Oct 21, 2020 – Brilliantly orchestrating task flow in a kitchen or a classroom is a tall order. When your kitchen is a college classroom and you must do both simultaneously to educate the next generation of culinary professionals, a master conductor is needed. The American Culinary Federation (ACF) recently named Chef Jennifer Denlinger, Ph.D., CCC, CHEP, Culinary Management department chair at Florida’s Valencia College and six-year member of the Orlando Balliage of Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, as their 2020 Chef Educator of the Year.

Through her participation in Chaîne, Denlinger was awarded a Bronze and Silver Star of Excellence in 2016 and 2017 respectively. She is also a Charge de Presse Provincial Hon for the Southeast.

“On behalf of all Chaîne des Rôtisseurs members and Balliages, I congratulate Chef Denlinger on her recognition from the American Culinary Federation as their 2020 Chef Educator of the Year. As the world’s oldest international, gastronomic society, Chaîne sponsors young chef and young sommelier competitions and our Chaîne Foundation awards scholarships to students studying in those fields. It’s exciting to call the Chef Educator of the Year one of our own and we look forward to our continued support of students studying hospitality arts and young culinary professionals as they commence their careers,” Bertrand De Boutray, Bailli Delegue des Etats-Unis, said.

Jennifer has invited her students to attend Chaîne events with her so they can experience the culinary world they are entering.

“It gives me great pleasure to see Jennifer win the ACF’s Chef Educator of the Year award. It’s wonderful that someone who has been active within Chaîne’s Young Chef Program has achieved such a prestigious award, especially with all of the wonderful chefs who are part of the ACF. She is a model for all young chefs to follow,” Reimund Pitz, Conseiller Culinaire et des Professionels des Etats-Unis, said.

Valenica College is also proud to have Chef Denlinger as a faculty member and one of their own.

“Chef Jenn, as we all call her, has an amazing ability to combine her love for cooking with educating our future chefs of America using creative and fun techniques that keep students engaged and inspired,” Jennifer Robertson, executive dean of Valencia’s Poinciana Campus, said in a college press release. “I am extremely proud of all her accomplishments and particularly her most recent award of Chef Educator of the Year.” Valencia’s Poinciana Campus in Kissimmee is where the culinary program is offered.

There are no shortcuts to authentically motivating students to learn just as there are no shortcuts to flawlessly executing exquisite culinary experiences.

Chef Denlinger has mastered both Herculean tasks through her 14 years of teaching experience, first at Le Cordon Bleu and then for the last four years at Valencia, and her years of experience as a chef at many Disney World restaurants.

In an August 18th telephone interview with Chaîne, Jennifer said she has a busy fall teaching a full schedule of classes at Valencia, which will be delivered virtually. She has lessons ready to go in Food and Beverage Cost Control Management; Food and Beverage Management; Food Safety and Sanitation; and Restaurant and Foodservice Management.

Due to the pandemic, Valencia has altered their course offerings so more classes can be taken virtually in the fall and courses with a lab taken in 2021 as COVID-19 hopefully wanes.

In her Food Safety and Sanitation course, there is extensive content to learn so Professor Denlinger decided to add an element of fun. She developed an “Escape Room” activity in which students must find and answer a series of clues in her kitchen classroom in order to escape the room, in a figurative sense as there is not a locked door that opens once all of the clues are found. Her Escape Room clues reinforce course content. For the final clue, students either open a jar of candy or a jar of dried beans depending on their answer. It’s not a surprise this class is very popular with Valencia students!

For her education excellence, the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education (CAFE) recognized Jennifer with their 2020 Innovation Award, sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission. Many CAFE members are high school instructors so Jennifer offers them access to a Dropbox account where they can download her PowerPoint presentations and learning activities, a generous gesture that took on added value as high schools closed last spring due to the pandemic.

Jennifer said the pandemic has been a mixed blessing. On the positive side, she has been refining her curriculum. “It’s given me time to refine things that I can so that way, when we’re ready to go again, it’s going to be a horse out of the gate; full speed ahead for the best possible educational experience that we can offer,” Jennifer said during the Chaîne phone interview.

In the meantime, she and her fellow professors are busy adapting their curricula for the online environment by making coursework available to students through Valencia’s learning management system.

ACF Chef Educator of the Year award

In April 2020, the ACF notified Jennifer she was selected from seven entrants to represent the Southeast Region in the national Chef Educator of the Year competition.

To avoid canceling the competition when their in-person convention was not possible, the ACF cleverly crafted a digital competition.

Jennifer mailed a thick binder, with seven sections of pertinent information, to four judges. After obtaining clearance to be on campus, she held a live demo for the judges on July 8, 2020 from her kitchen classroom. Andy and Victor, her IT team, came through with flying colors. They set up four cameras and a computer to live stream her 45-minute demo via Zoom.

Three judges watched as she made Chicken Chausseur, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots oblique cut and broccoli buerre noisette. To mirror an actual class, she introduced the concept of peer review, an effective pedagogical strategy she incorporates when she instructs her students to make the identical menu.

Without any technical glitches and just an errant drip as she was plating a dish, Jennifer took a deep breath when it was over. “We cleaned up and came back home. Of course, I spent the entire night second guessing every little thing I did,” Jennifer said.

Through another Zoom session the next day at noon, Jennifer received some suggestions but overall, excellent feedback on her demo. Yes, the judges noticed the drip!

Signing off Zoom again, she was told to connect again at 1 p.m. to hear the results. “I paced the living room for a little bit,” Jennifer said.

At 1 p.m., Jennifer, three other regional competitors, the judges and ACF officials virtually reconvened. They declared  Chef Jennifer Denlinger the winner. “I took a big sigh of relief,” Jennifer said. And then she had to keep it a secret for one month!

Since the announcement has been made public, Jennifer has received requests for her curriculum and to sit on boards and panels. What the new year will bring is unknown. But she does know she is at the “tip of the iceberg” of educational ideas she wants to develop into lessons to implement in her classroom.

Chef Denlinger is a master conductor.

Not many people have prestigious hats gracing their closet shelves as Jennifer does. When it’s time for graduation exercises at Valencia, she grabs her doctoral tam to top her doctoral robes. When it’s time for a culinary educational event, she grabs her toque blanche as conductor of her culinary orchestra of students. Whatever hat it is, it’s hats off to Chef Denlinger!