirms Grovesnor’s recommendation. After spending nearly four years on the business plan, financing and design, she also alloted a year just on the build of her first location on Chestnut and 18th Street. She shared that although her space is rel-atively small (under 1000 sq ft.) - it pro-vided a lot of great design opportunity.

Being a perfectionist, Marquis urges the audience to spend as much time as pos-sible on their business plan. Perhaps her most significant piece of advice for aspir-ing restaurateurs is this: “Many investors are more interested in investing in the person, not necessarily the

idea alone.”

Therefore, investors are looking for in-dividuals who are motivated, organized and know what they are doing first and foremost.

The final panel discussion was perhaps the closest to my little marketing heart; it dealt with operations and branding. Pitter Patter. Pitter Patter.

Panelists Marti Lieberman, Founder and

Operator of the Mac Mart Truck; Vincent Stipo, Service Director and Beverage Manager at a.bar; Jason Brooke, Gen-eral Manager at Zavino (all locations), Madison Alpern, Product Specialist at The Chef’s Garden and Alice Cheng of Culinary Agents, led an intense and inter-esting discussion on staffing challenges, branding, social media and even told us about their favorite Philly restaurants.

First addressing Alice Cheng of Culinary Agents, a networking and job matching site for food, beverage and hospitality professionals, Michael Klein started the conversation on staffing and the general outlook for the Philadelphia Food & Bever-age industry.

While Cheng expressed a positive fore-cast for the industry as a whole, citing an increased number of job opportunities in the area (as well as nationally) and an increase in the talent pool. Jason Brooke and Vincent Stipo were less enthusiastic regarding staffing. As managers at their respective restaurants, both agreed that finding true professionals of high caliber is very difficult, especially for the front of house. Brooke was particularly vocal in that the hardest thing is to find some-one who will match the 110% that he ex-pects from all of his staff members, from back of house to hostess. He explains that when employees see their job as a placeholder for another career while they are in college, their heart and motivation are never fully into the job they are do-ing. And with most of his staff currently in college, especially at the University City location, finding dedicated and serious staff employees who are all in is extreme-ly difficult.

On the flip side of the staffing equation, Stipo adds that even good employees can be an issue when managing, in that

“the hardest person to manage is the best employee. That is the first person that is going to leave your restaurant.” Therefore, managing your best employees means you have to be mindful of their needs for opportunity and their stakes in the suc-cess of the restaurant operation, mak-ing sure that your employees are always learning and moving up. For example, Brooke suggests rewarding staff for ex-cellent service and allowing them to try new restaurants with earned gift cards so that they can be knowledgeable in the food industry and scene in Philadelphia.

Madison Alpern of the Chef’s Garden and a guru on creating lasting relationships within her industry, adds that “if the chef is passionate, the front of house will be as well. If the chef is not passionate, the front of house won’t care.” In other words, ev-

ery employee, from the front to the back of the house, has to be passionate and knowledgeable in order for the restaurant to be a success. The food is only a small part in the equation for a good restau-rant, especially in a foodie town like ours.

Food and service are not the only things that matter when looking for eternal suc-cess - branding is key. As a marketing pro-fessional, the hard reality is that food and service can be spectacular, however, if no one knows you exist and where they can find you, you will never reach your po-tential. Marti Lieberman of the Mac Mart Truck is a marketing professional turned food truck owner, and a great one at that. She uses social media as the primary way of getting in touch with her custom-ers and growing awareness for her brand. “Social media is the best way to get in touch with my customers. Hashtags are very important as well as customer pho-tos,” Lieberman adds. Her Mac Mart truck is a buzz name in the Philadelphia food truck scene as a result of her emphasis on public relations; in other words - building relationships with her customers (public).

However, with that said, aside from the commonly used social media tools that restaurants and food trucks employ to promote their brand, another social me-dia tool, powered mostly by users, exists and is not a favorite among our pan-el - YELP. Yep, that’s right, Yelp is not a favorite. Most of the panel admits that they have a love/hate relationship with the customer review site, going as far as saying that it can “eat at your soul.” But, one man, the ever-so-brave Jason Brooke finds that Yelp is a helpful tool for him and his staff in that it provides an oppor-tunity for growth and improvement. He admits that he likes reading the reviews and knowing where Zavino stands in the minds of his customers. Brooke is all about customer service. In fact, he claims that he is never offended or annoyed by customer requests at the restaurant.

