North Miami Campus Honors Star Alumni

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – January 26, 2007 – Johnson & Wales University's North Miami Campus honored two of its alumni as Distinguished Visiting Chefs this month, giving them the opportunity to serve as guest instructors and produce a dinner with current students from the College of Culinary Arts.

The honorees, Michael Bloise '98, executive chef of Wish in Miami Beach and Jason Morale '02, now a pastry chef at the Four Seasons in Houston (previously pastry chef of Wish), discussed their memories of being students at J&W, gave tips for a successful career in the food service industry and shared their knack for using ordinary items to create extraordinary dishes (i.e., black pepper in foie gras PBNJ).

On January 10, Chefs Bloise and Morale gave two demonstrations to more than 100 culinary arts and baking & pastry arts students. On January 12, the two chefs worked with more than 30 students to produce a four-course meal for 60 guests. The duo's menu included three hors d'ouevres, seared diver scallop with arugala, tangerine, basil and cauliflower; crispy wild salmon with raspberry-tomato fondue and lemon-soy; Guinness braised beef short rib with farro, cinnamon, coconut and pickled pumpkin; and Kataifi roasted pineapple tart with Thai basil ice cream.

Proceeds from the Distinguished Visiting Chef dinners benefit J&W's scholarship fund. Dorothy McCoy, a junior culinary arts student from Pittsgrove, N.J., had an opportunity to work with the chefs and received a $2,000 scholarship at the January 12 dinner.

"We are proud to have two of our most accomplished alumni return to campus to share their knowledge with our students," said Chris Wagner, director of culinary operations. "Chef Bloise and Chef Morale are exemplary culinary professionals and strong supporters of J&W, so it was only fitting that we award them as distinguished visiting chefs."

About the chefs:
Michael Bloise, a 1998 graduate of J&W, is the executive chef at Miami Beach's Wish, rated one of the 50 best new restaurants in the world by Conde Nast Traveler and one of the top 20 restaurants in America by Esquire magazine. He was also selected as one of the country's "Rising Star" chefs by Restaurant Hospitality. With Bloise at the helm since December 2003, Wish has maintained its coveted Mobil Travel Guide Four-Star Award and the AAA Four-Diamond Award. Half Italian and half Vietnamese, Bloise's cuisine embraces the robust flavors of American cooking and the subtle nuances of haute Asian cuisine. Before coming to Wish, Bloise worked under chef Frank Randazzo as an executive sous chef at The Gaucho Room, the restaurant formerly located in Miami Beach's Loews Hotel. He also served as executive sous chef to Wish's former executive chef, E. Michael Reidt, from November 2001 to November 2002.

Jason Morale, a 2002 graduate of J&W, joined the Four Seasons in Houston as a pastry chef in January 2007. Previously the pastry chef at Wish, he has a passion for food that grew from countless nights spent with his family around home cooked dinners at this grandmother's house. After studying at J&W, Morale traveled to Vienna where he worked at Do & Co., a well-respected, high-end catering company. With them, he worked on events ranging from the King of Spain's birthday to the Austrian version of the Academy Awards.

About the distinguished visiting chef series:
The Distinguished Visiting Chef series was established in 1979 to honor outstanding culinarians and to provide an expanded learning experience for J&W culinary arts students. Previous visiting chefs to the Florida Campus include Norman Love, Wolfgang von Weiser, Michelle Bernstein '94, Allen Susser and Norman Van Aken.

Johnson & Wales — America's Career University® — was founded in 1914. It is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business, food service, education, hospitality and technology. Preparing students for successful careers is the cornerstone of the University's educational philosophy. A benchmark of the University has been its 29 consecutive year employment record — within 60 days of graduation, 98 percent of its students from the 50 states have jobs in their chosen career field. With an enrollment of more than 16,000 students, Johnson & Wales maintains campuses in Providence, R.I., North Miami, Fla., Denver, Colo., and Charlotte, N.C.