I’ll admit to looking askance at the review DVD for a new food show called “Chef Academy.” It’s easy to tire of these reality shows and I plead guilty. But the fact that this show is on Bravo, which is home to the wildly popular “Top Chef,” meant it had to be taken seriously.
When I finally popped in that DVD, I found myself laughing out loud at the premiere episode. It’s still reality programming and features a cast of characters who might well do anything to get on television. But there is something about this group that made them different from the usual models turned actors who inhabit the TV screen so much of the time.
The show stars chef Jean Christophe Novelli billed as a “world renowned Michelin and 5AA Rosette award-winning chef with restaurants in London, France and South Africa, and voted ‘World’s Sexiest Chef’ by the New York Times,” according to Bravo’s press release. French born and residing in London, his Novelli Academy Cookery School in the UK has placed in the “Top 25 Cookery Schools in the World” and now he wants to open a similar school on Venice Beach in California.
I’ll admit I had never heard of him and some of the contestants who want to cook with him said the same thing. But he’s excited to come to America with his pregnant fiancé and run this cooking school for passionate students. They are picked up at the airport by his new assistant Joel, who comes right out of central casting to be a foil in this cozy group of foodies as he doesn’t cook and knows nothing about food. But Joel’s qualified because he was Tori Spelling’s assistant.
Novelli doesn’t seem to know who the 90210 girl is but asks his eager new assistant to do whatever he has to arrange a meeting with Columbo, his favorite television detective. After a debate about whether actor Peter Falk is dead or alive, Novelli does his own impression of the actor. The subject of Columbo comes up again when he meets his chef students. Go figure.
So what made me laugh? Novelli and his stateside sous chef interview 15 candidates for the school. This almost goes by too fast as some of them are real characters, including the 47-year-old Valley Girl housewife who comes in with a food basket bribe; and the 26-year-old bride-to-be who has been ordered to learn to cook by her future mother-in-law.
Then the real laugh riot starts when chef brings in a little single burner and well-worn pan and rows of eggs and herbs, cheese and mushrooms. Cook me eggs, anyway, he tells each candidate. Most of them fail miserably, which, of course, begs the question of their passion for cooking. He is most horrified when several of them pick up the minced garlic in a jar to use instead of the fresh garlic. They burn things, don’t finish and one almost cries.
From this he selects a few real chefs: a Navy chef who cooked on a submarine and a culinary school grad, along with a motley crew who may succeed in the kitchen yet.
At least they’ve made me care if they do in this first episode.
Source
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Ruth Reichl still reigns as queen of America's culinary scene
NOBODY KNOWS more about what Americans are cooking and eating than Ruth Reichl. As a food writer and restaurant critic for both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times as well as the author of several best-selling memoirs, she's established herself as a keen observer of the American culinary revolution.
She served as editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine from 1999 until its demise this fall and picked up a James Beard Award for coproducing the PBS series "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie." With all of it, Reichl has helped foster an American food culture that celebrates seasonal, regional and artisanal cuisine like never before. It would not be an overstatement to describe her as the most influential food person in America today.
"I don't wear the mantle lightly," she recently confided over lunch at Seattle's Tamarind Tree restaurant. "I mean, I feel so lucky. I can't believe I get to be me." At the same time, she is fully aware that her position didn't just happen. "I've probably done everything in the food industry you can do except go to culinary school."
The Pacific Northwest, she added, is one of the places that helped forge her sense of a food culture.
Born in 1948 in New York City, Reichl attended the University of Michigan, where she met her first husband, the artist Doug Hollis. In 1970, when she graduated with a master's degree in art history, she and Hollis came to Washington to work with sculptor Buster Simpson at what would become Pilchuck Glass School.
At Pilchuck, "we cooked communal meals. We would get this amazing salmon from the Lummi Indian tribe and cook it over an alder fire. I would gather berries and apples for pie, and we would have these feasts! It's no wonder that a potlatch culture developed here. It's one of the only places in the world where nature just gives you everything you need."
For years, after she moved to Berkeley, Calif., Reichl and Hollis would come up to visit Simpson, who moved to Belltown in 1972. "He built this crazy oven from the insides of a commercial washing machine, and we would come every Thanksgiving and roast a turkey in his Belltown loft."
