Culinary and Hospitality

May 28, 2021 – Usually tucked away in a far corner of a sprawling building in a room without a view, high school guidance counselors diligently guide the next generation to their futures. As a high school senior in upstate New York, Michael Ty, chef, culinary entrepreneur, Conseiller Culinaire for the Far West region and Vice Conseiller Culinaire for Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, met with his guidance counselor to learn the results of an aptitude test he took as a junior. The test indicated Michael had strong skills for a career in banking and finance. “I just could not see myself sitting behind a desk in a shirt and tie,” Michael said to Chaîne during a Feb. 23, 2021 telephone interview. Michael asked his counselor if there was another strength revealed by the test. The counselor told him he also scored high in Home Economics. “Are you kidding?” Michael replied.

More than 40 years ago when he attended high school, Home Economics classes primarily taught homemaking skills to girls. Michael equated Home Economics to “Susie Homemaker.” He never thought those courses were a path to a career although upon reflection, he attributes his mother with his interest in cooking. “She loved to cook and made good meals,” Michael said. As an immigrant family in the 1960s, he said he took refuge in the kitchen helping her cook.

His guidance counselor broadened his horizon about Home Economics by introducing Michael to the world of culinary arts as a profession as they reviewed his aptitude test. He could definitely see what his counselor described as his future so he enrolled in the culinary arts program at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cobleskill. “I fell in love with the program and that’s how my career started,” Michael said.

After graduating with an Associate of Science degree in Culinary Arts, he began his career locally. However, the College of Hard Knocks soon enrolled Michael but education, culinary arts excellence, and the courage of his convictions enabled Michael to overcome obstacles in the early days of his career.

He was working in the restaurant division of a local company when management changed. With a promotion, he asked why he was not being compensated at the level of the person who previously held the position. He was told he needed to prove himself and would be evaluated in six months. He performed as expected but six months came and went without an increase in compensation. At the same time, his aunt from Las Vegas reached out to him about coming to work in Las Vegas. She had connections and could get him a job at Caesars Palace as a sous chef, she told him. So he resigned his position, packed his bags and moved to Las Vegas in 1975 even though the local company offered to raise his salary if he would stay.

“It was time to move on to where I get compensated for what I’m worth,” Michael said. And he followed his convictions. “If they lied to me the first time, what’s going to prevent them from lying to me the second time.” He headed west.

Once in Las Vegas, the job his aunt promised she could secure for him did not materialize. Michael was unemployed and on his own in a new city.

He found a job on the lowest rung of the kitchen brigade ladder. Within two years, he landed a job as a sous chef at Caesars Palace. At age 28, he became the youngest non-European Executive Chef at a major resort on the Las Vegas strip.

Michael has watched Las Vegas grow by leaps and bounds since the 1970s and that growth includes fine dining. Known for its round-the-clock buffets, the feasts are just one part of the Vegas culinary scene, Michael said. For many years, Las Vegas has had the same top chefs and fine dining as the rest of the world, he added. When he worked at Caesars Palace, they would serve from 30,000 to 40,000 meals per day with a kitchen brigade of 550 employees.

However, the College of Hard Knocks would not let Michael graduate. As an employee, he was always subject to management changes and the whims of CEOs so Michael decided to put his destiny in his own hands.

“I would not be put in a position to worry about putting food on the table,” Michael said.

Culinary Entrepreneur

In 1993, Michael established his own company – Hospitality Culinaire Inc. – and it did not take long for him to navigate this new world of culinary entrepreneurship. In 1994, he bid on several options at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. He was awarded one QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) – a TCBY store. In 2012, Michael opened his first Jamba Juice at a different gate and opened a second one in 2016 in another terminal. In 2019, he had the top two highest grossing locations of the 850 Jamba restaurants around the world. His original store closed in 2019 and opened as his third Jamba location just before the pandemic. Jamba serves smoothies and other food, including popular Acai Bowls.

Michael also has another business, called “MT Cuisine, LLC,” which sells chef apparel and high quality disposable chef toques. Apparently, his high school aptitude test was spot on!

