Follow Us x
Dear Chefs & Members & friends - on behalf of the board and chapter we wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. As we all celebrate the holidays let us remember the good things we have had this past year. Let us remember all the good times we were able to spend with family and friends and fellow culinarians.
This past year as a chapter we were able to have 10 great meetings and 9 great educational programs. We contributed to helping our local food bank and Let us eat Please supporting fund raisers which helped to provide over 300 thousand meals. Once again put on the annual Veterans Day brunch for over 350 people at the Vineland Veterans memorial home. We entered the famous Scott Cronick wing fest contest and won a prize. We entered the annual South Jersey Gumbo contest, and we had our annual Food Bank culinary challenge cooking competition featuring High school aged culinary students. 4 great teams entered this year, and it was an awesome event.
Many of our members contributed a lot, doing remarkable things standing for the chapter and our south Jersey culinary community with honor and pride.
As we move forward into 2025, we look forward to getting together and enjoying each other's company.
Thank you to all the people who have volunteered their time and resources this past year helping the chapter and ACF. Thank you to our board and board of trustees for all their great support and service. Thank you to the National ACF board and leadership for all they do to lead ACF everywhere.
Please everyone stay happy, healthy, and safe during this time of celebration.
Thank you all very much - Happy Healthy New Year sincerely yours Chef David Goldstein - President of the PCASJ
Our President's Message
February 5,2024
To our great chefs, members and friends - I wanted to take a moment and thank all the folks who have contributed to helping make our great chapter successful.
This past year went by fast, and I believe we did very well as a chapter. Many changes took place for me both personally and professionally but no matter what happened the chapter was always great to me, and I believe a resource for many of our chefs and friends. We are fortunate to be a part of something so great.
This past year we lost one of our leaders and hall of fame chefs Wolfgang Geckeler. He was a friend and mentor to us all. He will be missed but not forgotten.
During the past year we accomplished a lot of wonderful things. One of them was supporting the Food bank. Our chapter contributed to the food bank being able to raise enough money to feed tens of thousands of meals. We also helped the charity Let us eat Please and that event raised enough funds to feed over 25000 meals to kids.
We celebrated our South Jersey Veterans with the Operation serving those who served us Vets brunch. I was told this is their favorite event of the year.
We had great chapter meetings with many fantastic chefs. During the holidays we collected toys for the Salvation Army and Toys for Tots, and gave out over a hundred gifts. We entered a Gumbo contest for the first time and came in first place, winning a thousand dollars for the chapter. It was a wonderful experience. We had our first student culinary challenge & competition with three schools entering. All the students did an excellent job. Every student walked away with a financial prize to help them with their continuing education.
We were asked to send judges to Rutgers University to judge a serious culinary competition for the great culinary talent working at Rutgers. That was a wonderful experience, and we represented our chapter very well.
Our chapter treasurer and great Chef Lawrence Alexander won the L. EDWIN BROWN LEADERSHIP AWARD NORTHEAST REGION. This is one of the highest honors that can be given in the ACF.
In 2024 we expect to have another momentous year with many things to look forward to too. We just completed the Wing fest with Scott Cronick wing competition. We won best booth and display award. Not bad for our first time doing this.
I wish everyone great health and happiness throughout the year. I hope that everyone can please help spread the word about our great chapter and get new members and students involved.
I also wish to say thank you to all the folks who have contributed this past year as well as the great leadership from our board members. A lot of people contributed to making us better. They all did fantastic..
Thank you - Sincerely yours Chef David Goldstein President of the PCASJ.
