Food for Thought

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April 12, 2024

Culinary Enrichment and Innovation Program

The Culinary Enrichment and Innovation Program (CEIP) is a rigorous program of study designed for proven culinary professionals. CEIP is the only professional development program to offer advanced culinary leadership training specifically created for commercial and non-commercial chefs. Launched in 2008, the program was developed and is presented by The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and Hormel Foods.
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November 30, 2022

Pleasantly Persistant Podcast

Topics:- What food trends are heating up and what is cooling down among college students?- The importance of culinary inclusion and ingredient strategy- What does a good partnership look like once a brand has become a supplier?- Subject lines, follow-up cadence and cold calling (if you don’t choose “Simple Subject Line” clip)- Appropriate follow up cadence and how cold calls are received (if you choose “Simple Subject Line’ clip)- Bonus: How many emails does Matthew get a week from brands trying to introduce their product?
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November 25, 2022

Dream Kitchens

Chefs and designers dish on what their ideal workspace would and should look like – and why. Matthew Thompson is featured in an article by Amanda Baltazar of WeAreChefs.com and the National Culinary Review.
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July 20, 2022

World on a Plate Podcast

On this episode, meet Chef Matthew Thompson, co-founder and Chief Culinary Officer for Harvest Table Culinary Group, a college foodservice provider and leader in sustainable initiatives. With his strong background in the local and responsibly sourced food movement, Chef Matthew uses his menus to celebrate local food systems. Find out how he and Harvest Table are bringing food with purpose to college dining halls and rooting community through food.
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December 8, 2019

New York State Sustainability Conference

Harvest Table Culinary Group & the University of Rochester have been on a journey to create a superior model for sustainable sourcing including ingredients that are Additive Free, Responsibly Sourced, and Locally Procured and recipes that are Scratch Made and Nutritionally Balanced. Here is a summary of our work over the course of the past year.
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October 29, 2019

AASHE Conference & Expo: Spokane

More than two decades of work to promote local, sustainable and real food on campuses have transformed what it means to succeed in foodservice. There is raised awareness of the carbon footprint of meat and also how colleges can contribute to local food economies. But one thing has remained unchanged: burgers still are the most popular sandwich for students. Getting local and sustainable values between the buns remains one of the biggest opportunities in foodservice.
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August 8, 2019

ACF National Convention: Orlando

Kicking off ACF National Convention with the 2019 AAC Celebrated Chef! Chef Gale Gand is a nationally acclaimed pastry chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, television personality, teacher, entrepreneur, and mother, who has also been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation, as well as received numerous other awards and achievements. Chef Gand reveals some of the most important lessons she’s learned over her 40 years in the food business, plus her most recent favorite recipe!
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May 13, 2019

ACF Joint Meeting & Chef Showdown

The ACF Rhode Island Chapter and the ACF Epicurean Club of Boston met at Sid Wainer & Son on May 13, 2019 for the monthly meetup and Chef Showdown. Each two-chef team needed to create an amuse bouche and entree using a mystery basket ingredient and pantry ingredients from the Sid Wainer market. The secret ingredient: PORK.
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April 24, 2019

Washoku Recipe Development

The Harvest Table Culinary Group met at High Point University hosted by HPU Dining to develop recipes for authentic Washoku -or Japanese home cooking dishes. The team had the opportunity to work with premium imported ingredients as well as our curated pantry of our locally procured and responsibly sourced ingredients. We also had chefs from AIM Services in Japan teach a training session on Washoku. We heard from our Guests that Japanese cuisine is one of their favorites and they’re looking for more authentic preparations.
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March 13, 2019

Barilla Pasta Recipe Development

The Harvest Table Culinary Group met at the University of Rochester hosted by UofR Dining and Barilla Pasta this week to develop new dishes featuring Barilla Pasta. Before getting in the kitchen chefs toured the Barilla Pasta production facility in Avon, NY. The team also heard about some of the new innovative ingredients such as the red-lentil and chickpea pastas.

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March 7, 2019

Jordan Rogers, ACF Certified Executive Chef

Congratulations to Jordan Rogers from Deacon Dining at Wake Forest University, whom this week satisfied all the requirements to become a Certified Executive Chef (CEC®) with the American Culinary Federation (ACF). The Harvest Table Culinary Group has a commitment to culinary certification of those in leadership positions within the culinary brigade. Harvest Table holds a semi-annual training summit allowing chefs to learn and practice toward their selected level of certification.

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March 4, 2019

MenuDirections 2019

MenuDirections is the only culinary-focused and networking event for all noncommercial foodservice segments. Leaders focused on the noncommercial segment lead an agenda designed around the food & culinary, tech & innovation and data & analysis. MenuDirections conference is organized by Winsight, a leading B2B information services company focused on the food and beverage industry, providing insight and market intelligence to business leaders in every channel consumers buy food and beverage – convenience stores, grocery retailing, restaurants and noncommercial foodservice – through media, events, data products, advisory services, and trade shows.