The pandemic of course has deeply impacted Las Vegas. One of the top spots in the world for conventions and tourism, Michael’s revenue is down 60 percent from the year before COVID but he is sustaining the business. He is not losing money but not making a lot either, he said. In a May 25, 2021 email, Michael said that as of June 1, most hotels will be open to full capacity although two or three are still closed. And similar to what is being reported everywhere, Michael cannot open his stores completely because of a labor shortage.

Young Chefs Competition

Now semi-retired, Michael is supporting young culinarians through Chaîne’s Young Chefs program of regional and national competitions to prepare young chefs to succeed in their profession and compete on the international stage. Michael and Chef Reimund Pitz are the administrators for Chaîne’s upcoming Young Chefs Competition being held from June 3-6 in Kansas City, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas.

The competition, which will be held at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, is part of Chaîne’s Culinary Weekend of educational seminars, a wine tasting, food pairings and an awards banquet.

The 2020 Young Chefs Competition had to be canceled because of the pandemic. Prior to COVID, Chaîne’s ten regions would hold their own regional competitions with a minimum of four chefs required. The ten regional winners would advance to the national competition and then one winner would be named to represent the United States at the international competition the following year. Chefs cannot be older than 27 years by October 1 of the year during which they are competing.

In 2021, four regions held live competitions and two held virtual ones with modified guidelines, Michael said. There will be an international competition in Paris in September. Normally, the United States winner has one year to prepare for the international competition. But this year at the June Young Chefs competition, two winners will be chosen. One will represent the United States in Paris in September and the other will represent the United States in 2022 at a location still to be determined.

For the June competition, competitors will prepare a three-course meal: an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. They have already received the mandatory protein that must be used. Once they arrive, they will receive a mystery basket of two additional proteins and some fruits and vegetables. As one of the administrators, Michael said they like to include fruits and vegetables the chefs will likely face in the international competition so this year, the mystery basket will include produce indigenous to France.

A total of nine judges (three kitchen and six tasting) will score the chefs in all aspects of their culinary skills.

Michael encourages Chaîne members to support their young culinarians and local restaurants. “They work very hard to provide you with the very best food whether it’s as simple as a burger or as elegant as foie gras and caviar. It takes passion to create all these specialties for people,” Michael said.

Passion for the profession and business acumen propelled Michael’s career to success and recognition. In August 2021, he will be inducted to the “American Academy of Chefs” Hall of Fame. And in 2021, he received the Biotechnology and Natural Resources “Award of Excellence” from the University of Nevada Reno College of Agriculture. One of the reasons for the award was Michael and his team’s long term involvement with the “Chefs for Kids” Foundation. The foundation raises money each year to support the salaries of nutritionists who go into 14 “at risk” schools in Las Vegas to teach them about healthy eating and nutrition.He has an Honorary Doctorate from Johnson and Wales University, Norfolk Campus. In addition, he has several Chaîne Awards including a Founder Award for the Brillat Savarin and a Gold Star of Excellence.

Michael is dedicated to mentoring young chefs; paying it forward for the support his mother and high school guidance counselor provided him.

He has set up a Chaîne des Rôtisseurs grant/scholarship at SUNY Cobleskill to fund one student every year to participate in the Young Chefs Competition in the Northeast Region.

“If it was not for the support of my immediate family … my wife, Mary Ann and my children, I would not be able to do this. They have unselfishly allowed me to spend their quality time for my passion which is to promote our profession. Thank you to my oldest son, Michael David, and my general manager, Jojo Cunanan, for allowing me to do this as well. Their support has made me successful in what we are doing today,” Michael said.

Guidance counselors should have corner offices with spectacular views to match their vision for their students’ futures!

