New York Guild of Chefs

Congratulations to

Chef Robert Ellinger

Winner of the Medal of the French Government

At the Salon of Culinary Arts of the

Societe Culinaire Philanthropique

Dear Chef. That was awesome. I was so proud of you and Chef Sal. Its the greatest to experience success with your family. There is nothing better then being part of Sal’s success. He has a great teacher and an even better dad. You bring family into baking. Please tell Sal WOW the piece is gorgeous. SOOO clean. Great job.

Needless to say I have been receiving emails all day below you will find a few I cut and paste for you. The whole crew is very excited for Sal and you! You both have a lot of new fans! 

Chef Mary Sydor..

I thought it was moving when they mentioned the fact that Chef Biagio was calling his son “Chef” and how important that title is to Chefs.  What an amazing piece - Congratulations!  

From: Klumpkin8

I saw the Team Settepani on Food Network tonight. They really did a wonderful job. The competition was very tough but they won. It was very touching to see father and son working together so smoothly. I enjoyed every minute of it. - Heloisa

 Watched the Food Network and was happy to see Sal and Biago….Win. What incredible work….so clear and beautiful. Beth Parvu

 Dear Chefs Biagio & Sal, Congratulations on another amazing accomplishment. Your work is truly amazing. God bless you as you share your passion in the pastry world and inspire many. Sincerely, Theresa

I saw it at 3 am and had to keep myself from screaming I was so excited.  It was a beautiful piece.  There was such symmetry, between father and son, in the execution of it. Not only was it a beautiful piece to see but it was also beautiful to watch it in the making.   Congratulations to Chef Sal and Chef Biagio on a most excellent job.  Tuesday Jordan

Last night’s Challenge was so incredibly awesome!  Not only was the sugar piece so clean and impeccable, I was so taken up with the relationship of father and son.  I have observed this during our classes and am awed by the bond and respect shared.  That is the biggest gift of all and it is very inspiring.  Wonderful, wonderful people with extreme talents!  It is an honor to know them.  So exciting, congratulations!! Suzanne Powers

Hi Chef Mary, I watched the Food Network Challenge last night and it was a very good show. I especially like the team-up of Chef Biagio and his son Chef Sal. They showed not just their amazing talent but a very good example of professionalism and respect as a father-and-son team. Can you please extend my Congratulations to the both of them? Thank you, Carmina

Congrats & to Chef Sal & Chef Biagio, you went up against the best & did a fantastic job!!! That’s the way to do it - Kim Arnold

Congratulations to you and your all your family Chef Sal and Chef Biagio.  As a parent there is no better joy than to be able to share such a wonderful accomplishment with your child. Sal, your show piece was beautiful!!!  Congratulations - Jennifer Manganaro

Our annual Scholarship Fund “American as Apple Pie” Picnic was held at Manorhaven Park in Port Washington. One of the highlights of the day is the Cookoff/Bakeoff Contest which includes the Cake Decorating Contest. It also included our 2nd annual cream puff eating contest. One came to capture the title that elluded him last year.

The 2009 cake decorating theme was “Carnivale/Mardi Gras

 Congratulations to Monica McEvoy who graduated from the Notter School of Pastry Arts on June 26, 2009. 

Notter School of Pastry Arts graduation June 26, 2009

   

Class Speaker

 

The Student and her Chef.

 I am currently working with Chef Notter on applying for jobs and hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to send some more good news back home to you all! In the meantime however, I am actually going to be working at the school, which I am very excited about, because I miss it already! So I don’t have any immediate plans on coming back to NY right now, but I promise to keep you posted!

Monica writes:

Here are some pictures of what I made this week. I started with the orange flower (mini) sculpture. Then I did the clown and the swan sculpture is the most recent. Chef Notter is a great teacher - he just explains it in a way that takes all of the mystery out of it! I will send you pics of what we make next week too!
 
I did see the pics of the piece that the baking 2 student made. That is awesome! I bet they had so much fun! It looks like you covered a bunch of techniques in that piece! Is the school going to let you keep doing sugar as part of the permanent cirriculum? Any talk about doing chocolate? I know there were issues with the temperature of the school, but any more talk about using one of the classrooms when you do that? Also, the entremets are awesome! Between you and me, I think the school has you to thank for really bringing the program up to the next level!!!
 
We are going down to Naples and Fort Myers on Monday/Tuesday for a field trip for a tour of the Ritz Carlton and Gordon Love Confections It should be a good time! Then I have my chocolates/pralines practical on Wednesday and we get back into sugar on thursday! Busy, busy, busy — but I am loving it and starting to get sad that it is almost over!!!! I don’t want it to stop!
 
Anyways, I hope all is well! I’ll keep you informed as to what I make next week and where I may or may not be going to start my career as a pastry chef!!!
 
Monica

I am proud to inform everyone that our very own Nancy Anatra has passed her Dietary Management Test. Nancy has worked very hard this past year and deserve a big CONGRATULATIONS! I have seen Nancy go from the desk job to a true professional. I speak about Nancy, my former assistant, to all my classes. It takes courage to do what Nancy has done. She is not only a great Chef but also a great person who is always there whenever we need her. I am very proud to day Nancy was one of my former students and will always be a very good friend of mine.

