Dear AEHT Members
On their return from their marathon business meeting
in Silvi Marina in the Teramo province of Italy, the
AEHT Presidium would like to pass on to you some
important pieces of news, and to share with you their
most recent professional, gastronomic, cultural and
social impressions and emotions.
The Presidium photographed after their visit of the Atri Cathedral –
a gem of 13th century religious art
We are delighted to tell you that the organizers have
just agreed to another extension of the deadline for
registering at the advantageous ‘early-bird’ rate for the
Annual Conference to July 16th 2010. In order to
register, please follow carefully the instructions given
in the previous newsletter, which have been sent to you
by e-mail.
A new type of competition will take place for the first
time in Lisbon: the Hospitality Management
competition. This year the competition will be
conducted only in English, and will therefore be
available only to Higher Education students aged 18
and over. Registration is now open at
http://www.aehtlisboa2010.eu. One of the unique
features of this competition is that the performance of
the teams is assessed not only by a panel of
professionals, but also by the competing teams.
Our Vice-President Annie Collinet, Director of the
François Bise hotel school in Bonneville, has just
decided to retire from her post on November 5th 2010;
we must therefore arrange elections to select a new
Vice-President with responsibility for Higher Education
and for relations with the International Association of
Francophone Countries. The election will take place at
the next meeting of the Executive Board at the Annual
Conference in Lisbon. A call for candidates was sent
Diekirch, June 2010
out by e-mail on June 8th to the National
Representatives – any representative who has not
received the relevant documents is kindly requested to
contact the AEHT Head Office. The deadline for
submitting candidacies is September 1st 2010, and we
hope to receive many expressions of interest.
The Poznan school has just decided not to go ahead
with organising the 2011 Annual Conference. The
Presidium will give priority to the future organisers,
Maastricht and Ankara, to fill this gap, before possibly
accepting the offer from the Teramo school to organise
the event in Silvi Marina. The region has an extremely
rich heritage and could be of interest to many of our
member schools.
Magnificent frescos by Andrea de Litio (late 15th century) adorn
the choir of the dell’Assunta Cathedral in Atri.
The province of Teramo enjoys an exceptional
geographic location: to the north is the Marches
region, to the east the Adriatic sea, to the south the
Province of Pescara, and to the west the nature
reserves which protect the Gran Sasso mountain chain
(reaching a height of 2912 metres) and the Monti della
Laga chain (reaching 2458 metres) – both of them
visible throughout the Province. This geographic
location has had a strong influence on local
gastronomy and culture. It is rare to find so many
menus and recipes which combine produce from both
the mountains and the sea. We discovered this for
ourselves in situ on Friday June 4th and Saturday June
5th when we took part in the examinations for 3rd year
food preparation and food service classes. At the end of
this Newsletter we have reproduced the menu which
was served to us on Friday evening – you can easily
translate it (here’s a useful reminder!) into other
languages using the Restolingua software. The second
dinner was part of a project intended to promote local
sea produce, entitled ‘Products of the Sea as a Tourist
and Cultural Attraction in Europe – Authenticity and
Identity in the Field of Tourism’. This project
succeeded in bringing together representatives from a
1 N°2/2010
large number of public bodies to discuss a shared
preoccupation – the conservation and promotion of
local sea produce with a view to preserving a
traditional territorial cultural identity and to creating
an attractive selling point for tourism.