Links

Chefs for Kids Foundation

Chaîne’s Young Chefs Competition

Johnson County Community College (Hospitality and Culinary Arts)

SUNY Cobleskill (Culinary Arts)

May 14, 2021 – More than 50 years ago, J.R. Simplot, an innovative Idaho potato farmer who founded the J.R. Simplot Company in 1929, and Ray Kroc, the businessman who turned McDonald’s into a global fast food phenomenon beginning in 1955, shook hands on a deal to have Simplot supply McDonald’s restaurants with potatoes for their famous French Fries. Today the J.R. Simplot Company supplies a large portion of the french fries McDonald’s uses around the world. It’s still a handshake deal. “We’re the only company to this day that does not have an actual contract in writing,” Michael Thrash, Corporate Executive Chef for the J.R. Simplot Company and Vice Conseiller Culinaire Southeast Region, Chaîne des Rôtisseurs USA 2021, said to Chaine during a Jan. 29, 2021 telephone interview.

Based in Boise, Idaho, Simplot has remained true to its potato roots. The company, which is one of the largest privately owned companies in the world, farms more than 82,500 acres in Idaho and Washington, growing more than 15 different crops including potatoes, hay, corn, wheat, sweet corn and barley, according to the company’s website. And it manages more than 12 ranches with a total of 30,000 mother cows in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Over the years, the company expanded beyond food to many areas of agribusiness including feed and fertilizer. Its overall mission and business is “Bringing Earth’s Resources to Life.”

Simplot Foods

Michael works in the Simplot Foods division, the company’s original division, helping chefs with recipe and menu development and even business practices. Internally, Michael works closely with Simplot’s food scientists on product development, which is driven both by customer requests and in-house ideas for a new product, Michael explained.

Based in Tampa, he is one of four executive chefs at Simplot with responsibility for a large swath of eastern North America, a job that before the pandemic had him on the road and in the skies many days of the year.

“I’m lucky to play in a space that is plant-based that we pair with proteins, meats and everything in between. The possibilities are endless for me to create food and create wonderful experiences. I always say my impact is behind the scenes. It’s pretty fun,” Michael said.

When Chaîne members sit down to an exquisite meal, they may not know of the significant impact food manufacturers, such as Simplot, had on the meal.

“We take a lot of pride as chefs for companies this large in keeping things as straightforward, natural and high quality as we possible can,” Michael said.

In Simplot’s early days, the company formulated ways to dehydrate onions and potatoes, innovative and practical developments that definitely put the company on the map. During World War II, the company met the needs of the military by supplying millions of pounds of dehydrated onions and potatoes. More than a few soldiers with KP duty were probably ecstatic to see Simplot’s products!

In the early 1950s, company food scientists developed the first frozen french fries meeting the burgeoning demand for convenience. Whether at McDonald’s ordering french fries or at the grocery store buying frozen fries, for years customers have been buying Simplot products but as a wholesale food supplier, the company remains largely unknown to the public.

“We are one of those companies that is everywhere, you just don’t know that we are,” Michael said.

Career Path

Michael’s path to his career with Simplot began at home watching his mom cook for their family. He loved going to the grocery store with her. In fourth grade, he wrote a paper stating he wanted to be a baker when he grew up. “I knew I wanted to be a chef as a kid,” Michael said.

He grew up around a lot of great cooks. His mother had five sisters and one brother. Michael has 24 first cousins, 18 of them female. “I know way more about gymnastics and cheerleading than I probably should,” Michael said with an affectionate laugh.

His first job in the culinary industry was at the young age of 11 when he was hired to run the concession stand for Saturday Bingo at his parish in Rochester, New York. He remembers setting up the station, serving people, being able to have all of the popcorn, pop and candy he wanted and getting paid with a $6.00 check at the end of each night. He loved it.

In high school, he opted to attend half-day vocational tech culinary school. “I excelled. I found my niche, my passion,” Michael said.

When it was time for college, he wanted a four-year degree in culinary arts and the college experience, complete with athletics. Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island fit the bill perfectly because in addition to offering a Bachelor of Applied Science in Culinary Arts, it was also a city campus.

During his college years, he worked at a different place each summer to gain real world experience. He instinctively knew he would be a better chef with a broad range of experience.

“I knew when I was young I wanted to be well diversified and well rounded. I wanted to branch out and learn as much as I possibly could and I am happy I did that,” Michael said. “The rest of my career is history from there.”

