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Sun Valley Culinary Institute Recruits Top Dogs in the Food World
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Saturday, September 15, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

An award-winning chef and culinary educator and a recognized leader in the hospitality industry have agreed to oversee the new Sun Valley Culinary Institute.

Chef Chris Koetke, vice president of World Chefs and Feed the Planet, and Paul Hineman, CFO of the award-winning First Watch Restaurants, Inc., will join hands to oversee the new institute which is scheduled to open to the public in May 2019.

The culinary institute, first proposed five years ago, is a not-for-profit, community-sponsored business model that will offer a one-year technical certificate for aspiring chefs who will serve an apprenticeship, earning as they learn.

It also could include food camps for kids, evening cooking classes open to the public, celebrity chef events, wine tastings, new food events and seasonal classes. It is expected to bring in $600,000 in revenue by year five, said Harry Griffith, who heads up Sun Valley Economic Development. And it’s envisioned that it will provide staff training for Sun Valley Resort.

“This is something the whole community can benefit from,” Griffith told those attending the quarterly meeting of SVED at the Ketchum Innovation Center Wednesday night. “We’re not talking about running a restaurant. We’re going to be focused on education programming, not on being competitive with restaurants.”

Griffith said such high-ranking leaders as Koetke and Hineman were able to be recruited because of an Allen & Co.-type food conference that brings in the top chefs and financial CEOs for restaurants to Sun Valley, Griffith said.

  • Chris Koetke, who stars in the Live Well network’s “Let’s Dish,” has a resume so long that you would never get around to eating his Chicken Paprikash or Chocolate Mousse Cake if someone was introducing him at a state dinner.

“Chef Chris,” as Griffith calls him, has a B.A. in French literature from Valparaiso University, an MBA from Dominican University and a Certificat de la Langue Francaise.

He began cooking professionally in 1982 at local restaurants in his hometown of Valparaiso, Ind. Following employment at Chicago’s L’Escargot on Halsted, he traveled to France where he worked in some of that country’s finest restaurants, such as Pavillon Elysees, Pierre Gagnaire, Taillevent and Pierre Orsi. He studied at L’Academie du Vin and with L’Association des Sommeliers de Paris while there.

Upon returning to Chicago, he became executive chef of Les Nomades restaurant and was voted Chef of the Year by the Chicago chapter of The International Food and Wine Society and national winner of the Mapleleaf Duck Competition.

He’s a noted ice carver and has consulted for such companies as The Pampered Chef, Todd and Holland Tea Merchants and the Soyfood Council. He founded www.ChefTalk.com and was a contributing editor to “Chef,” “Fancy Food,” “Culinary Education Today” and “Local Palate.”

He filmed more than 150 video segments that run in more than 5,000 Albertson’s stores and has filmed educational videos for the Idaho Potato Commission and other food councils.

He has traveled to numerous countries learning about various culinary traditions. But he is adamant that young chefs back home should look to their own culture to understand the food heritage that America’s regions boast.

He is also chairman of Feed the Planet, a Worldchefs Initiative that champions sustainable food consumption by cutting food waste and encouraging the use of ingredients grown with respect for the earth and its oceans. The organization, founded in 2012, also supports people in need through emergency relief, food poverty alleviation and education.

Certified as an executive chef and culinary educator by the American Culinary Federation, Koetke has served on the education committee of the World Association of Chefs’ Societies. He also served for 10 years on the American Culinary Federation Foundation Accrediting Commission.

He received the inaugural Award for Excellence in Culinary Education from the Foodservice Educators Network International in 2010, and he received the World Chefs’ Education Award in 2016.

He has been serving as executive director of the Culinary School at Kendall College, among other things.

  • Paul Hineman has served as executive vice president for the National Restaurant Association, the largest food service trade association in the world. Prior to that, he held positions with Cracker Barrel and Planet Hollywood International.

He also serves as an advisory board member for Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research, the Food and Beverage Leadership Exchange and the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

A handful of locations are being considered for the Culinary Institute, including the Cornerstone Bar & Grill and Globus. Hineman is already an investor in the shuttered Elkhorn Springs restaurant, noted Griffith.

A campaign to raise $500,000 to jumpstart the endeavor will start this month or next. The curriculum will be developed in November and December, and key faculty will be hired in January and February. The institute hopes to finalize its first bunch of students in March and start classes in April and May.

Part of the fundraising will go to pay scholarships so culinary students pay $4,000 to $5,000 tuition versus the $20,000 they might have to pay elsewhere.

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