Please contact customer service at 1.800.231.8154 or customerservice@auiswiss.com with any questions about perishability, special shipping constraints, or with any concerns.

2012 Thanksgiving Shipping Schedule

The ACF Culinary Team USA has just returned home from Erfurt, Germany where they participated in the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Exhibition (also known as the “Culinary Olympics”) from October 5-10. Hard work by all four ACF teams paid off, with each team placing in the top 10. The ACF Culinary National Team, U.S. Army Culinary Arts Team, regional, and youth teams competed against 1,500 chefs from 54 countries to earn two gold medals and five silver medals. The ACF Culinary National Team won two silver medals, one in cold-food presentation and one in hot-food presentation. The U.S. Army Culinary Arts Team took home a gold medal in cold-food and a silver medal in hot-food presentation.

Congratulations to the ACF Culinary Teams for their outstanding performance at the Culinary Olympics. AUI is proud to have sponsored and supported the ACF Culinary Team and its members including Steve Jilleba, CMC, CCE, AAC, manager; Thomas Macrina, CEC, CCA, HGT, AAC, business manager; and Joachim Buchner, CMC, coach. Congratulations to all of the U.S. individual winners, including 2012 Michigan Culinary Olympics Team members Brian Beland, CMC, for winning gold; Doug Ganhs, CEC, for winning bronze; Shawn Loving, CEC, CCA, for winning bronze; Sarah Rougeau, CSC, for winning silver; and Gabriel Vera for receiving a diploma at IKA. To read more about the ACF Culinary Teams experience visit their blog.

St. Augustine, Fla., April 18, 2012—St. Louis resident Casey Shiller, CEPC, program coordinator of baking and pastry arts at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park, was recently recognized by the American Culinary Federation, the premier professional organization for culinarians in North America, for his outstanding teaching skills. He received the organization’s Central Region Chef Educator of the Year award during the 2012 ACF Central Regional Conference in Detroit, April 14-16.

“Students are amazing. Their thirst for knowledge is unwavering,” said Shiller. “I am so proud to be part of their lives, shaping them into the future leaders of the baking and pastry industry. I am humbled to be honored as the ACF Central Region Chef Educator of the Year and am grateful that ACF shines a light on the impact educators have on the future of our industry.”

The 2012 ACF Central Region Chef Educator of the Year award pays tribute to an active culinary educator whose knowledge, skills and expertise have given culinary students leadership and guidance for the future. As this year’s Central Region recipient, Shiller will vie for the national title against three other candidates at the 2012 ACF National Convention in Orlando, Fla., July 14-17. Candidates will each give a lecture/demonstration before a panel of judges who will decide the winner.

We value your business and always strive to provide the best service to our customers. During the holiday season we recognize that you are busy planning and preparing for many events and parties, and concentrating on providing the best possible service to your customers. To assist you in this process we would like to remind you of some of the practices that allow us to serve you better. Please keep the following information in mind when placing orders online or with our customer service team. Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to working with you this holiday season.

• Due to increased delivery volume during the holiday season (October through December), orders may take an additional 1-2 days to be delivered. Our warehouse and customer service personal will do everything they can to get your order out as soon as possible. Occasionally, our staff or our couriers may not be able to move all the freight they receive in the same day.
• To expedite the ordering process, please be ready with your customer number, item numbers and product descriptions when you call customer service to order.
• Personalized praline orders are only shipped on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday shipments may be sent if your shipping address is within our 24-hour delivery area. Orders are sent from our Gaithersburg, Maryland warehouse only.
• Please also be advised that personalized praline orders always require 7-10 business days of lead time from image approval by customer.
• If you are ordering a pallet of products it may take 2-3 weeks to be delivered. Please keep this in mind when planning your purchases.

If you have any questions please reach out to our customer service team by calling 1.800.231.8154 or emailing us at emailorders@auiswiss.com.

AUI Corporate Pastry Chef Amanda Haba trained for months to compete at the 2011 National Pastry Team Championship, and on July 9^th all her preparations paid off. Chef Haba earned the “Best Sugar Showpiece” award while competing on Team Gallego, which took the silver medal overall. Amanda's teammates on Team Gallego were former AUI assistant pastry chef Courtney Goldian (currently the Corporate Pastry Chef at Founding Farmers Restaurant in Washington, D.C.) and Executive Pastry Chef Naomi Gallego (Team Captain) of the Fairmont Pittsburgh; the team was coached by Chef Bill Foltz of L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort.

This years competition theme was “Your Favorite Book”, Team Gallego chose Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as their inspiration. The sugar showpiece created by Chef Haba was inspired by the mad hatter’s tea-party, Chef Gallego’s chocolate showpiece was inspired by the Queen of Hearts, and Chef Goldian’s bonbons, desserts and entremets were inspired by multiple chapters from the book.

We followed-up with Chef Haba a couple days after the competition to get her thoughts on the experience. She said, “It was amazing to work with Bill and the ladies and grow in our craft together. The entire experience was really great, we developed an awesome relationship.” She also gave us her thoughts on the competition, “I respect the past competitors even more now that I know what they went through to prepare and compete. It’s exhausting but, I’m looking forward to the possibility of future competitions.”

The National Pastry Championship was held at the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Arizona from July 8^th-9^th, 2011. Each team is given a total of 13 hours over two days to complete a lengthy list of required elements including a sugar showpiece, chocolate showpiece, bonbons, entremets, petits gateux, and plated desserts. A panel of judges comprised of industry leaders examines each group on their artistry and technical merit, work ethic and hygiene, and degustation. At this years competition there were four teams that competed to earn the title of Team USA and the honor to compete at the World Pastry Competition in 2012. Awards are given to the team with the overall best competition performance as well as the following categories: