News about Baking, Pastry & Culinary Arts

How better for students studying global cuisines to learn about cooking with truffles, the “black pearl” of the food world, than from an Italian chef who serves as an ambassador for the product?

Italy is one of the world’s top exporters of truffles. It is also the destination for a new global experience course at the college.

On Sept. 16, with the help of Audio/Visual Services, students in the Global Cuisine and Connections course connected with Chef Fabrizio Facchini, a brand ambassador for Urbani Truffles. Facchini, executive chef of several properties in New York City, has earned acclaim in both the U.S. and Italy, where his Antico Borgo was recognized in the Michelin Italy Guide.

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When Pennsylvania College of Technology students began classes Aug. 16, those in baking, pastry and culinary arts majors already had their hands full as they work to fill the stomachs of the teams participating in the Little League Baseball ^® World Series, held just a few miles from the Penn College campus.

The college’s Le Jeune Chef Restaurant is the new provider of dining services inside the secure team housing area at the Little League^® International complex, known as the Dr. Creighton J. Hale International Grove. Because the casual fine-dining restaurant is a live-learning lab for the college’s baking, pastry and culinary arts majors, students are heavily involved in the experience.

From Aug. 13-30, the college expects to prepare more than 12,000 meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner – for players and coaches each day during their stay in Williamsport.

Both Little League® and Penn College are following all appropriate COVID-19 safety recommendations to support the dining accommodations of the Little League World Series participants.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology baking and pastry arts faculty member Chef Charles R. Niedermyer II recently presented an education session for Retail Confectioners International’s 2021 Annual Convention & Industry Expo.

RCI bills the sessions as “thought-provoking education led by experts in their fields and crafted to meet the unique needs of the retail confectioner.”

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This summer, Pennsylvania College of Technology culinary arts students are pleasing palates with fine food during internships near and far from home.

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A celebration of life will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 21, for Chef Judith P. Shimp, a former associate professor of hospitality management and culinary arts, who died July 27 in Philadelphia’s Albert Einstein Medical Center at the age of 67. Shimp was a member of the college faculty from September 1984 until her retirement in June 2011. The service, preceded by an hourlong visitation, will be at Montoursville Presbyterian Church, 900 Elm St., Montoursville. A full obituary can be found on the website of the Spitler Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements.

Penn College’s “My Tomorrow” program (June 21-24 and June 28-July 1) opened middle-schoolers’ minds to a variety of vocational possibilities through hands-on activities and faculty-led sessions. The initiative, sponsored by the Soars Family, exposed students to a number of prospective careers – such as engineering, business and hospitality, the arts, and health sciences – as well as giving them a jump on charting their paths to success and satisfaction.

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George “Herman” Logue Jr. and George Logue III recently donated an entire brewing system and accessories to the brewing and fermentation science program at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The equipment, which represents the functional design of large industrial brewing systems, will be used by the college for instructional purposes in its brewing & fermentation science certificate major.

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More than a half-dozen Pre-College Programs attracted a knowledge-hungry host of teenagers to Penn College’s campuses in recent days, the season opener for high schoolers’ exposure to next-level academics. Campers were engaged and enlightened among the week’s bountiful offerings: Architecture Odyssey, Automotive, Aviation, Engineering, Future Restaurateurs, Health Careers and Information Technology. A second week – inviting more students to test the waters of collegiate opportunity through hands-on learning – will begin July 18.

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The nation’s longest-running major sporting event – the Kentucky Derby – ran for the 147th time May 1, and 24 Pennsylvania College of Technology students were on hand in the kitchens of historic Churchill Downs to lend their culinary skills.

While Penn College hospitality students’ work at the Kentucky Derby has been a tradition for more than 25 years, the students were unable to attend the 146th running of the Derby in 2020, when, due to the pandemic, it ran without guests in the stands in September instead of its traditional time slot on the first Saturday in May.

The students were grateful to return in 2021.

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In two very different Pennsylvania College of Technology labs, students share a similar focus. Both are using science, technology and the skills they’ve honed to develop new ways to practice their crafts.

In Chef Frank Suchwala’s Introduction to the Modernist Kitchen course, culinary arts students add science and technology to tried-and-true techniques to create new ways of presenting food. In Spring 2021, they added new tools made in a lab two buildings away.

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Penn College students and faculty, returning to Churchill Downs to prepare high-end meals for hungry Kentucky Derby crowds this week, attracted news coverage by the Louisville, Kentucky, NBC affiliate.

WAVE3 aired and posted a story detailing the work of Chef Charles R. Niedermyer, instructor of baking and pastry arts/culinary arts, and his students – in concert, yet again, with David Danielson, executive chef. (Danielson has worked for years with Penn College students during Derby Week, and was on campus in 2016 as part of the Visiting Chef Series.)

“It’s so important that this is the only event we’ve done this year,” Niedermyer said. “We’ve canceled and not committed to anything else, but the college was committed to sending the students to the Kentucky Derby. It’s one of the top sporting events in the world. And for my students, it’s an opportunity to see a level of food production that you just can’t comprehend unless you’re here.”

Two retired faculty members at Pennsylvania College of Technology – each with decades of service to the institution – have been granted “emeritus” status.

The Penn College Board of Directors on Thursday authorized the faculty emeritus designation for Eric K. Albert, associate professor of automated manufacturing and engineering, who began his employment with the college in 1991, and Chef Craig A. Cian, associate professor of food and hospitality management/culinary arts, who started with the college in 1985. Both men retired in 2020.

“Eric and Craig’s expertise and selfless commitment have created countless long-term opportunities for our students,” said Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic affairs/provost. “Their mission focus and efficacy, coupled with genuine care and concern, brought out the best in our students and colleagues; we will always be grateful for their efforts and accomplishments. Congratulations, Dr. Albert and Chef Cian.”

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It was a “pig deal” in Jersey Shore on Saturday when chef and TV personality Brian Duffy visited Bald Birds Brewing Co. to headline the craft brewery’s BaconFest. Joining Duffy as he butchered a whole pig, grilled and smoked it, and served samples for eager attendees were Penn College culinary arts technology students Palin J. Hurst, of Gardners, and Charlie M. Suchanec, of Tyrone.

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The first of this month’s three Spring Visit Days was held Saturday, giving prospective students a comprehensive peek at Penn College while adhering to pandemic-imposed limitations on attendance. (The Admissions Office will host additional visitation events on Saturday and Sunday, April 24-25.) Attendees began their day with check-in and a presentation in the Klump Academic Center, followed by lab tours in selected academic areas. Optional activities added to participants’ feel for the breadth of life on the vibrant and verdant campus: housing, financial aid, tutoring and other academic support, athletics, placement testing, advisement and scheduling, student organizations, disability services, veterans benefits and dining options. More information about visiting campus is available by contacting Admissions.

When the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association called on its collegiate partners to provide virtual lessons for future culinarians in its high school program, Pennsylvania College of Technology chef/instructors answered – and high school teachers are grateful.

Designed to be used when schools must shift to remote learning, Penn College faculty developed lesson plans and produced more than a dozen videos, with support from the college’s Educational & Emerging Technologies Office.

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