Did you know ever 4 years there is a Culinary Olympics?
And chefs from around 40 countries competed at the last one held in Erfurt, Germany in 2004.

Mial Parker is an American chef I used to work with at The Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam. Even back then Mial loved entering culinary competions and I helped him with one in Holland…the toughest part was getting the rules translated into English.

In Culinary circles Mial went on to great things and currently teaches at the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, CA. Mial’s to date has won and received more than thirty awards including a gold cloverleaf. He was a member of the ACF Western Regional Culinary Team that won a gold medal in 1988, and also served as Captain of Team USA West, part of the Culinary Olympic Team for the USA, 1992. What’s more, Chef Mial is a three time Culinary Olympics individual Gold Medallist and is a certified master chef.

http://www.culinary-olympics.com

Most of this blog is celebrating the joys and pleasures of food but I also believe that as a food professional I need to raise public awareness on issues that can affect people’s health. Aspartame, which is often found in diet soft drinks or foods under the name of Nutrasweet, Equal or Spoonful.

Many of today's soft drinks and snacks that are targeted at our children contain these sweetners, the packaging will state “No added Sugar” or “Sugar Free”as their sales pitch. But people need to understand that if they wish to cut down their sugar intake the healthier option is to drink some bottled water in place of some of those sweet drinks. Every time I read up on the subject of artificial sweeteners the information that is available is scary, so before buying drinks or snacks for your kids please………please read the labels.

The link below will take you to the full article written about Aspartame by Pat Thomas for Ecologistonline. But here is disturbing paragraph from the piece.

“Once upon a time, aspartame was listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent. Today it's an integral part of the modern diet. Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet and Canderel, aspartame can be found in more than 5,000 foods, including fizzy drinks, chewing gum, table-top sweeteners, diet and diabetic foods, breakfast cereals, jams, sweets, vitamins, prescription and over-the-counter drugs. This means that there is a good chance that you and your family are among the two thirds of the adult population and 40 per cent of children who regularly ingest this artificial sweetener”. by Pat Thomas.
http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=457

There seems to be a growing body of evidence about the health problems caused by Aspartame and in particular the fact that when the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants).
The temperature is important because almost all food & drink stuffs that use Aspartame would be heated past 86 F.

You’re on the web and that’s a great information tool so use it………
(Ok I’m off my rant now..smile), take care.