Just as he excelled in high school, he has excelled in the culinary industry as a professional chef with deep knowledge and experience in all aspects of the industry. Prior to joining Simplot in 2019, his experience included Corporate Executive Chef at GA Foods and Executive Chef at Boston University.

His years at Simplot have been productive ones as he continues to learn and share his knowledge with others. He is currently a Chef Instructor at the Art Institute of Tampa teaching undergraduate and graduate food lab classes one night per week. His classes include instruction in classical European, World, Asian, and Latin cuisine. “I love teaching and sharing knowledge that was taught and shared with me by so many great chefs before me,” Michael said. “It keeps my hand on the knife.”

Michael is already in that elite category of great chefs.

In 2019, Michael became a Certified Research Chef (CRC) through the Research Chefs Association and in that same year, was inducted as a Member of the World Master Chefs Society.

In 2021, Michael became a World Certified Master Chef (WCMC) through the World Association of Chefs Societies. On Aug. 1, 2021, he will be inducted as an American Academy of Chefs Inductee/Fellow through the American Culinary Federation (ACF).

With such high caliber experience and accolades, Michael is typical of most chefs who do not do a lot of cooking at home. “I still don’t cook at home,” Michael said. It makes sense. Home equipment and ingredients just are not the same as what he works with each day, Michael explained. He and his wife enjoy going out to eat and traveling. They met friends at Disney World during the winter and had a great time. However, during the pandemic, his wife took an interest in home cooking through the Hello Fresh home food delivery service. It was a good way for her to learn and a nice option during the tough times of the pandemic, Michael said.

Describing himself as a “super optimist,” Michael believes the industry will bounce back from the pandemic, offering opportunities for young culinarians to put their mark on the future.

The Simplot Food division took a big hit to the bottom line from the pandemic in 2020 but the company decided not to furlough or lay off one person, Michael said. The company set up a separate payroll account to support their employees through the pandemic. “It’s pretty remarkable. I work harder for them,” Michael said.

As the nation pulls out of the pandemic, Michael said there are a few identifiable culinary trends, some an offshoot of pre-pandemic trends. Affirming what other chefs have noticed, comfort food is back in a big way. Michael said comfort food is developing with more international flavors such as Thai pizza and Korean fried chicken.

And of course, the ultimate comfort food is as close as the nearest McDonald’s!

Links

The J.R. Simplot Company

Chaîne Cuvée Extra! Win a $150 Gift Card to the Chaîne Boutique!

Answer the question below in the Comments section on our Facebook page. Please like us as well!

First, let’s give a shout-out to potato farmers who grow high quality potatoes McDonald’s turns into their delicious French Fries!

The J.R. Simplot Company supplies McDonald’s with a large portion of their French Fries globally. But think about the total amount of potatoes McDonald’s needs each year to make their french fries.

QUESTION: How many pounds of potatoes, in total, do you think McDonald’s uses each year to make french fries at their restaurants around the world? Hint: McDonald’s has about 38,000 locations.

Enter your estimate on our Facebook page in the Comments section, be as specific as you can. The person who comes closest to the number, without going over, will win a $150 Gift Card to the Chaîne Boutique. (In the event of a tie, the National office will draw a winner from the correct submissions.) We will post the answer on our Facebook page on June 4, 2021 along with the Facebook user with the closest guess. See Official Contest Rules

April 16, 2021 – Chef Mark Wright, retired Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Hospitality Management Department at Erie Community College North Campus in Buffalo New York; the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Conseiller Culinaire Provincial for the Northeast Province; current American Culinary Federation (ACF) National Secretary; and candidate for ACF President, has nurtured hundreds of young culinarians in the last 40 years, first in kitchens and then in classrooms. Having compassion for his students gave him a little bit of a “softie” reputation but the proof as they say is in the pudding. Many of his students are achieving at the highest levels within the culinary profession and still seek out his advice to this day. “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. I must have done something right,” Chef Wright said to Chaîne during an April 8, 2021 telephone interview.

Compassion did not mean compromising learning standards when Mark guided students at Erie Community College. He felt students should not be overwhelmed when they begin college. They will be there for two to four years with plenty of time to overwhelm them after the first couple of semesters,” Mark noted with some humor yet clear concern for students who navigate the transition from high school to college.

