National Culinary Review

GIVING BACK BY MICHELLE WHITFIELD

Being a member of ACF Culinary
Team USA is more than just enhancing
skills to be successful in international
competition. It’s about sharing
those experiences with other chefs
and helping to raise the standard of
culinary skills for all.

competition team won the 2011 ACF Student Team National Championship, and the 2011 ACF Student Chef of the Year, Aaron Guajardo III, was a student at JJC. “I try to instill in them the same passion for food and the field that I have, while encouraging them to create a philosophy of their own,” Bucci says.

Timothy Bucci, CEC, CCE, CHE,
associate professor at Joliet Junior
College (JJC), Joliet, Ill., lives this
mission with his students every day.
“When you reach a certain level in
He and his students recently
volunteered their time to participate
in Love Your Veggies™ Lunch Break
for Schools, raising money to support

“You come to a point where
you need to give back
what you have learned.”

Gold Supporters

your career through competing, work experience and so on, you come to a point where you need to give back what you have learned,” he says.

PHOTO CREDIT: J.C. Oesch

As an educator, Bucci has improved
and enhanced his skills and knowledge
through competition during the past
11 years. Every competition and every
Team USA practice session gives him
more information and more experience
that he can share with his students.
“I want my students to understand
that learning should never stop and
you should strive to improve yourself
every day,” he says.

Bucci has passed the skills learned
from being a member of Team USA
to his students, and the results speak
for themselves. The JJC culinary
the Chef & Child Foundation’s
involvement in the Chefs Move to
Schools program.

While focused on winning gold at the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung, or “culinary Olympics,” in Erfurt, Germany, Oct. 5-10, Bucci and other team members continue to mentor, teach and share their skills. But, Bucci says, “Without the support of my wife, none of this could ever happen. She is behind me 100%.”

JOIN ACF Culinary Team
USA for a live cooking
demonstration at the Dogwood
Festival 2012 in Dowagiac,
Mich., Friday, May 18. For
more information, visit
www.dogwoodfinearts.org.