In California, Reichl had joined the Swallow restaurant as a chef and co-owner. "I was really lucky in that I had the opportunity to do what I did when I did it, because I got to learn everything on the job. Now, you would have to have all sorts of training."
These days, she says, "I want to use my position to influence this emerging food culture." At Gourmet, she'd found an audience that needed to be converted. "Ten years ago, when I took the helm of the magazine, they would never have run stories about farmers and about social-justice issues."
Eating, she contends, "is an ethical act, and every choice we make in the kitchen impacts the world." She hopes that the new "Gourmet Today" cookbook — larded with little essays on topics ranging from heirloom vegetables to sustainable seafood — will encourage people to make better choices in the kitchen, but the first step is "just to get people cooking" again.
Even after she learned that Gourmet was folding, Reichl continued the cookbook tour, "tweeting" to report on what she was eating on the road and how people were responding to the book. In an e-mail sent a week after the magazine shut down, she wrote, "Gourmet was a magazine that meant so much to so many people, and they reacted as if a trusted family member had died." But that apparently has not slowed her down.
A new PBS series, "Adventures with Ruth" premiered in October; it chronicles Reichl's visits to cooking schools all over the world. (One episode was taped in Seattle with yours truly as the cooking instructor.) Now, she's planning a fifth book in her series of memoirs based on the years she spent at Condé Nast. One way or another, she says, she'll continue to spread the word about the importance of cooking and eating consciously.
Source
She served as editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine from 1999 until its demise this fall and picked up a James Beard Award for coproducing the PBS series "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie." With all of it, Reichl has helped foster an American food culture that celebrates seasonal, regional and artisanal cuisine like never before. It would not be an overstatement to describe her as the most influential food person in America today.
"I don't wear the mantle lightly," she recently confided over lunch at Seattle's Tamarind Tree restaurant. "I mean, I feel so lucky. I can't believe I get to be me." At the same time, she is fully aware that her position didn't just happen. "I've probably done everything in the food industry you can do except go to culinary school."
The Pacific Northwest, she added, is one of the places that helped forge her sense of a food culture.
Born in 1948 in New York City, Reichl attended the University of Michigan, where she met her first husband, the artist Doug Hollis. In 1970, when she graduated with a master's degree in art history, she and Hollis came to Washington to work with sculptor Buster Simpson at what would become Pilchuck Glass School.
At Pilchuck, "we cooked communal meals. We would get this amazing salmon from the Lummi Indian tribe and cook it over an alder fire. I would gather berries and apples for pie, and we would have these feasts! It's no wonder that a potlatch culture developed here. It's one of the only places in the world where nature just gives you everything you need."
For years, after she moved to Berkeley, Calif., Reichl and Hollis would come up to visit Simpson, who moved to Belltown in 1972. "He built this crazy oven from the insides of a commercial washing machine, and we would come every Thanksgiving and roast a turkey in his Belltown loft."
In California, Reichl had joined the Swallow restaurant as a chef and co-owner. "I was really lucky in that I had the opportunity to do what I did when I did it, because I got to learn everything on the job. Now, you would have to have all sorts of training."
These days, she says, "I want to use my position to influence this emerging food culture." At Gourmet, she'd found an audience that needed to be converted. "Ten years ago, when I took the helm of the magazine, they would never have run stories about farmers and about social-justice issues."
Eating, she contends, "is an ethical act, and every choice we make in the kitchen impacts the world." She hopes that the new "Gourmet Today" cookbook — larded with little essays on topics ranging from heirloom vegetables to sustainable seafood — will encourage people to make better choices in the kitchen, but the first step is "just to get people cooking" again.
Even after she learned that Gourmet was folding, Reichl continued the cookbook tour, "tweeting" to report on what she was eating on the road and how people were responding to the book. In an e-mail sent a week after the magazine shut down, she wrote, "Gourmet was a magazine that meant so much to so many people, and they reacted as if a trusted family member had died." But that apparently has not slowed her down.
