Greetings from the President of ACF Tampa Bay,
I would like to reach out to all the hard-working people in our food industry. That involves all chefs, bakers, pastry chefs, servers, F&B Directors, Vendors, restaurant owners, food truck owners and operators, and anyone else who is here and working hard every day to provide food for our people in Tampa Bay, despite all the barriers that this pandemic is making us face.
People lost their job, their restaurants and many lost their homes. We talk about families that need help to have a future. We can get through this time together. Tampa Bay is our home. We are cooking in a big pot and we share it with each other. We are like a big family. We have the nicest places and beaches; we are living in a beautiful environment. Sometimes we take it for granted, but we must remember that all this is ours and we have to take care of it. No one else will come do it for us, we are the people living here, it will be up to us to get united and work together for a better tomorrow.
Christmas is upon us and this is the time when we all have to forget the negativity and reach out to build a stronger community with a positive viewpoint, remember that we can do it if we work together, we can make it better. The future of our industry is depending on us. This is the time to do something about it, not just being a spectator and wait to see what will happen.
Food always brings us together and makes us stronger, gives us energy for life. Our work is important, so we have to protect it. We do work hard because we love what we are doing, we have passion and knowledge that we can share with each other.
It doesn’t matter if you are not a member of the ACF, you are always welcomed to come to our meetings to meet and connect with other professionals of our industry who care about what is going on.
If you don’t know how to handle something, then find someone who knows, there is always a right way and many wrong ways, save the time and do it the right way instead of trying all the wrong ways.
With the ACF and you, we can build an even better food industry that serves all the people and their families in Tampa Bay. We are part of this society and we help to make it stronger, we are the ones who are providing the energy to it.
The following page shows what we did this year. And we want to do much more in the next year with your involvement.
It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve this Chapter for the past 8 years, 4 years as vice president and 4 years as President!!! Thank you…..
Happy Holidays and a Prosperous Happy New Year.
Best Culinary Regards,
Rene Marquis
CEC,CCE,CCA,AAC,ACE
MSG (R), US ARMY
President, ACF Tampa Bay Chapter Certification Chair, ACF Tampa Bay Chapter
Military Regional Director, American Academy of Chefs
WORLDCHEFS Chairman - Military Committee WORLDCHEFS Culinary Competition Committee - Special Advisor Military Kitchens and Development.
ACF Tampa Bay Accomplishments 2020
-7 Members on Culinary Team USA that went to compete at the Olympics in Feb,1 Business Manager, 1 Competitor, 1 Sous Chef, 2 Logisticians, 2 Support Personnel
-We had 4 Chapter members that participated, demonstrated, and exhibited at the 2020 Collard Greens Festival and providing samples to the guest
-Donated Produce Family Meal boxes to Metropolitan Ministries for 15 weeks. 1,440 meals and 14,400 #’s each week for a total of 21,600 meals and 216,000 #’s
-Offered Online Continuing Education Units that could be used for Certification created and offered by US Foods.
-Held a Certification practical examination for 2 Sous Chefs via Skype and tasted food in a room service style fashion, both met standards for Certified Sous Chefs
-Held in-person meetings Jan, Feb, March, Sept, Oct, Nov and December
-Held virtual meetings through Zoom platform May, June, July, and August
-Held in-person Annual Awards Ceremony in Sept, while social distancing in a warehouse after the sky fell out from original parking lot it was scheduled in
-One of our Vice Presidents of ACF Tampa Bay is the International Chefs Day Committee Chair and has orchestrated this year’s International Chefs Day Campaign reaching just over 112,000 children across the World
-Our ACF Chef and Child Chair continues to work with 3rd graders at 2 different schools maintaining and harvesting their gardens to include Child Nutrition Day and educating the students with even samples of their bounty.
-One of our Senior Chefs works continuously with Gigi’s Playhouse, providing education and teaching the necessary skill set and Culinary Arts to students with down syndrome.
-One of our Vice Presidents teaches a weekly Culinary Class to students in Barbados offering his time and experiences to those in need.
-We have 2 members who have been nominated and approved for induction to the American Academy of Chefs for 2021. Also, the President of our Chapter who is the Military Director of AAC has assisted and helped 2 other approved applications into the AAC. The total of the induction class thus far
-Partnered up with A Kids Place for the Holiday Season and Donated foods from US Foods, Simplot and Smithfield, Cheney Bros, Land O Lakes. Also provided food, toys and unwrapped gifts for the children there from the Chapter Members. Any member donating a gift was given a New Chef, Chef coat for their donation.
-Also donated over $2000.00 in gift cards to A Kids Place so they could buy what they needed and could take the kids out to where they wanted to go and eat.