The Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America
Executive chefs are clearly at the helm and can be found working in restaurants, corporations, and school districts, just to name a few. With responsibility for oversight of everything from menu development to staff management, the executive chef must have the culinary skills and leadership experience to engage a team and create a compelling vision for the operation. The road to becoming an executive chef may include working up through the ranks of a single kitchen or corporation or taking ownership of your own restaurant. Whatever the path, it is the willingness to learn, define best practices, and lead that make a successful executive chef.
Degree: AOS Major: Culinary Arts Hometown: San Jose, CA From Cooking Secrets to Chopped Occasionally, and fortuitously, a passion in life is revealed in one’s formative years. For Christina Olivarez ’05, executive chef at Diego in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, hers was awakened as a young girl watching Saturday morning television. While her peers were tuning into The … [Read more...]
Degree: AOS Major: Culinary Arts Hometown: Lewiston, ME Four Life-Changing Words: “Come To My School” The career goals of Sergeant First Class Rene J. Marquis ’92, CEC, CCE, PCEC, CCA, AAC did not include the army, but two chance meetings would take the 19-year veteran to 52 countries around the world cooking, teaching, and competing while proudly serving his country. Rene’s … [Read more...]
Going Home is a Breeze The soft island breezes and fragrant smells of the island of Nevis were never far from Michael Henville’s mind when he was up north attending The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. “I never really acclimated to the northern climate, but the CIA made such an impact in my life I would do all four years over again in a heartbeat,” says Michael. Now back … [Read more...]
Chef Johnny Hernandez is living proof that you can come home again. He grew up in San Antonio, where his father, a Mexican migrant worker with a second grade education, had a restaurant. An entrepreneur even as a child, Johnny would take breakfast tacos from his dad’s restaurant and sell or barter them at school. Recognizing Johnny’s spirit and drive, his father urged him to get the best … [Read more...]
After years as the highly regarded executive chef for the award-winning, 325-seat Buddakan, in New York City's, Lon Symensma has headed west to open ChoLon, a modern Asian bistro, in Denver, CO. With its open kitchen, the restaurant invites patrons to enjoy the total dining experience. At first glance, the blond-haired, blue-eyed Iowa native might seem an unlikely representative for modern … [Read more...]
Executive Chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson is the charismatic chef and owner of Izakaya, a modern Japanese pub in Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, and the brand-new Sampan, an intimate modern Asian restaurant in Center City, Philadelphia. In addition, he is a natural television personality, and was the star of TLC's exciting new series "Ultimate Cake Off". A graduate of The … [Read more...]
Standing at the intersection of "art" and "commerce" you'll find Andy Nusser, partner and executive chef at Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, NY. The route he took to get there was illuminated by the influences of family, science, serendipity, and his own inevitable passion. Andy came from a family that was serious about both eating (his father founded The Santa Barbara Eating Society) and the arts … [Read more...]
Pano I. Karatassos is executive chef of Kyma, Atlanta's most exciting Greek restaurant concept. A celebrated young talent in the culinary industry, he has made significant contributions to his family's business, Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, and to fine dining throughout the country. Prior to assuming his current role, Chef Karatassos worked at prestigious restaurants around the U.S. He spent … [Read more...]
I attribute my success in life to three things," says Marcel Desaulniers. "A great upbringing, my service in the Marine Corps, and the CIA." And what success he's had. The former executive chef and co-owner of The Trellis Café, Restaurant, and Grill in Williamsburg, VA, Marcel is also a prolific cookbook author perhaps best known for Death by Chocolate. In addition, Marcel, his restaurant, and … [Read more...]
As executive chef for the public school system, Jorge Collazo is on the front lines of New York City's school food revolution inspired by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Child First initiative. Jorge is involved in training, developing culinary concepts, writing standards, reformulating recipes, and collaborating with manufacturers to offer superior nutritional choices to young students. Since he … [Read more...]
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