A new PBS series, "Adventures with Ruth" premiered in October; it chronicles Reichl's visits to cooking schools all over the world. (One episode was taped in Seattle with yours truly as the cooking instructor.) Now, she's planning a fifth book in her series of memoirs based on the years she spent at Condé Nast. One way or another, she says, she'll continue to spread the word about the importance of cooking and eating consciously.
Source
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CA School's Culinary Arts Program Teaches World Culture, Racial Acceptance
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of school lunch?
Transport yourself back to your elementary school cafeteria. Are you shuddering at the haunting memory of the combined odor of sloppy joes and Tater Tots? Or perhaps having flashbacks of hair-nets, hash browns and hotdogs?
Kids at Aveson Global Leadership Academy in Los Angeles, California will likely have different - dare I say fonder? - memories of their school lunches than most of us. They may recall that time they couldn't have a side salad on Pizza Day because the lettuce from their school's organic garden was so fresh that cafeteria staff couldn't get rid of the tiny little ladybugs dancing all over the greens. Or maybe they'll remember the exact moment at which the interconnectedness of world cultures really clicked for them the day they prepared and sampled strikingly similar staple foods from around the world.
"We find it really important to break down cultural barriers and help students understand not only tolerance but acceptance of other cultures," said Lowell Bernstein, co-founder of Aveson Global Leadership Academy and Director of the school's groundbreaking Healthy Living and Culinary Arts Program. "When we teach our students about community and the integration of other cultures into our pluralistic tapestry here in Los Angeles, we find that one of the best ways to do it is in the kitchen and around the table."
As a member of the Asia Society International Studies Schools Network, a partnership of school districts and charter authorities across the country who are implementing creative strategies to successfully engage students in global learning, Aveson's Healthy Living and Culinary Arts program vertically integrates its international curriculum throughout all grade levels to create an intergenerational, globally competent community.
If you step into the Aveson dining room during lunchtime, you won't find long tables arranged in rows and settled by the usual public school cliques. Bernstein has thought this through down to the details. "Our students dine at round tables that allow everyone to look at each other and enjoy a shared experience," said Bernstein who also acknowledged the embarrassment felt by some kids from different ethnic backgrounds whose leftovers may look 'weird' to most kids in comparison to a Lunchable. "By providing them with a lunch, we're trying to get students to share in their dining experience so that we can support a discussion about what it is that we have in common rather than what it is that makes us different."
Source
Transport yourself back to your elementary school cafeteria. Are you shuddering at the haunting memory of the combined odor of sloppy joes and Tater Tots? Or perhaps having flashbacks of hair-nets, hash browns and hotdogs?
Kids at Aveson Global Leadership Academy in Los Angeles, California will likely have different - dare I say fonder? - memories of their school lunches than most of us. They may recall that time they couldn't have a side salad on Pizza Day because the lettuce from their school's organic garden was so fresh that cafeteria staff couldn't get rid of the tiny little ladybugs dancing all over the greens. Or maybe they'll remember the exact moment at which the interconnectedness of world cultures really clicked for them the day they prepared and sampled strikingly similar staple foods from around the world.
"We find it really important to break down cultural barriers and help students understand not only tolerance but acceptance of other cultures," said Lowell Bernstein, co-founder of Aveson Global Leadership Academy and Director of the school's groundbreaking Healthy Living and Culinary Arts Program. "When we teach our students about community and the integration of other cultures into our pluralistic tapestry here in Los Angeles, we find that one of the best ways to do it is in the kitchen and around the table."
As a member of the Asia Society International Studies Schools Network, a partnership of school districts and charter authorities across the country who are implementing creative strategies to successfully engage students in global learning, Aveson's Healthy Living and Culinary Arts program vertically integrates its international curriculum throughout all grade levels to create an intergenerational, globally competent community.
If you step into the Aveson dining room during lunchtime, you won't find long tables arranged in rows and settled by the usual public school cliques. Bernstein has thought this through down to the details. "Our students dine at round tables that allow everyone to look at each other and enjoy a shared experience," said Bernstein who also acknowledged the embarrassment felt by some kids from different ethnic backgrounds whose leftovers may look 'weird' to most kids in comparison to a Lunchable. "By providing them with a lunch, we're trying to get students to share in their dining experience so that we can support a discussion about what it is that we have in common rather than what it is that makes us different."