Chef Mary

Hello Again!
 
I thought that I would send you an email to update you on what’s been going on since my last email last month! School is still going great and I just finished my Wedding Cakes and Specialty Cakes Course with a chef named Sally Camacho. She was a silver medalist at the National Pastry Championship in 2007 and was part of the first all female team to compete! She was a great teacher and she taught me how to do gumpaste flowers as well as give me many great tips on making, torting and stacking wedding cakes and specialty cakes! Our practical for that class was this past week and we actually had a 4-day practical. The first two days was our wedding cake project where we were randomly partnered up and had to come up with our own design as long as it was a 6″, 8″ and 10″ round stacked cake. The next two days was our individual practical where we all had to pick a blank envelope that contained a different ribbon. The challenge was that we had to make a celebration cake based on the ribbon and show our interpretation of the ribbon in our cake. It had to be a 10″ round or square cake. I have attached pictures of both of my cakes (you will see the ribbon is in front of the specialty cake that I made).
 
Things got a little bit hairy for us on the final day of practical. When we got to school, the air conditioning was broken in our classroom and all of our cakes had been left out overnight - this made the buttercream under the fondant very soft. It was 80 degrees in the classroom when we walked in, and that was at 7am, before we had all even started working! By mid morning, some of Chef Notter’s chocolate showpieces, which are arranged around the classroom for decoration, started falling apart (it was that hot!). People started taking turns cooling down for a few minutes in the walk in cooler and most of us ended up finishing our cakes in the lobby of the school! It was insanity! However, even after all of that, everyone’s cakes still came out amazing and it was really very impressive! I wish I could send pictures of all of the cakes so you could see! Many of us are still half-wondering if the broken air-conditioning was all a hoax to see how we would work under stressful conditions, but we know that no one at the school is crazy enough to risk damage to Chef Notter’s showpieces, especially when he was out of town, and they brought the repair man to fix it in the afternoon! Good thing too, because we had Vincent Pilon in for the weekend teaching a chocolate class and that would not have gone well with busted air conditioning!
 
Monday I start my new module which is Chocolates and Pralines with Chef Notter. He will be our teacher for the next 7 weeks as we go through chocolate, pastiallage and sugar, and then I graduate! I cannot believe how quickly my course has gone and that I only have 7 weeks left! There is going to be a wedding cake competition, which I am entering, that is going to be on May 15 & 16. Please wish me luck! Chef Sally and Chef Notter are going to be the head judges and they are not messing around. We got a 12 page rules and regulations packet and they are going to be judging it very strictly - as if it were a professional competition. The competition is 16 hours, over 2 days, so it’s going to be tough, but I am very much looking forward to it! I promise to keep you updated!

Monica's Wedding Cake - Voted #1 by her peers

Monica's Rose topper

Personal Practical

 
I know this email is long, so I will end it here, but I wanted to say that I miss you all and especially attending the monthly guild meetings! I’m keeping tabs on all the guild events and hope you all have a blast at the golf outing that is coming up - I hope you have enough volunteers to help you out! I don’t know if I am going to make it home in time for the picnic, but I will let you know once I know more about my future job situation! I will be in touch soon!
 
God Bless!
 
Monica

 

 

DETERMINATION

Hello Guild of Chefers.  I had just finished a national A.C.F. competition here on Long Island.  I received two bronze medals in the hot and cold desert categories and a letter of participation for my chocolate sculpture.  Grant Ripp won a bronze medal for his blown sugar swan cake.

When I was setting up my chocolate sculpture with my assistant Chris, at the table next to me was Renee Belgrado.  Renee is the Sous Chef with Fresh Flavors Caterers and a Guild of Chefs Board Member.  Renee was setting up a professionally decorated wedding cake.  The wedding cake had many different techniques such as piping, lacework, fondant work and imprinting.  The cascading rose’s showed not only complementary colors, but hundreds of petals ornately constructed.

I have watched Renee grow from working in an insurance office to a professional chef.  Renee attended the Culinary Academy of Long Island, a school specializing in change of career students such as Renee; under the tutelage of Chef Mary Sydor, whom I consider to be the mother of motivation. (Mary’s story will be a subject in a future “In My View” article.)

I have been competing in pastry competitions for some thirty years. These competitions are not for everyone.  You have to be pretty tough to keep fighting and be able to take some body shots.

Renee Belgrado showed me what blood and guts determination looks like.  Renee arrived at Barry Technical School in Hicksville (where the competition was held) probably around 6:30am to setup her wedding cake.  Then she drove back out East to work a catering event.

Renee was not there during the awards ceremony to hear she won Best of Show and a National Silver Medal.  I know chefs who have been competing for years who never won any medals, yet silver.  This is a big deal. Renee has proved to the world that she has arrived and is a force to be reckoned with.  Renee beat me and I am no spring chicken.  My sincere congratulations go out to you Renee and I consider you a true professional. 

Robert Ellinger