Pure Noble
PROFESSION
a and
The Chef Professionalism Award defines who and what we are.
By Costa Magoulas, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC, MHA
Russell Scott, 2011 Chef Professionalism
Award winner, is congratulated by
Douglas McGohan, corporate chef with
Nestlé Professional.
The National Culinary Review | September 2011
68
My all-tiMe favorite ACF honor
is the Chef Professionalism Award. This
tribute is given to the chef who exemplifies
the highest standard of professionalism
through certification, continuing education
and training, culinary competitions and
community involvement. Each year it honors
a culinarian who helps elevate the status of
chefs and cooks in the United States, and
this year, that culinarian is Russell Scott,
CMC, WGMC, executive chef at Isleworth
Golf & Country Club, Windermere, Fla., a
member of ACF Central Florida Chapter.
our profession really is. This year’s finalists
continued this grand tradition: Anthony
Danna, CEC, AAC, executive chef, Edgewood
Downs Retirement, Beaverton, Ore., a
member of ACF Chefs de Cuisine Society of
Oregon; Charles Gipe, CEC, AAC, executive
chef, Hershey Entertainment Complex,
Hershey, Pa., a member of ACF Harrisburg
Chapter; Scott; and Mark Webster, CEC,
CCE, AAC, executive chef, New Theatre
Restaurant, Overland Park, Kan., a member of
ACF Greater Kansas City Chefs Association.
then the full impact of what I would be
doing hit me: I would be writing about the
winner of one of the American Culinary
Federation’s most prestigious awards.
The award defines who we are and what
we are as a profession. The quality of the
candidates each year reaffirms how special
PROFESSIONAL TO THE CORE
Thinking about the approach I should use
to write this article to make it an interesting
and meaningful piece weighed heavy, and
I found these meanings of “profession” in
Webster’s dictionary: a calling requiring
specialized knowledge and often long and
intensive academic preparation; and the
whole body of persons engaged in a calling.
Now I was getting somewhere, and I started
thinking about our profession. It dawned
on me that we all belong to a pure and
noble profession, pure because we get our
satisfaction from pleasing others and noble
because what we do can affect people’s lives
forever with memories that last a lifetime.