Mark’s path to culinary excellence began inauspiciously in the early 1970s washing dishes in the kitchen of Buffalo’s Peppermill Restaurant. He remembers standing in one spot during his entire shift washing dishes by hand, a part-time job he had in high school. From that vantage point, he absorbed back-of-the-house operations. “I enjoyed the hustle and bustle,” Mark said. But it never occurred to him it could evolve into a career. As he approached his high school graduation, he looked around at colleges but the chef for whom he was working suggested culinary school. Erie Community College had a program so he enrolled even though the program’s focus was more on restaurant management than culinary arts.

Mark immersed himself in this new culinary world through his studies and work experience.

“Anything I’ve ever done, I’ve always put a lot of effort into it,” Mark said.

He joined the Buffalo chapter of the American Culinary Federation (ACF) becoming its first Junior member in the early 1970s. He is now the longest active member of the chapter. In the 1970s, ACF members in Buffalo included chefs from around the world who were drawn to Buffalo for its size (10th largest city in the nation at the time), many Clubs, elegant hotels, and large corporations. The International Food Service Executives Association started in Buffalo in 1901 and Ellsworth Statler, a legendary hotelier, built and opened the Buffalo Statler Hotel in 1907, providing many amenities to hotel guests for the first time. Chefs were drawn to the city from the earliest days of the 20th century into the 1980s. “Buffalo was a hopping town,” Mark said.

After graduating from college, Mark spent 28 years at the Transit Valley Country Club in East Amherst, New York with 25 of those years as Executive Chef. He took stock of his career during this time and could see the day when the pace of 12-hour days would catch up with him. He returned to college at Buffalo State University as a nontraditional student in their Food Systems Management program while keeping his full time job at the Club and raising a family.

As he nurtured his own career and his family, he followed a parallel track nurturing his staff at Transit Valley and then his students at Erie Community College where he worked for 21 years, 17 of which were as Department Chair. “There is no reason anybody needs to work 90 hours per week,” Mark said. As Executive Chef, he put in a few more hours than the traditional 40 hours a week but he never missed his kids’ hockey, football or lacrosse games or his daughter’s cross country meets. He may have shown up in his whites but he was there. And he wanted his staff to do the same. “You have to spend time with your family. You have to spend time doing things you like to do. We all need time off,” Mark said. He would sit down with his staff to plan ahead so requests for days off could be honored most of the time.

He joined the Buffalo Bailliage of the Chaine des Rotisseurs in 1981 and still remembers his first dinner at the Buffalo Club for which he rented a tuxedo. As Chaine’s current Conseiller Culinaire Provincial of the Northeast region, he will serve on the Jury for the 2021 Young Chefs Competition, a much anticipated event because last year’s competition was canceled due to the pandemic. The Northeast Province was able to hold a regional competition in 2021 and will send a chef to the finals at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas this June. Other events will take place in Kansas City, Missouri.

The ACF and the Chaîne are complementary organizations, Mark explained. The ACF’s accreditation program is second to none in the world. For example, the ACF Master Chef exam is an eight-day hands-on, rigorous examination. “I think it’s the premier exam in the world,” Mark said.

Young culinarians have defined career paths for accreditation through the ACF and scholarship opportunities through Chaine.

“Chaine and the ACF go well together. We’re doing as much as we can to help them and they’re doing as much as they can to help us,” Mark said. It’s always about the students. “We’re there to bring them up,” Mark added.

It’s a challenge as never before because of the pandemic, which has changed every aspect of the culinary industry. “It’s tough out there,” Mark said. He believes the “old normal” is in the rear view mirror. The new normal will be smaller restaurants, smaller staffs and less formal environments. He does not see many 150-seat, white tablecloth restaurants in the future. Well managed restaurants that focus on a specific niche will continue to survive and thrive. Currently, family friendly restaurants and plant-based cuisine are popular with guests.

