Issue #42, Spring 2018

From our feature about Detroit's North End Oakland Avenue Community Farm

Michigan has another Certified Master Chef (CMC). Last fall Shawn Loving completed the grueling 8-day American Culinary Federation’s Certified Master Chef exam. The intensity and perfection expected in this exam puts all those reality chef competitions to shame. You can read about Loving’s journey in a beautifully written article by Nan Bauer in this issue.

The designation of Certified Master Chef is the highest level of certification a chef can achieve in the United States. As a result there are only 68 Master Chefs in the U.S. today. Florida leads the nation with the amount of certified master chefs, 9, and Michigan is a close second with 8.

What makes the process so daunting is that the judges are current CMCs. Six of the 29 evaluators Chef Loving faced were Master Chefs from Michigan.

Three of the evaluators are instructors at Schoolcraft College where Chef Loving teaches. They include CMCs Jeffrey Gabriel and Brian Beland and one Certified Master Pastry Chef Joseph Decker. Two recently retired Schoolcraft Instructors CMCs Kevin Gawronski and Dan Huglier served as judges during the exam as well. The sixth Michigan judge was CMC Jeffrey Gabriel of the Farm Restaurant in Port Austin.

We’re proud of our state’s tradition of fostering master chefs and the role our state has played in holding the profession to its highest standards. Congratulations to Shawn and to all the chefs who strive for greatness.

—Chris Hardman
Executive Editor