The Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America
Put your culinary training to work for you—as an entrepreneur in a foodservice-related business. In addition to opening your own restaurant or pastry shop, you can start an enterprise that offers products or services that chefs need or that taps into the public's growing interest in food and cooking. Depending on the nature of your business, you'll manage manufacturing, marketing, sales, distribution, purchasing, and finance. As in any entrepreneurial venture, you'll need to combine a marketable idea with ambition, business acumen, and a lot of hard work.
Rochelle Huppin is the founder and president of the Chicago, IL-based Chefwear, Inc. and the executive pastry chef and founding partner of Beacon: An Asian Café, located in Los Angeles, CA. Growing up in Spokane, WA, the young Rochelle had her heart set on moving to Paris to study cooking, but her parents suggested she attend college in the United States first and then go to culinary school. … [Read more...]
It's convenient when you open an executive training company that uses culinary team building as its core to have a seasoned chef and a master trainer and facilitator running things. It's even more convenient when they're married and understand each other's strengths, style, and rhythm. Marcove Executive Training brilliantly benefits from the expertise of Jeff as chef and his wife Kathy as a team … [Read more...]
You can catch glimpses of him moving swiftly through the forest toting a black sack. And if his determined step makes you think he knows just where he is going and what he is looking for, you'd be right. For Jeremy, the woods of the Pacific Northwest are familiar and wonderful. Once a forestry major at the University of Vermont, Jeremy credits his deep love of the forest and his love of food with … [Read more...]
Chef Daniel got her start in the foodservice industry working in restaurant kitchens and private clubs as a line cook. She then worked in garde manger and as a pastry chef, expanding her dessert-making expertise at the Rose Café and Market in Venice, CA. In 1982, Chef Daniel was hired as sous chef and dessert cook for Chez Mélange Restaurant in Redondo Beach, CA. In addition to producing … [Read more...]
With seven years experience as director of food product development at Starbucks and years as director, menu and product development for Olive Garden, Mark began to recognize an unfilled niche when it came to organic foods in chain restaurants. So in 2005, he stepped away from his corporate job and started CuliNex, which offers companies of all sizes product development services focused on organic … [Read more...]
When writer R.H. Delaney penned the words "Love builds bridges where there are none," he could have been talking about George Chookazian '93. George met Cecilia Mahoney back in 8th grade when she was a cheerleader and he was a halfback, but it wasn't until 1989 when they were re-introduced by a friend that George became completely smitten. While dating, they discovered that she had celiac … [Read more...]
At a time when chefs and food trucks were members of distinctly different classes of the food world, Roy Choi rented a truck of his own and hit the streets of Los Angeles with his unique Mexican tacos stuffed with Korean BBQ-style meat. With a pedigree including The Culinary Institute of America, Le Bernardin, and the Beverly Hills Hilton, Chef Choi might not have seemed the most likely candidate … [Read more...]
Chef and consultant Richard Blais is best know for his appearances on Bravo's Top Chef. After his runner-up finish on the fourth season of the show, he returned to earn the Top Chef title in the All-Star season. He has also appeared on Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef America. Blais began his career making Filet-o-Fish sandwiches at McDonald's. (He jokes he was the restaurant's "poissonier.") … [Read more...]
As a cooking instructor, food writer, cookbook author, and food stylist, Jessica Bard has a full plate. After Jessica graduated with the CIA's first BPS class, she joined the team that produces the CIA's cookbooks. She stayed there for five years, setting up the foundation for a career that's brought her into the kitchens of major consumer magazines. Along the way, her book, An Apple and Art … [Read more...]
When you're in charge of every aspect of foodservice for an exclusive country club property, you have to maintain the highest standards and constantly raise the bar to delight your customers. Fortunately for Bart Messing '90, executive chef/director of operations for Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, FL, the CIA taught him well. "The first and most important thing the CIA does is give you … [Read more...]