From left to right: Luigi Valentini – our Valter Catarra – President of

host - Alfonso Benvenuto and Pietro Teramo Province
Giorgio Tiscar

One of the priorities is to promote the authenticity and

identity of the Abruzze region by improving the way the
resources of the land are exploited and by improving
the quality of life in the region. To achieve these aims
we need on the one hand to identify the interesting
Symposium on ‘Produce of the sea as a Tourist and
places which are likely to attract the flows of tourists,
Cultural Attraction in Europe’ and on the other hand to plan the appropriate training
of staff in the tourism sector, particularly the type of
Congratulations to the organisers who successfully training which will promote gastronomy based on local
brought together such a number of important people produce and encourage restaurants to introduce typical
around a table to debate this pressing problem as well regional dishes in their menus.
as other future challenges. Those who took an active
role in the debates were: Anna Paola Mazzone, tourism
adviser and chair of the round-table meeting; Gaetano
Vallescura, mayor of Silvi; Luciana Di Marco, adviser
on cultural matters to the Silvi town council; Mauro Di
Dalmazio, tourism adviser and Paolo Gatti, state
education adviser (both representing the Abruzze
region); Valter Catarra, President of Teramo province;
Luigi Valentini, director of the ‘IIS Di Poppa-Rozzi’
hotel and tourism school; and two lecturers from
Teramo university: Prof. Pietro Giorgio Tiscar from the
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Prof. Consuelo
Diodati from the University of Tourism Science. The
debates which took place at this highly interesting and Brodetto alla silvarola
productive symposium concentrated among other
subjects on the conservation of natural resources, Given the Abruzze region’s geographical location, its
particularly marine resources, on the protection of an abundant nature and its historical heritage, it has great
authentic cultural and gastronomic heritage, on the potential to develop beach tourism, mountain tourism,
importance of a return to exploiting the resources of the rural tourism, as well as cultural and religious tourism.
sea, and on building housing that is more in harmony It is vital that all the organisations mentioned above
with nature and living creatures in general, and with should work together, coordinating projects carried out
humans in particular – all of this with the aim of in the field of tourism, in order to preserve the
improving tourism development in the region. authenticity and identity of the region and to transform
today’s seasonal tourism into year-round tourism.

Diekirch, June 2010 2 N°2/2010

Also taking part in the lecture were representatives of member schools a discount of 50% on their professional
the AEHT: Klaus Enengl, the Association’s president, porcelain, on condition that they use this brand as their
and a member of the Council of Elders, Alfonso main tableware supplier. Contact: Mr Georges
Benvenuto. Alfonso emphasised that tourism is certainly SCHMITZ (schmitz.georges@villeroy-boch.com).
not a game, not something to be approached lightly, but
something that is of vital importance given its
considerable impact on the economy, on the
environment, on culture and on social life; each of us
must shoulder our share of responsibility, a
responsibility he hoped that the official bodies present
at the event would willingly take on in order to ensure
the most harmonious possible development of this
beautiful region. Cups being glazed at Villeroy & Porcelain is heated in the kiln to
Boch a maximum of 1230 °C

Words cannot adequately describe the ‘Cooking-show’

provided the following day at 13.00 in the Hermitage
Hotel by the budding chefs from the Teramo hotel
school. Quite unbelievable from start to finish – a finish
which moreover the members of the Presidium never
reached, having surrendered before the amazing
quantity of delicious dishes of exceptionally high
quality – and also because the previous day they had
been treated to a dinner that was of similar size and
quality – the examination dinner at the IIS "Di Poppa-
Rozzi".
Villeroy & Boch is
donating 100 sets of
tableware to the Domenico Evangelista thanks the community of
L’Aquila school AEHT member schools for their solidarity:
€14,500 EUR was donated for his school in
L’Aquila

In the course of the symposium Klaus Enengl handed a

cheque for €2,636 to the director of the L’Aquila hotel
school. This donation is in addition to the
approximately €12,000 paid directly to the school by
AEHT member schools as part of the 2009-2010 version
of ’Gastronomy for Peace’ – funds intended to pay for
the reconstruction and improvement of the school’s
structure which was damaged by the earthquake on
April 6th 2009. Villeroy et Boch (www.villeroy-
boch.com), one of the AEHT’s privileged professional
partners and a world-famous international company
designing, manufacturing and distributing ceramic and
other high-quality products, has also promised to
donate a batch of 100 porcelain table sets. These are
complete table settings for 100 people, consisting of Buffet : les delights of the Adriatic Sea
around 1000 items. The goods will be delivered via the
Villeroy & Boch representative in Italy, ABERT SPA, Here are some of the dishes you must remember if you
division BROGGI 1818 in Passirano (Brescia) plan to spend a few days in this region: delizie del mare
(www.abert.it) and will be handed over personally to Adriatico, chitarra alle vongole, gnocchetti freschi
the L’Aquila school director on July 6th, in the presence mazzancole e zucchine, mezze maniche agli scampi (for
of the press, by a delegation consisting of your fist course), brodetto alla silvarola, rana
representatives of Villeroy & Boch Luxembourg, pescatrice al forno con patate e olive nere (for your
BROGGI and the AEHT. main course), torta alla frutta, mousse al limone, panna
cotta, cannoli di sfoglia, bavarese alla fragole, crêpes
We should like to take this opportunity to remind you suzettes.
that Villeroy & Boch Luxembourg offers all AEHT

