Seventy-five Years and Still Getting Better

By John Kinsella, CMC, CCE, WGMC, AAC

It seems very funny to me as I write this article that The National Culinary Review is only seven years older than I am. Unfortunately, as we progress through the years, we sometimes forget what got us here.

In so many of my monthly messages we talk about the graying of our federation and the consequences if we do not recruit young, vibrant members. We should always remember our senior chefs, who have given so much, not only to us but to our profession. In reality, they are why we are here.

One of our senior chefs told me how certification began in ACF, quite a wonderful story of the hard work and diligence of those members who believed that certification would be the path of the future. Even the story of how we built our first headquarters is amazing; just imagine--that building was built by students from St. Augustine Technical Center. This story, and many others that reported on the early days of the American Culinary Federation, appeared in The National Culinary Review. Many of our senior chefs contributed these articles, as well as articles on techniques and setting the standards that would eventually be part of our certification program, accreditation, the national culinary team and many culinary trends.

During their careers our senior chefs took a leadership role in every aspect of the life of the American chef and the members of ACF. Before the Chef & Child Foundation was thought of, they were out there working to raise money for charity. Looking through the old Reviews I see members, who are now senior chefs, who raised and contributed millions of dollars to many charities. Even in the work environment of the day, with its long hours, they went forth and performed stellar community service to help those who were less fortunate than they were. I truly wish that we could archive all these stories electronically, because it's truly our history and where we came from and what we are today.

Each era that the Review was published reflected the times and the changes we were seeing in our industry. For instance, when we look at pictures of ACF Culinary Team USA garde manger from the 70s, 80s and 90s, we see a remarkable change in design and structure over the years, specifically, new techniques and smaller portions. Another story that the magazine tells through the years is the wonderful achievements that a lot of our members have gained through hard work and perseverance, giving up a lot of their personal time to enable us to learn and grow. Yes, the writing styles have changed, and we no longer have officers writing monthly articles, but the Review continues to report on food trends and styles, and feature recipes and innovative techniques. From a magazine that was published using all volunteers to write the articles and lay out the pages, we have come a long way. We have moved from a part-time editor to a full-time editor, added a student magazine, Sizzle, and brought in-house talented graphic designers and a strong writing staff to help the Review grow.

Again, we must look back and be very grateful from whence we came. A great magazine reflects the past, present and future, and, looking at my 75th-anniversary poster, it humbles me to think of all the hard work that so many of these talented people put in to make the Review what it is today. When you open up your next issue, just remember that its success depended on ACF members and staff who dedicated their lives to the American Culinary Federation.

So, happy birthday, NCR, and thank you, my fellow senior chefs and all the past editors and staff who gave so much to the American Culinary Federation and The National Culinary Review.