A team of five students from The Culinary Institute of Michigan (CIM) in Muskegon, a division of Baker College, recently were named central region champions at the 2018 American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) annual Baron H. Galand Culinary Knowledge Bowl, held March 18-20, 2018 in Newport Beach, Calif. The CIM Muskegon team bested more than 10 other teams from schools and ACF Chapters throughout the ACF Central Region, on their way to the Central Region Championship title.
The ACF Knowledge Bowl is a “Jeopardy”-style trivia competition with questions covering topics such as nutrition, baking, culinary math, safety and sanitation and the arts of classical and modern cooking. By securing the central region team championship, the Muskegon student chefs have earned the program’s first national appearance opportunity and will compete against teams from three other regional winning programs in New Orleans this July.
The winning student chefs, all Michigan residents, include: Tanya Duzey of Clinton Twp., Jennifer Thompson of Macomb, Rachelle Murphy of Grand Haven, Wiesam Shamaoun of Jones and Stanley Mersino of Spring Lake. The students were coached to victory by Adjunct Chef Instructor, Amanda Miller, CC, CPC.
“We are thrilled with our Muskegon team’s grueling run to Knowledge Bowl regional victory,” said Chef Tom Recinella, CEC, AAC, HGT, Baker College’s Dean of Culinary. “This is the first National Championship appearance for CIM Muskegon students, and we’re all very excited to watch them compete this summer as one of the top four culinary Knowledge Bowl teams in the U.S.”
In addition to the CIM Muskegon ACF Central Region Knowledge Bowl Team Championship, student chefs from the CIM Port Huron campus also earned recent honors, sweeping the Culinary Arts and Commercial Baking categories and earning state championships for a third consecutive year in the SKILLS USA Post-Secondary State Cook-Off, where the program also placed in the Restaurant Service category for a third straight year.