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UMass Dining brought home gold with a score of 90.667 at the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) collegiate competition held during the 31^st annual Chef Culinary Conference, held June 8-13 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The UMass Amherst team featured chefs Jeffrey MacDonald, Paul Provost, Emily Thorpe and Clarissa Gonzales Reyes. The chefs tested their skills against 12 other four-member college and university culinary teams from across the U.S., including Rice University, Rutgers, College of the Holy Cross and Skidmore College.

Each team was required to prepare a four-course meal, including a buffet-style item to be served to the judges and competing teams. Team UMass Amherst led with miso-marinated trumpet mushrooms with black garlic soy glaze, followed by a serrano-ham-wrapped spinalis steak with brandy peppercorn cream sauce. Their dessert was a guava sage cheesecake with strawberries. Their buffet item was a pan-seared branzino and quahog clams with lemon caper butter sauce.

Teams had two hours to prepare and serve the first three courses and one hour for the buffet item. 

“The UMass Chef Culinary Conference and this competition continues to be the best in the country. What was wonderful this year was the application of the plant-forward techniques that were discussed and practiced all week, and we’re starting to see them in the competition now, so that’s the most important thing to me,” said Chef John Noble Masi, ACF team competition organizer. 

Ken Toong, assistant vice chancellor of Auxiliary Enterprises and co-chair of the Chef Culinary Conference said, “We’re so proud of the UMass Dining team led by Chef Jeff MacDonald and the sumptuous meal they created. They worked hard and they competed with some of the best college chefs in the nation. Congratulations to all the teams that competed and helping make this competition one of the best.”

The annual ACF competition is the concluding event of the Chef Culinary Conference, which brought together the best of global gastronomy, leadership practices, nutrition and technology. The culinary workshops led by 15 of the top chefs from across U.S. and Italy, along with six chefs/instructors from Johnson and Wales University, introduced our attendees to an amazing array of cuisines and cooking techniques,” said Alexander Ong, director of culinary excellence at UMass Amherst. 

The 31^st annual Chef Culinary Conference is regarded as the premier gathering for food service professionals to learn about the latest scientific findings in nutrition, flavor trends, culinary education, and technological know-how—all delivered in an engaging environment. The conference aims to bring food service concepts into the next generation, embracing nutrition, sustainability and food ethics to meet the increasing diversity of consumers’ preferences. UMass Amherst looks forward to hosting the 32^nd Chef Culinary Conference June 7-12, 2026.