Spring is a new beginning—one filled with possibility and opportunity, both culinary and otherwise. It’s a time to jumpstart your menus, be inspired by seasonal ingredients, reengage your staff and strategize for the year ahead.
I love ramps. For me, they’re one of the first signs of spring. Once they become available, the bounty of this awesome season isn’t far behind.
Spring is a new beginning—one filled with possibility and opportunity, both culinary and otherwise. It’s a time to jumpstart your menus, be inspired by seasonal ingredients, reengage your staff and strategize for the year ahead.
Spring is also a time to try new things. I just acquired a vacuum sealer and precision cooker because I want to try my hand at sous vide. (Why not, right?)
Truth be told, I was inspired by our eighth annual Chef to Chef Conference in San Diego last month. The excitement and energy in the room was as palpable as the start of spring. And many of the presentations and shared ideas were enlightening.
Attendees were eager to learn and connect both in the education sessions and outside of them. Chefs shared challenges, discovered that they aren’t alone in having those challenges, and came up with creative and out-of-the-box ways to better their operations and themselves.
Then, after each successful day of learning and listening, groups of chefs broke off to find the best, trendiest and most interesting restaurants in town. Dining together, we shared plates, tried new things and found off-the-wall ideas that just might work on the menus at your clubs.
C&RB’s Chef to Chef is such a unique vehicle. It serves as a platform for an audience unlike any other in foodservice, with varied needs, unique challenges and incredible talent. At the end of the presentation on meeting special dietary needs that was given by Michael Matarazzo, CEC, Executive Chef, Farmington Country Club, Charlottesville, Va., he asked attendees to connect with him, to keep the spirit of the conference going.
The end of the conference, Chef Matarazzo said, shouldn’t be the end of the conversation. And it’s not.
C&RB’s Chef to Chef has a growing LinkedIn group that can connect you with one another to share ideas and to literally keep the conversation going. Join us!
We’ve also redesigned our weekly food-and-beverage e-newsletter. Besides having a more user- and mobile-friendly design, we’re highlighting a handful of club-specific stories written by us, videos of club and resort chefs, recipes, products and news. We’re even in the beginning stages of working with some club chef-bloggers who will further the mission of connecting chefs with chefs. (If you’re interested in blogging, shoot me an e-mail: [email protected])
The Conference may have ended on March 2nd, but spring has sprung and the momentum to elevate your food-and-beverage operations, your menus and yourselves is stronger than ever—and will carry us through to next year, when we meet again in Atlanta, March 5-7, 2017.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.