Winter LRA Education Foundation ProStart Instructor training underway at LCI

Lawyers and accountants have a certain number of continuing education credits to complete each year in order to stay licensed in their chosen fields. The same process applies for Louisiana's ProStart instructors. The second of two training days held annually by the Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation (LRAEF) is underway at the Louisiana Culinary Institute (LCI) in Baton Rouge.

Baton Rouge's Beausoleil
Chef Owner Nathan
Gresham discusses
Restaurant Trends: Farm
to Table in Louisiana
during the ProStart
Instructor Winter Training.

Thirty-four ProStart instructors, representing 83 percent of Louisiana’s ProStart programs, are participating in this one-day professional development workshop, aimed to demonstrate the latest culinary techniques and business applications from professional chefs and culinary educators in preparation for the Spring semester and the LRAEF ProStart Student Competition, March 5-6, 2013 at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.

Educators take the learned material back to their classrooms and apply it directly to their students’ lessons.

The topics being discussed include: “Restaurant Trends: Farm to Table in Louisiana,” with Chef Nathan Gresham of Beausoleil Restaurant in Baton Rouge; and “Foodservice Industry Spotlight: Meeting Dairy Needs in the 21^st Century,” with Jeff Kleinpeter, president of Kleinpeter Farms Dairy. Rounding out the day’s program will be hands-on demonstrations on plating composition and design; and piping buttercream and modeling marzipan from chef instructors at LCI.

Jeff Kleinpeter covers
Meeting Dairy Needs in the
21st Center during the
ProStart Instructor
Winter Training.



“The LRAEF, through this training program, is continuing its mission to educate those instructors, who, in turn, will pass this vital information to their students,” said LRAEF Executive Director Alice Glenn. “We are grateful that we have such a distinguished group of restaurant industry professionals willing to share their expertise with our ProStart programs.”

The Louisiana ProStart program is grateful to its partners: Diamond- Auto-Chlor Services and the Louisiana Hospitality Foundation; Platinum- Performance Foodservice Caro; and Gold- Louisiana Culinary Institute, Ocean Conservancy and Atmos Energy.