This conference is about chefs talking with other chefs. No other conference in the foodservice industry does this. 

 

From our inception, C&RB’s editors recognized the need for a club-specific forum for sharing innovative ideas, solutions, and best practices for food-and-beverage operations. That is why we made “Food & Beverage” and “Chef to Chef” two of the central editorial pillars of the magazine. You responded enthusiastically, and our monthly F&B features are consistently among the best-read, most popular sections of each issue.

Not surprisingly, while researching these articles we learned that club chefs are highly skilled, dedicated to the industry, and constantly on the lookout for new ways to enhance their operations. It soon became apparent to us, in fact, that a relevant and dedicated conference for club chefs was needed, to take this idea-sharing forum to the next level.

To that end, we launched our Chef to Chef Conference last year at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. It was a huge success, for two good reasons:

1. Led by Jerry Schreck, Executive Chef at Merion Golf Club, all of the Conference content was designed by club chefs, for club chefs, with 95% of the Conference agenda developed and presented by practicing club culinarians.

2. This peer-to-peer forum went well beyond culinary concepts (club chefs already know how to cook) to include practical, club-specific, experience-based insights into the key issues that must be addressed to achieve success with food-and-beverage programs not only today, but in the future.

There is no doubt that successful clubs have embraced the reality that food-and-beverage operations need to be significantly more competitive, not just with other clubs, but with the commercial world. This is a great thing for our industry, as “club food” has evolved into the dining option of choice, rather than of convenience—or worse, to fulfill a monthly food minimum.

If you are looking to take your club’s F&B operations to the next level, we encourage you to join us—and bring one or more members of your F&B team—at the second annual Chef to Chef Conference, March 7-9, 2010, at the Four Seasons Resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Once again, this year’s Conference content is compelling and will be presented by some of the top names in the industry from some of the industry’s leading properties. You can check out the full agenda and speaker lineup (and register for the conference) at www.CheftoChefConference.com; there’s also a Conference Preview in this issue.

If I have piqued your interest, here are just a few of the benefits you and your team will derive from participating at this year’s Conference:

• The keynote speaker is former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib, who will kick things off by highlighting “The Next Big Opportunities for Club Cuisine” and providing other insights around this year’s Conference theme, “Making Club Cuisine Special.”

• The Chef to Chef Conference represents an unmatched networking opportunity for attendees who can meet, and discuss problems and solutions that work, with other top club chefs from around the country—properties from 28 states were represented at the 2009 Conference.

• Attendees will earn continuing education credits from the American Culinary Federation and the Club Managers Association of America.

• While we have all tightened our budgets and operations, events like these are huge morale builders for your club’s culinary staff. And they’ll walk away with fresh solutions for seemingly intractable problems.

I strongly encourage you to be part of what one chef who attended last year called “the best conference in all of foodservice. This conference is about chefs talking with other chefs,” he said. “No other conference in the foodservice industry does this.”

See you in Palm Beach.