Hudson County Community College to Hold First Annual ‘Food for Thought’ Conference on Sustainability, Community Gardening and Farm-to-Table

The event will begin with a panel discussion moderated by Paul Dillon, the HCCC Associate Dean of Business, Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management. Mr. Dillon will be joined by the following:

• Christopher Albrecht, Executive Chef for the Ryland Inn. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Albrecht worked alongside James Beard Award Winner Tom Colicchio and Pastry Chef Claudia Fleming for six years. He went on to commandeer Craftsteak Las Vegas. Returning to the East Coast, he operated and won awards for Eno Terra and Canal Farm, and relaunched Park and Orchard in New Jersey. He has been involved with numerous educational programs, most notably “Garden State on Your Plate.”
• Darcy Hutzenlaub , Farm Manager for Share the Harvest Farm, a nonprofit vegetable production farm located in East Hampton, NY that works to address food insecurity issues. Ms. Hutzenlaub began as a volunteer, working with local farmers to provide underprivileged families with healthy food choices in 2009. Today, she farms six acres of town-owned land and cultivates organic produce that is distributed to 11 locations that service more than 300 working families each year. The CSA program of Share the Harvest Farm donates about 25,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce to food pantries, low-income housing sites, a women’s shelter, public daycare and other organizations.
• Thomas McQuillan, Director of Food Service Sales and Sustainability for Baldor Specialty Foods, Inc. Mr. McQuillan is an executive, food sustainability leader, chef and innovator of systems and operations with more than 25 years experience in developing strategic initiatives and turning companies around. Mr. McQuillan holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Duquesne University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from St. John’s University. He was brought to Baldor, the Northeast’s largest produce and specialty foods distributor, to identify a cost-effective way of repurposing the food byproduct created by the company’s Fresh Cuts facility. The result was SparCs (scraps spelled backward), which completely eliminated food waste at Baldor within one year’s time. Mr. McQuillan has presented his work on food sustainability at Harvard University, New York University, Stanford University and the White House.

The panel discussion will be followed by a series of three demonstrations and food tastings of artisanal bread, sous vide (cooking food in vacuum-sealed pouches that are placed in water baths or temperature-controlled steam environments) and SparCs (creative applications for food trims and peelings).

Registration for attendance is required and may be made online at www.tinyurl.com/foodforthought2017.