Diekirch, June 2010 3 N°2/2010

 The kitchen and restaurant brigades of the IIS 'Di Poppa – Rozzi'
school

Seminar on E-learning on August 26th 2010

at the Maastricht Hotel School
Chitarra alle vongole (The Netherlands)
We ended up with stiff necks as we followed the ballet Recently an interesting and innovative learning
performed by the students as they served dinner – platform has been launched, entitled ‘Shoot the Chef’;
serving and clearing tables for 120 guests at high it consists of a virtual learning environment created
speed, while permanently smiling and working with specifically for schools involved in culinary arts. Go to
disconcerting ease. You have to realise that this was a www.shootthechef.com and you will find a whole host
great achievement, given the number of guests, the of culinary training videos and other applications
number of courses served, cleared away and served which conform to the European Competency
again, in addition to the stress caused by the fact that Framework. Hotel and tourism schools from all over
their performance was being evaluated in an the world are already taking part in ‘Shoot the Chef’.
examination.
We should like to offer our warmest congratulations
and thanks to the whole team at the IIS ‘Di Poppa –
Rozzi’ school, both the students, the teachers and their
director, Luigi Valentini, for their warm welcome, their
gastronomic feats, and for the love they show for their
region and for preserving their traditions. To judge
from the thunderous applause, they can be proud of
their achievements over these few days, which were a
great success. We will certainly be hearing more of this
school in the future.

The production company, HRC International, has

specialised for the last 15 years in developing training
materials and in providing career advice, principally
for the international hotel and tourism industry, and is
also the promoter of the Cultural Academy Leonardo da
Vinci project of which the AEHT is a partner. HRC
would like to invite all AEHT member schools to attend
a one-day seminar on August 26th 2010 to be held at the
Maastricht hotel school. The seminar will be conducted
in English and will concentrate on the theme of e-
learning. It will start at 12.30, and the programme will
include:
A series of lectures on the subject of E-learning in
hospitality;
Luca Lucidi – a very dedicated member of a team whose performance A guided tour of the Maastricht hotel school and
was evaluated collectively
its brand-new training hotel located in the historic
castle;
an introduction to the ‘Shoot the Chef’ project;

