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OPA News Release: [06/06/2008]
Contact Name: Leni Fortson or Alisha Brown
Phone Number: (215) 861-5102 or x5101
Release Number: 08-0748-PHI

U.S. Labor Department’s Job Corps culinary students from 5 states and D.C. to compete for ‘iron chef’ title at the 2008 culinary arts expo in Philadelphia

20th Annual Culinary Arts Expo marks launch of partnership with Chefs for Humanity

PHILADELPHIA — Eighty aspiring chefs enrolled in the U.S. Department of Labor's Job Corps will travel to Philadelphia to participate in the 20th Annual Culinary Arts Expo June 16 through June 20. The week-long event will be held at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, 2300 Market St., from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT daily.

Sixteen teams representing 14 Job Corps centers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and the District of Columbia will compete for the iron chef title, professional culinary tools and a chance to demonstrate how to prepare the winning meal on a local television show.

During the competition, each team will have three hours to prepare a meal of nine servings, create a decorative centerpiece and present these to a panel of professional judges. Teams will be judged on food preparation and knowledge, taste, sanitation and overall presentation. After the judging, guests and professionals from the food service industry will be able to observe and taste the food.

"The culinary arts expo is a great opportunity for our students to gain recognition for their extraordinary talents, expand their skills and market themselves to potential employers," said Lynn Intrepidi, Job Corps' regional director in Philadelphia. "Competitors will participate in workshops in vegan cooking, food carving and sushi preparation."

Local celebrity chef Brian Duffy from Kildare's Irish Pub and The Food Network's Robert Irvine will join this year's slate of judges as representatives of Chefs for Humanity, an alliance of culinary professionals and educators working in partnership with U.S. and global organizations to provide nutrition education, hunger relief and emergency aid to reduce hunger across the world.

Co-hosted by the culinary chefs and students from the Wilmington Job Corps Center in Wilmington, Del., the expo will mark the launch of a major partnership between Job Corps and Chefs for Humanity, through which Chefs for Humanity will train Job Corps culinary students across the Northeast Region as Every Kid C.A.N.™ (Culinary Awareness Now) educators. The training will equip the students to deliver a curriculum to their local communities. Chefs for Humanity developed the program to support families in making better food choices by learning to prepare easy, nutritious and accessible meals at home.

The Job Corps is the nation's largest and oldest federally-funded job training and education program for "at promise" youth ages 16 through 24. With 122 centers nationwide, the program enrolls approximately 60,000 new youth each year in more than 100 career areas including the culinary arts. For more information, call 800-733-JOBS (5627) or visit jobcorps.dol.gov.