Source
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Executive chef views food as art
Mark LoParco will insist it’s just a coincidence that the new executive chef for University of Montana Dining Services shares his name with UM’s mascot.
LoParco, the director of Dining Services, said the executive chef, Monty Colby, was hired for both his accomplishments and his talents.
“He really is a leading-edge chef,” LoParco said. “I’m really excited to work with this guy.”
When Colby steps into the head chef position Sept. 8, he will immediately take on all campus-wide culinary responsibilities.
“He will be the chief culinary expert on campus,” LoParco said, which means he will be in charge of decisions that have to do with menus, catering, cooking and kitchen processes. He will also be the chief trainer for all culinary staff on campus.
Both LoParco and Colby acknowledge that this is a large responsibility, but Colby said he’s up to the challenge.
“I don’t want to come across as full of myself,” Colby said, “but I am confident.”
Speaking to Colby, it’s evident that he’s aware of his abilities. With measured pride, he talks about the time he was hired by the Lexus car company to suspend an edible Lexus logo in a backlit giant platform of gelatin for a convention of Lexus employees. He’s nonchalant about being a guest on the “Today” show to promote a live cooking show he’d developed for audiences in California. During his appearance, he and his co-host chop food with gardening tools, cut up bananas blindfolded and play vegetables like a guitar.
“Kind of like Wayne’s World,” he said.
Colby said that, although he has a showy attitude about his cooking, it’s not as if he didn’t earn it.
“I went to school, and I learned the foundations of cooking,” he said. “Only by knowing the rules, can you break them properly.”
A 1995 graduate of the world-class culinary school Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Colby went to work for hotels all over California, applying a philosophy of self-expression to all his culinary endeavors.
In his younger years, Colby, now 52, played guitar in a rock band that toured the west coast with such cult bands as .38 Special and the Lover Boys. But as time passed, Colby said, “It just got old.”
So Colby chose cooking as another way to express his creativity.
“It was an artistic choice,” he said.
It was this creativity that LoParco said cemented Colby’s position with UM Dining Services.
After one round of applications and interviews failed to yield a viable executive chef candidate, Dining Services went on a national search which drew in so many applicants that the committee responsible for reviewing and hiring them devised a two-tier system to organize the possible employees, LoParco said. Colby was immediately placed in the first tier.
Colby made his way through an initial phone interview, then a face-to-face with the committee before competing with three other applicants in a kitchen practical in which the chefs were ordered to cook a three-course meal for six.
LoParco said Colby’s entire menu was made up on the spot as the day progressed.
“That’s pretty darn impressive,” LoParco said.
Colby said his approach to food as an art is what sets him apart as a chef. When he arrives to take over the executive chef position, he wants to add that artistry to the menus on campus.
“I don’t like to keep up with trends,” he said. “I’m ahead of the trends.”
Source
LoParco, the director of Dining Services, said the executive chef, Monty Colby, was hired for both his accomplishments and his talents.
“He really is a leading-edge chef,” LoParco said. “I’m really excited to work with this guy.”
When Colby steps into the head chef position Sept. 8, he will immediately take on all campus-wide culinary responsibilities.
“He will be the chief culinary expert on campus,” LoParco said, which means he will be in charge of decisions that have to do with menus, catering, cooking and kitchen processes. He will also be the chief trainer for all culinary staff on campus.
Both LoParco and Colby acknowledge that this is a large responsibility, but Colby said he’s up to the challenge.
“I don’t want to come across as full of myself,” Colby said, “but I am confident.”
Speaking to Colby, it’s evident that he’s aware of his abilities. With measured pride, he talks about the time he was hired by the Lexus car company to suspend an edible Lexus logo in a backlit giant platform of gelatin for a convention of Lexus employees. He’s nonchalant about being a guest on the “Today” show to promote a live cooking show he’d developed for audiences in California. During his appearance, he and his co-host chop food with gardening tools, cut up bananas blindfolded and play vegetables like a guitar.
“Kind of like Wayne’s World,” he said.
Colby said that, although he has a showy attitude about his cooking, it’s not as if he didn’t earn it.
“I went to school, and I learned the foundations of cooking,” he said. “Only by knowing the rules, can you break them properly.”