“A customer can want marsh-mallows on their pizza and I will go across the street to get them marshmallows for their pizza. If they don’t like it, I will comp their meal. Watching someone leave happy. That is why we’re in this industry.” Well said, Jason, well said. And that, my friends, is why we are all here and do this job. Amen.

An in case you are wondering about favorite restaurants from our panelists: CheckoutTownsend, High Street On Mar-ket, Vernick, Abe Fisher, Zahav and any-thing by Marcie Turney & Valerie Safran!

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Continued from page 21

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Have You Heard?

Alum Pastry Chef Jessica Nolen and husband Jeremy Nolen of Brauhaus Schmitz in South Philly, have co-authored a highly anticipated cookbook, named New German Cooking: Recipes for Classics Revisited, the guide to contemporary Teutonic cuisine. The book is available online and in stores.

Two former Chef Instructors of Walnut Hill College, Mark Bellini and Stephen Latona, recently competed on the hit CNBC show “Restaurant Start Up”. Chefs Latona and Bellini presented their concept for a wood-fired rotisserie chicken restaurant called “Smoke Kitchen” and were able to secure an investment from Tim Love. The restaurant is looking to open soon in Malvern, PA. Way to go Chefs!

Walnut Hill College is once again excited to partner with Philadelphia Magazine for their Wine + Food Festival on May 5, 2015 at the Lincoln Financial Field. Alumni Get In Free - Contact Us!

One of our favorite alumni, a successful entrepreneur and Q102 Deejay, Rocco Cima, has opened a new location for his popular Fuel Restaurant Chain in Ardmore, PA. Congrats, Rocco !

Walnut Hill College is happy to join Philly Wine Week on 3/25/15 with a special event including 8 wines, 4 courses in our Great Chef’s dining room. $55 per person, $99 a couple.

PHILLY WINE WEEK EVENTS: : Wednesday, MARCH 25, 2015 Select From Two Options:

A special event for Philly Wine Week: an exceptional wine and food pairing compe-tition among students of Walnut Hill College. They will search the world for the best wines while our Chef de Cuisine creates a tailor-made 4-course menu to match. Each course will feature a wine tasting from each competing team and while you dine they strive to persuade you that their particular selection is the winner!

Enjoy 8 wines, 4 courses in our stunning Great Chef’s dining room. $55 per person, $99 a couple including all taxes and gratuities. Cocktails at 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm.

Eco-friendly / Green / Natural Wines Tasting & Seminar7pm to 9pm, $25 cost. Seating is limited so purchase advance tickets here.

Slow Wine was a transformation that evolved because rating systems judged wine by their flavor profiles without consideration for how the wines were being produced. Slow Wine’s evaluation team visited the wineries to confirm the growers practices. We will taste 8 examples; 4 whites and 4 reds that use these principles in the grow-ing of their grapes and the making of their wines and explain them so you can deter-mine for yourself how to use that knowledge to make sensible choices. We will serve cheese provided by a local producer and fresh bread made at The RestaurantSchool’s Bakery to complement the wines. Read More: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1375144

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, 4207 Walnut Street & 4100 Walnut Street Building Off Street Parking available at their Main Campus building at 4207 Walnut Street.LOCATION & PARKING >

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College4207 Walnut StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19104

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Where AreThey Now?

Justin BogleCorporate Executive Chef, Garces GroupPhiladelphia, PA

Maryann BrancaccioChef/Owner, augustPhiladelphia, PA

Dean DandridgeChef de Cuisine, Aramark Citizen Bank ParkPhiladelphia, PA

Tracey DecschaineOwner, Dixie PicnicMalvern, PA

Carmen DifogioChef, Solebury SchoolNew Hope, PA

Richard DiPietroExecutive Chef, Riverstone CafeExton, PA

TyNesha HillsFondant Decorator, Oteri's BakeryPhiladelphia, PA

Joe StewardChef/ Owner, Crux CafeAudubon, NJ

Michael GriffithsChef/Co-Owner, HelmPhiladelphia, PA