Diekirch, June 2010 4 N°2/2010

 a visit to the famous ‘Preuvenemint’ culinary
festival in Maastricht
(http://www.preuvenemint.nl/default.asp?cid=81).
Attendance at the seminar is free of charge, and any
school which is interested can register free of charge on
the ‘Shoot the Chef’ platform until the end of 2010.
‘Shoot the Chef’ is rather like a form of YouTube for
hotel and tourism schools: each culinary arts teacher
can upload his or her own teaching materials and make
them available both to his or her students and to all the
schools registered with ‘Shoot the Chef’. A fantastic
way of learning from each other!
‘Shoot the Chef’ never stops cooking: as the internet The Virtex4all project partners
never sleeps, the videos and training materials are
available 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Our stay in Estonia was truly memorable! On our first
Hospitality students can also use the platform for evening we were treated to a performance by a local
distance learning at home. men’s choir from Saaremaa, the Sum choir founded in
1973. Then on Friday morning Kersti Randmaa and
‘Shoot the Chef’ has been developed by famous hotel Kadri Riim took us along to their school, the
and tourism schools throughout Europe, including the Kuressaare Regional Training Centre, where we were
Bad Gleichenberg hotel school (Austria), the Koksijde welcomed by Sirje Ellermaa, the head of department.
hotel school (Belgium), the HRC Culinary Academy The meeting got off to a joyful start when we sang
(Bulgaria), the Maribor Higher Education happy birthday to Kersti, and then it was down to work.
Establishment for the Hotel and Tourism Professions
(Slovenia), the Coleg Llandrillo (Wales)and the HRC
International training and curriculum development
institution (the Netherlands).
Don’t miss it: the seminar on E-learning on Thursday
August 26th 2010 at the Maastricht hotel school, the
Netherlands. For further information please go to
www.shootthechef.com or send an e-mail to
info@shootthechef.com.
Polly Perkins and Christa Beckers holding Happy Birthday to
Virtex4all meets in Estonia a workshop on evaluating oral performance Kersti Randmaa
using the CEFR
Kuressaare is located on the island of Saaremaa, the
largest of the Estonian islands – a charming little town Two Dutch experts, Polly Perkins and Christa Beckers,
well known to the AEHT community since the 2008 held a workshop on evaluating oral performance using
Annual Conference was held there. From June 3rd to the Common European Framework of Reference for
June 6th Kuressaare hosted the partners of the Languages (CEFR), which led us to a series of useful
Virtex4all project, arriving from the Czech Republic, recommendations for evaluating qualifications.
Estonia, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. A number of other workshops followed in the afternoon,
The project is coordinated by the Colorez agency and and the highlight of the day was a presentation by Dr
has just held its fourth meeting in this amazing place. Nathalie Van Meurs – Senior Lecturer at Middlesex
The AEHT was represented by Natalia Komanicka, the University in the United Kingdom – on the subject of
Association’s newly appointed interpreter who took intercultural communication; Nathalie emphasised the
over from John Rees Smith when he retired at the end of importance of equipping students with all the
2009. information they need about cultural differences before
they leave fro a placement abroad.
We dined at the Veski Trahter – an inn located inside a
windmill – where we savoured authentic local dishes
while at the same time being treated to a floor show
provided by a group of lady senior citizens known as

