Entrepreneurs

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.

Victoria Nodarse ’08

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Certificate: ACAP Hometown: Miami, FL The Best-Laid Plans... Victoria Nodarse knew from a very young age that she wanted to own a restaurant. So, with her family’s encouragement, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Barry University in Miami Shores, FL and a master’s in hospitality management from Florida International University with that goal in mind. What specifically … [Read more...]

Corey Fair ’04

Corey Fair '04

Degree: AOS Major: Culinary Arts Hometown: Fort Worth, TX Home on the Range…and in the Kitchen Growing up on a wild game ranch with a thriving vegetable garden, Corey Fair knew all about sustainability before the term became a media catch phrase. “We raised game and hunted every day,” says Corey. “We didn’t have a lot, so the garden provided vegetable and herbs. The first thing I … [Read more...]

Rochelle Huppin ’87, Founder and President of Chefwear

Rochelle Huppin '87, Founder of Chefwear

Rochelle Huppin, founder and president of the Chicago, IL-based Chefwear, Inc., believes that chefs uniforms were born out of practicality and have always been an important facet of the profession. The double-breasted front panel jacket allows a chef to enter the dining room or service looking presentable. The hounds-tooth pattern acts as a camouflage. Today, the growing number of open kitchens … [Read more...]

Jeff Marcove ’98, Co-owner of Marcove Executive Training

Jeff Marcove '98 Co-owner of Marcove Executive Training

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...]

Jeremy Faber ’96, Founder of Foraged and Found Edibles

Jeremy Faber '96, Founder of Forraged and Found

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...]

Lori Daniel ’79, Co-Founder of Two Chefs on a Roll

Lori Daniel '79, Co-Founder of Two Chefs on a Roll

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...]

Mark Crowell, CRC ’78, Founder and Principal Culinologist at CuliNex

Mark Crowell, CRC ’78, Principal Culinologist at CuliNex

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...]

George Chookazian ’93 Founder of FoodbyGeorge

George Chookazian ’93 Founder of FoodbyGeorge

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...]

Roy Choi ’98, Co-owner of Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go

Roy Choi ’98, Co-owner of Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go

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...]

Richard Blais ’98 Founder of Trail Blais

Richard Blais '98

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...]