Kapi’olani CC Faculty Chef Gale O’Malley.
By Staff Reports
(HONOLULU) – Chef Gale O’Malley is being presented with the Joseph Amendola Award given by the prestigious American Academy of Chefs of the American Culinary Federation. Each year since 2008, this national award has recognized a Pastry Chef or Master Baker who has shown dedication and commitment to the profession and by especially mentoring young individuals who will be future pastry chefs. Chef O`Malley is the first in Hawaiʻi to win this award.
Joseph Amendola was an exceptional culinary educator, author of pioneer textbooks on baking and ice carving and a mainstay of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) for over 60 years.
Amendola has been referred to as the “teacher who teaches the teachers.” He was a mentor to thousands of fledgling chefs at the CIA and was revered by countless colleagues worldwide. Amendola was a true icon. Despite his numerous awards from the American Culinary Federation and almost every other chef’s association and 3 Amendola libraries, Joseph Amendola remained modest and lived by the humble motto, “make time for people.”
It is as if Kapiʻolani CC’s Gale O’Malley walked in the footsteps of the legendary Joseph Amendola. Amendola mentored the young Gale O`Malley and encouraged O`Malley to pursue the art of baking even at the time when there was no curriculum for this art. Chef O`Malley received an Associate’s Degree in Baking/Pastry from the Culinary Institute of America and is certified as an Executive Pastry Chef. He is a member of the American Culinary Federation, the American Academy of Chefs, and was a member of the United States Culinary Olympic Team. In 1981, Chef O`Malley received the Medal of the French Government, making him the youngest and first American-born pastry chef to do so. This award is considered to be the most coveted award given to a chef in the United States.
Before coming to Kapiʻolani CC, Chef O`Malley served as the Executive Chef for the Los Angeles Country Club in California, the Hilton Short Hills in New Jersey, the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