Diekirch, June 2010 5 N°2/2010

‘Kanarbik’. Their energetic songs and dances gave us
an excellent way of relaxing after a day’s work. When
we left the inn it was still light outside – one of the
advantages of living in a northern country in the
summer.
The ‘Kanarbik’ group performing at the inn in the ‘Veski Trahter’
mill
On Saturday, after our working meeting in the morning,
we lunched at the Roomassaare Harbour Restaurant
and enjoyed the magnificent sea view. In the afternoon
we took a bus tour right around the island of Saaremaa.
With its unique natural environment, its ancient
churches, its juniper bushes and its views to horizons
bristling with windmills, the island won our hearts.
We rounded off the day with a farewell dinner at the
Arensburg Hotel, followed by dancing in one of the
local pubs and a tasting of the original Tallinn liqueur.
This marvellous meeting was certainly an enriching
experience for all the participants.
There is only one more working meeting left now before
the end of this highly productive partnership – a project
which has made considerable improvements to the
teaching materials which you can find at
www.virtex4all.com. For our final meeting we are all
going to meet again next September in Zaragoza, Spain.
We are already looking forward to this final meeting.
Homage to Otto Kimmelmann
At the end of May we were saddened to learn of the
sudden death of Otto Kimmelmann; Otto was far more
than just a teacher of practical subjects at his school –
he was a pillar of Christmas in Europe, and the true
linchpin of all the exchanges organised between the
Semmering school and those of its partner towns,
including with many AEHT member schools.  
Diekirch, June 2010
Otto Kimmelmann at Christmas in Europe in Semmering in 2007
Otto taught a practical subject, culinary arts, but he
succeeded in creating links with all the other subjects
taught in a hotel school, HIS hotel school. He was
Austrian through and through, and together with a team
of dedicated teachers he created an exemplary core of
participants in the AEHT’s Christmas in Europe –
which he wouldn’t have missed for anything. He took
part in the event very numerous times with whole
groups which were often paid for by his own school.
He was passionate about his work, and his Semmering
school and the AEHT had become his family. Since that
of Budapest in 1995, he has enlivened countless
versions of Christmas in Europe with his determined
optimism and his cheerful communicativeness. He had
brought a total of 35 students to the event, and they
must surely still remember it all.
Otto Kimmelmann was a worthy ambassador for all
that warmth and welcome that Austria brings to world
tourism. It was also for HIM, and to thank him for thirty
years of commitment to student exchanges, totally in
keeping with the spirit of the AEHT, that the directorate
of the Semmering school was eager to allow him to live
his dream, that of holding Christmas in Europe a
second time in 2011 – and they have officially offered to
do so.
We will miss you Otto!
6 N°2/2010
Anyone who now sings his much beloved song ‘Feliz
navidad’ will certainly think of Otto.
Besten Dank lieber Otto und hochachtungsvoll! Du
wirst uns allen fehlen! (Many thanks dearest Otto and
accept our deepest respects – we will all miss you!)
THIS AND THAT
News from AEHT members
1. News from our prize-winners
At the suggestion of Mary Owens, a former AEHT Vice-
President, we launched this column in 2008. Its purpose
is to report on the views of former prize-winners on
how their experience of the AEHT has influenced their
personal and professional development and the careers
they followed after they had won prizes at the Annual
Conferences.
3. Are you still in touch with your team-mate or with
other participants?
Unfortunately I’ve lost touch with my team mate
and with the other participants.
4. What are your thoughts today about the AEHT
and about that Annual Conference?
In my view the AEHT Annual Conference is very
important for the teachers and students of the
AEHT schools in general, and for all the
participants in particular; this is because the
conference creates an international environment
which is propitious for all types of collaboration,
competitions and activities; the conference also
shows the size and importance of the Association
they belong to in terms of the tourism sector.
▲In 2004, the city of Bled
celebrated its millennium.

- Pedro Simões gives us his views

Pedro Simões, a graduate of the ‘Escola de Hotelaria e ◄ Pedro Simões (centre) with
Turismo’ in Coimbra, Portugal, won the restaurant his team-mate Maria Mauracher
service competition at the Annual Conference in Bled in from the ‘Zillertaler Tourismus-
schulen’ in Zell am Ziller,
2004. He now works as a teacher at his school in Austria
Coimbra.
1. In 2004 you won the restaurant service
5. Did winning the competition have an effect on
competition at the Annual Conference in Bled,
your professional and personal life and on your
Slovenia. How did you prepare for this
personality? Did it play a role in your choice of
competition?
career? Also, when and why did you decide to
For the Conference I prepared myself technically
become a food service teacher?
by studying the materials provided in advance by
Yes, there is no doubt that winning this contest
the organisers, such as the explanatory tables, the
influenced my professional life. I realised that
tasks and competences being evaluated, as well as
when you give of yourself fully, you are capable of
the time allowed for the test. For me personally, I
going very far. However, this win did not
had to do some extra language preparation in
contribute directly to my choice of career: I simply
French and English, since I realised that the
seized an opportunity which I couldn’t possibly
contest took place in teams and that our team
pass up, to become a teacher – which is what I am
mates were drawn by lots, so that we didn’t know
now.
who they were to start with.
2. What are your best memories of this event?
It is definitely those convivial moments, sharing
experiences with my fellow students from other
schools and from other countries, as well the
preparations for the test with my partner and the
contest itself – that is what I remember most fondly.