Mark recommends Chaîne members reach out to local culinary schools and programs at community colleges to support young culinarians. National and regional competitions are wonderful but there are many things that can be done on the local level to support the next generation of chefs, Mark said. “We need to put some excitement back in the industry,” he noted.

What never changes is the recipe for success. A restaurant is one team, requiring the back-of-the-house to be regarded with the same importance as the front-of-the-house.

“The front-of-the-house, the Maître d, the servers, the busboys, the bartenders, and the sommeliers are just as important as the chefs and cooks in the back-of-the-house. But the most important person here is not any of these folks but the one washing our dishes,” Mark said. “We need to take care of them.”

Mark’s jar of honey is likely always full.

“It’s got to be a kinder, gentler world out there,” Mark said.

Links

Chaîne 2021 Young Chefs Competition

Chef Mark Wright, candidate for ACF President

March 26, 2021 — John Niser, Ph.D., Director of the International Hospitality, Sports & Tourism Management School at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), does not mince words at meetings, which by their very nature often have reality checked at the door. John faces reality head on and even embraces it. Currently, enrollment in hospitality and culinary arts programs across the nation is a major concern. “Hospitality education in the USA is in grave danger. Enrollment is down everywhere. We have a major problem in five, 10, 15 years to come because we are not producing enough graduates for what the industry needs,” John said to Chaîne during a Jan. 27, 2021 phone interview.

Taking the helm at FDU in 2019, John is studying every aspect of the program to address the current crisis. John said attracting students to the profession is not about advertising job security as many do but rather, better promoting the profession as a lifestyle choice.

Another hurdle schools face is disinformation about hospitality careers. Parents often question why they need to pay tuition for four years so their children can become waiters and cooks. When John operated hotel schools in Switzerland, families readily invested $250,000 in tuition for their children to qualify for a top level job in the industry. Operating a multi-million dollar restaurant or hotel chain requires high caliber students with excellent skills across many disciplines, John added.

At FDU, he quickly made a few changes that included renaming the Bachelor of Science degree to more accurately reflect its strength in the marketplace. Students completing four years of coursework will now earn a Bachelor of Science in Luxury Hospitality Management. To provide students an immersive experience as they complete requirements for the degree, beginning in 2022, students will spend one semester living and working at The Gasparilla Inn & Club in Boca Grande, Florida. It’s a safe bet that this winter semester will be extremely popular for this course!

In addition, John and his school have completed the renaming of the Bachelor of Arts degree into a Bachelor of Arts in Hospitality and Tourism Innovation and Excellence. John also established a new minor in restaurant entrepreneurship to give students strong business preparation for their careers. John’s dad told him years ago it was very important to have one foot in the Excel spreadsheet and one foot in the operation, meaning it’s important to have a combination of strong business and analytical skills with a firm understanding and appreciation for operations. And as only a dad can impart wisdom, John’s dad told him, “John, management is like riding a horse. It’s about having a steel hand in a velvet glove.” John took that advice to heart.

“We are in a business that has to reinvent itself everyday,” John said. With strong support from FDU’s administration, John is guiding the school to even higher levels of innovation and excellence. They’ve redesigned their entry level Hospitality course. Instead of having students buy and read a $150 textbook, they are given a series of personas. Students must then match service profiles to those personas. For example, a family stopping for a night on the way to a vacation destination probably doesn’t need a tennis court, John explained.

Through this learning process, students construct their knowledge. In doing so, they take ownership of that knowledge, which they are sure to draw on over and over again throughout their career. The value of that construction of knowledge is priceless.

Of course, the pandemic has dramatically altered service needs. Before the pandemic, John said he was more bullish on independent hotels because of how the Internet revolutionized distribution and marketing channels. In general, people are looking for an authentic, genuine experience but because of the pandemic, travelers now want assurances of safety that large chains may be better equipped to provide. John serves on a national committee that is writing new codes the hotel industry will use to describe safety services and features they offer travelers.

It’s a perfect example of putting the guest first and foremost, a key tenet of the FDU program. “We are at the heart of connecting people, of creating safe environments for people, giving them room to enjoy themselves, giving them memories,” John said.