A 1995 graduate of the world-class culinary school Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Colby went to work for hotels all over California, applying a philosophy of self-expression to all his culinary endeavors.
In his younger years, Colby, now 52, played guitar in a rock band that toured the west coast with such cult bands as .38 Special and the Lover Boys. But as time passed, Colby said, “It just got old.”
So Colby chose cooking as another way to express his creativity.
“It was an artistic choice,” he said.
It was this creativity that LoParco said cemented Colby’s position with UM Dining Services.
After one round of applications and interviews failed to yield a viable executive chef candidate, Dining Services went on a national search which drew in so many applicants that the committee responsible for reviewing and hiring them devised a two-tier system to organize the possible employees, LoParco said. Colby was immediately placed in the first tier.
Colby made his way through an initial phone interview, then a face-to-face with the committee before competing with three other applicants in a kitchen practical in which the chefs were ordered to cook a three-course meal for six.
LoParco said Colby’s entire menu was made up on the spot as the day progressed.
“That’s pretty darn impressive,” LoParco said.
Colby said his approach to food as an art is what sets him apart as a chef. When he arrives to take over the executive chef position, he wants to add that artistry to the menus on campus.
“I don’t like to keep up with trends,” he said. “I’m ahead of the trends.”
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
Phoenix culinary students to face Iron Chef
Three students from The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Phoenix are headed to “Iron Chef America.”
Students Katelyn Remick, Julie Fiedler and Tyler Burke will battle Iron Chef Michael Symon on the Food Network show Sept. 27. The face-off marks the first time culinary students will compete on the show, which typically features chefs from around the county pitting their cooking skills against one of the program’s stable of Iron Chefs.
The Art Institute team has been together for more than two years, receiving two gold and two silver medals in state and regional American Culinary Federation competitions, said Eric Watson, associate instructor and assistant academic director at the school.
“Iron Chef America” is based on the Japanese hit show, that pits world-class chefs against each other cooking with a “secret ingredient” unveiled at the beginning of the face-off.
Source
Students Katelyn Remick, Julie Fiedler and Tyler Burke will battle Iron Chef Michael Symon on the Food Network show Sept. 27. The face-off marks the first time culinary students will compete on the show, which typically features chefs from around the county pitting their cooking skills against one of the program’s stable of Iron Chefs.
The Art Institute team has been together for more than two years, receiving two gold and two silver medals in state and regional American Culinary Federation competitions, said Eric Watson, associate instructor and assistant academic director at the school.
“Iron Chef America” is based on the Japanese hit show, that pits world-class chefs against each other cooking with a “secret ingredient” unveiled at the beginning of the face-off.
Source
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
California Culinary Schools
When people think of California, famous people and exotic beaches come to mind. California isn't just as famous as its Hollywood stars, but it also is known for some of the finest culinary schools in the country. As we all know, California is one of the world most well known cities, and a huge tourist attraction, so you can expect to find great food here. With great food, comes great culinary schools.
The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute of California, located in Los Angeles, is one of the most well known culinary schools in California, if not in the USA. The school offers a variety of programs and for this reason has become quite famous. Their school focuses primarily on proper technique, as well as how to apply seasonal ingredients while cooking. They offer full time programs, as well as part time programs for those who are looking for a part time hobby. The training received here will prepare you for becoming a chef, or cooking like a pro if you're just in it for passion!
California Culinary Academy in San Francisco is one of the many branches of the Le Cordon Bleu culinary program. Whether you are looking to improve your cooking skills for personal use, or you are working to becoming a professional chef, this Culinary School is designed to take your cooking skill to the next level. There will be hands-on approach to learning all there is to cooking in the real kitchen environment. Perfect for beginners.
Another well known institution to consider is the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. It is affiliated to the famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary program. In Pasadena, you will receive the proper education needed to advance in the culinary field. Attending Pasadena will open many doors for you once you complete the program. Aside from this, the school is located close to several wine regions, and is also very close to a cuisine capital, Hollywood.
For those who are looking at entering a California Culinary School, these three should be considered very closely. As shown above, they are three schools that will prepare you with cooking skills that you can use for whatever purpose you are entering the schools. Whether it is to become a chef, to run a catering business or to open your own restaurant, enrolling in one of California culinary schools pave the way to a successful career in culinary arts.