Diekirch, June 2010 7 N°2/2010


The winners of the restaurant service contest in Bled in 2004
6. Did you experience the ‘European spirit’ in Bled?
If so, did this experience open up new horizons
for you? Did it encourage you to continue your
training abroad?
Yes, I did feel this European spirit – all
experiences of this sort help to open up new
horizons. However these days it seems to me that
young people don’t feel encouraged to go and
study abroad, even though it’s an unbelievable
opportunity!
7. Have you won medals in other national or
international competitions? If, please tell us
which. Why was competing in these contests
important for you?
I’ve won a contest for regional culinary arts and
for the restaurant trade, as well as a national
cocktails competition sponsored by an
international drinks distribution company (10th in
the world). Taking part in these competitions was
very important for me because they all took place
during my student years, and gave me a view of the
world which was different from the one I’d been
used to until then.
8. What significant changes have you noticed in the
hospitality and tourism sector in the last few
years?
In my view the tourism industry has changed
considerably in the course of the last few years,
especially in terms of supply and demand. Tourists
now want new experiences, and the efficiency of
the tourism industry depends on its ability to
innovate and to satisfy the new expectations of its
clients.
9. What motivated you to become a restaurant
service teacher?
The reason I accepted this post was the opportunity
and the challenge to teach in the same school
where I myself received my training.
Diekirch, June 2010
10. What are the professional and personal qualities
required to succeed in your profession?
I think that, in addition to professional aptitude
and skills, you need to have team spirit and a real
love of the work you do.
11. What are your professional plans for the future?
For the moment I hope that I can continue to teach
and to study. In the more distant future I hope to be
able to work on other projects, something a little
more ambitious.
You need to be able to establish a good rapport with
the client and really love the work you do.
12. In your view, what are the most important
qualities required to be a waiter or waitress?
What recommendations would you offer to
aspiring waiters and waitresses? What advice
would you give to hospitality and tourism students
about their future careers?
In my view the key qualities for waiting staff are
the ability to establish a good rapport with the
client, as well as a sense of discipline, an ability to
take their task seriously and a sense of
responsibility in terms of their chosen profession.
The advice I would give to students is simply not to
give up when they encounter their first failure, and
to persist until they achieve their aims.
2. Restolingua translates your restaurant menus
We should like to take this opportunity to remind you
that by going to www.restolingua.com you can now
translate any professional menu into the following eight
languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German,
Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Restolingua is still
seeking coordinating schools, both to translate the
22,000 expressions in the system into all the languages
of the countries with AEHT members which have so far
not been included in the system, and also to add
expressions relating to regional specialities, dishes and
ingredients. With your help, all menus could be
effortlessly translated, such as, to give an example, the
menu for the examination dinner on Friday June 4th
8 N°2/2010
 2010 produced by the third year students of the IIS ‘Di
Poppa – Rozzi’ school in Teramo.

Lamb vols-au vent with Alberico Acciaio – Comet of puff pastry

ceps and potatoes A great Chef

Anyone interested in working with Restolingua is asked

to contact Arike Vermazen (email : arike.vermazen@
The 3C students and their teachers gmail.com) and to look at the rates of pay and the cost
of using the system, as well as the agreement signed
Antipasti : between the AEHT and Restolingua at www.aeht.eu.
- Antipasto fantasia con delizie del Parco
- Quiche Lorraine Have a good summer vacation!
Primi :
- Timballo di crêpes alla Teramana
- Gnocchi al profumo di bosco Nadine SCHINTGEN
Secondi : AEHT General Secretary
- Straccetti di carne alla contadina
- Bocconcini di agnello porcini e patate
Text: N. Schintgen with contributions
Dolci è caffèe: from Ch. Keller, N. Komanicka,
- Cometa di sfoglia D. Mastrosanti, F. den Hollander
- Bavarese alle fragole and P. Simões
Photos: N. Schintgen, N. Komanicka, the
Caffè photographers from ‘Shoot the
Chef’ and from the Bled Annual
Conference.

English translation: J. Rees Smith

Our professional partners:

Timbale of pancakes alla Gnocchi with flavours from the forest

Teramana

The English translation might be as follows:

Starters:
- Chef’s fantasy of starters with delights from the
garden
Quiche Lorraine
First courses:
Timbale of pancakes alla Teramana
Gnocchi with flavours from the forest
Main dishes:
Strips of meat peasant style
- Lamb vols-au vent with ceps and potatoes
-
Desserts and coffee:
Comet of puff pastry
Strawberry bavarois
Coffee
Diekirch, June 2010 9 N°2/2010