Fake Chefs, Invisible Chefs, & Student Chefs As Props

Eater reports that students from a Johnson & Wales Food Management Services class will be prepping and serving meals on Jefe's Original Fish Tacos and Burgers Truck as part of their Food Truck Restaurant Experience assignment. So far so good, but the notice goes on to note that there will be a "select audience of invited guests and media." Excuse me? These students are paying thousands of dollars to get an education and are instead being used as props in a promotion for the school? The media presence will surely be a distraction from the learning process. This is just a PR ploy by Johnson & Wales to try and convince folks that it's keeping up with the times - when everyone knows that it is not. If the school board is serious about becoming relevant, a better way might be to hire chef/instructors with knowledge of the contemporary dining scene.

From shameless promotion to shameless self-promotion: At last night's Iron Fork event, which was really lots of fun, Adrienne "The World's Fakest Chef" Calvo took to the stage (as a shill for Panda Kitchen) and, once again, impersonated a chef. As soon as she left the stage, Ms. Calvo could be seen hovering with the camera person while checking that the footage came out well. It really should be illegal for people like this to put on a chef jacket.

Doug Rodriguez had to drop out of being a judge at the Iron Fork contest because of "prior commitments". You would think running a brand new dining establishment, along with two others, might be what was meant by "commitments", but it was not. Maybe D-Rod was hanging out in Key West with Norman Van Aken, wondering why their restaurants aren't doing better.