Food demos and presentations by a slate of chefs at the top of the club industry started the first full day of sessions on March 5 in Seattle. Brandon Gross of The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington in Washington, D.C., won the Mystery Basket competition held in the evening.
The first full day of demos and presentation at the 2018 Chef to Chef Conference began on March 5 at the Westin Seattle.
The day began with an informative session on food and wine pairings, presented by the duo of Robert Mancuso, CMC, Executive Chef, Bohemian Club in San Francisco, and Martin Reyes, Master of Wine and Chief Wine Officer of Peter Paul Wines in Sonoma County, Calif.
The morning continued with the return of keynote speaker Brad Barnes, CMC, CCA, AAC, Director of Consulting and Industry Programs at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., who presented on developing plant-forward menus that are delicious, innovative and sustainable.
After a brief sponsor table visit, Kevin Brennan, Executive Chef of the Detroit Athletic Club shared how his team came to prepare dinner at the James Beard House, and the logistics and unique challenges of the event.
Just before breaking for lunch, John Garber, Jr., CSP, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, KMRD Partners/Villanova University discussed the “minefield of human capital” with a discussion on human resources and risk management issues.
After lunch, Penelope Wong, Executive Chef of Glenmoor Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., put together a chef panel to discuss certification, saying no to members, and other “burning issues.”
The day’s education events wrapped up with the ever-popular Chef to Chef Live, with six separate breakout rooms to give each chef the opportunity to speak up and discuss ideas and offer operational insights. Moderators for the rooms included Joey Abitabilo, Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Charlestown, R.I.; Greg Volle, Country Club of Roswell (Ga.); Jerry Schreck, Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa.; Nelson Millan, San Antonio Country Club; Eric Floyd, Washington Athletic Club in Seattle; Randy Zerfass, Lehigh Country Club, Allentown, Pa.; and John Wagner, Sunnybrook Golf Club in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
An evening reception included the Mystery Basket competition, in which competitors (Thomas Mitchell, Kenwood Golf & Country Club, Bethesda, Md.; James Haberstroh, Glen Ridge (N.J.) Country Club; Brandon Gross, The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, Washington, D.C.; and Brittany Gambrell, Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, N.C.) faced off in preparing a plate with mystery ingredients in 20 minutes. After taste testing and deliberation, Gross was name the winner.
March 5 marks the first full day of conference sessions—click here to view the agenda and tune into Club & Resort Business’ and C&RB’s Chef to Chef’s and Twitter accounts for live coverage of the event, including photos, using hashtag #cheftochef2018.
Presentation materials for the first day of sessions can be found on the Chef to Chef Conference website, here.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.