Source
The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute of California, located in Los Angeles, is one of the most well known culinary schools in California, if not in the USA. The school offers a variety of programs and for this reason has become quite famous. Their school focuses primarily on proper technique, as well as how to apply seasonal ingredients while cooking. They offer full time programs, as well as part time programs for those who are looking for a part time hobby. The training received here will prepare you for becoming a chef, or cooking like a pro if you're just in it for passion!
California Culinary Academy in San Francisco is one of the many branches of the Le Cordon Bleu culinary program. Whether you are looking to improve your cooking skills for personal use, or you are working to becoming a professional chef, this Culinary School is designed to take your cooking skill to the next level. There will be hands-on approach to learning all there is to cooking in the real kitchen environment. Perfect for beginners.
Another well known institution to consider is the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. It is affiliated to the famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary program. In Pasadena, you will receive the proper education needed to advance in the culinary field. Attending Pasadena will open many doors for you once you complete the program. Aside from this, the school is located close to several wine regions, and is also very close to a cuisine capital, Hollywood.
For those who are looking at entering a California Culinary School, these three should be considered very closely. As shown above, they are three schools that will prepare you with cooking skills that you can use for whatever purpose you are entering the schools. Whether it is to become a chef, to run a catering business or to open your own restaurant, enrolling in one of California culinary schools pave the way to a successful career in culinary arts.
Source
Thursday, August 20, 2009
California Culinary Academy
At California Culinary Academy, a tradition of excellence awaits you. Founded as one of the West's first culinary arts schools, California Culinary Academy has been committed to providing the highest standard of culinary arts and personal chef training since 1977, giving the student unparalleled instruction in both classical and contemporary techniques as well as educating the senses. Now we're partnering with Le Cordon Bleu, a world-renowned culinary and hospitality program, to enhance our culinary training and to offer hospitality and restaurant management training.
We offer:
A Le Cordon Bleu education in as little as 18 months.
California Culinary Academy allows students to earn a Specialized Associates Degree in Culinary Arts in as little as 18 months. In addition, graduates of the program also earn the coveted Le Cordon Bleu diplôma!
A Unique location.
San Francisco boasts one of the largest concentrations of restaurants and hotels in the country, giving us a great pool of resources when handpicking our instructors and selecting establishments for externships. Plus, the surrounding Northern California valleys produce the finest ingredients for our future chefs, from fresh produce and free-range meats to exceptional wines and specialty cheeses.
Financial aid for those who qualify.
Many of our students use financial aid to help with their college costs. Our friendly Financial Aid staff will assist you through the financial aid application process. We've helped many students just like you. Financial Aid is available for those who qualify.
Career placement assistance.
California Culinary Academy is part of the Career Education Corporation network, and CEC is pleased to make placement assistance available for our graduates and alumni. Our schools have global access to candidates and job opportunities from our domestic and international sites. Career Services departments are located on many of our campuses and can help aid in securing employment that is both exciting and rewarding.
Source
We offer:
A Le Cordon Bleu education in as little as 18 months.
California Culinary Academy allows students to earn a Specialized Associates Degree in Culinary Arts in as little as 18 months. In addition, graduates of the program also earn the coveted Le Cordon Bleu diplôma!
A Unique location.
San Francisco boasts one of the largest concentrations of restaurants and hotels in the country, giving us a great pool of resources when handpicking our instructors and selecting establishments for externships. Plus, the surrounding Northern California valleys produce the finest ingredients for our future chefs, from fresh produce and free-range meats to exceptional wines and specialty cheeses.
Financial aid for those who qualify.
Many of our students use financial aid to help with their college costs. Our friendly Financial Aid staff will assist you through the financial aid application process. We've helped many students just like you. Financial Aid is available for those who qualify.
Career placement assistance.
California Culinary Academy is part of the Career Education Corporation network, and CEC is pleased to make placement assistance available for our graduates and alumni. Our schools have global access to candidates and job opportunities from our domestic and international sites. Career Services departments are located on many of our campuses and can help aid in securing employment that is both exciting and rewarding.
Source
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