Career path

John came to his career in the Hospitality industry after spending a few years of service. Once that part of his life ended, his dad asked him if he wanted to go to school. It was not the right time for school so in the early 1970s, his dad, a hotelier, put him in a kitchen in Paris. “It was incredible,” John said as he explained how he learned the basics of not only cooking but also the culture of the profession. To an outsider, kitchens look chaotic but John said he learned the order, discipline and respect that was expected of him. He feels that is an extremely important and timeless element in hospitality and culinary careers.

“When I wear my whites, I spend 20 minutes making sure they are really very well ironed,” he said. “There is pride in doing that.” It’s one of many roots he planted early in his career that continues to influence his career today.

In French, le geste describes the myriad of physical movements chefs practice to perfection through education and experience. There is not an adequate English translation of the word, John said. As one example, how a chef whisks is elegant and has direct impact on the quality of the end product. The entirety of a ktichen’s le geste is critical to John.

With his practical, hands-on experience, John stayed grounded but soared in his career, ultimately opening many restaurants and hotels for Hilton around the world. As a general manager, he would have lunch two to three times per week with chambermaids in the cafeteria, heeding his dad’s velvet glove advice. He learned about problems he would have had no other way of knowing.

He admits to being impatient, always looking for the next challenge. After succeeding at top level executive positions with Hilton, it was now time to go back to school. He enrolled in Geneva University, falling in love with formal logic as he earned his doctorate in clinical psychology. Upon graduation, with his strong academic background and work experience, he served as the CEO for hotel schools in Switzerland and then in 2005, came to the United States.

FDU’s solid reputation in the industry and its affiliation with Chaîne attracted him to his current position. “The Chaîne is doing a fantastic job not only for FDU but also for a lot of institutions it supports,” John said.

The sentiment is mutual.

“The Chaîne Headquarters, based on the FDU campus in Madison, New Jersey, has enjoyed a 17-year working relationship with FDU’s School of Hospitality that has only gotten better since John’s arrival. John has reinvigorated the working relationship between the Chaîne and FDU and is helping us take this partnership to new heights with both young professionals and the Chaîne Foundation,” Kevin Dunn, Executive Director of Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, said.

FDU students are beneficiaries of John’s extensive career in both academia and Hospitality. Many years ago John pondered the difference between education and manipulation. He asked a philosopher friend of his to weigh in on the topic. His answer gave John a “ray of light” that he carries as his guiding light. “The answer is extremely simple. Manipulation – you’re decreasing choices. Education – you’re focused on increasing choices,” John said his friend told him.

In his current role, John constantly seeks to increase choices for his students. “If we do that, then we are as human beings, we have a much better chance of surviving rats in this world,” John said.

That’s where his dad’s advice for a steel hand comes in handy.

LINKS

Fairleigh Dickinson University International Hospitality, Sports & Tourism Management School

The Gasparilla Inn & Club (Boca Grande, Florida)

David Danielson joined Churchill Downs as executive sous chef in 2011, elevating to executive chef two years later. Soon to celebrate his 10^th anniversary at Churchill Downs during the 147^th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 1, 2021, Danielson has guided a remarkable awakening at the country’s largest—and arguably most successful—sports and entertainment venue where food and fans are part of the spectacle.

Reflecting on his decade of experience, Danielson says “I’ve catered for and consulted with a number of large spectator events including the Olympics and the Super Bowl, but I’ve never seen anything like the Kentucky Derby. It may be the greatest two minutes on the field in sports. But there’s also a day-long social, food, and beverage aspect that you won’t find at any other sporting event. At Churchill Downs, we’ve turned the sports and entertainment industry on its head. Our job as a culinary team is to provide an exceptional experience at the level of fine dining for more than 160,000 people in a single day.”

And Derby Day is just a slice of the Churchill Downs pie.

Pastry Chef Pivot to Pari-mutuel Entertainer

In the realm of fascinating culinary stories, at first glance Danielson’s pathway to Churchill Downs seems straightforward. However, it has been anything but traditional for this energetic multi-tasker who confesses that he is a disrupter with a continuous improvement mindset. “If it’s not broken, break it and create something fresh and new!”

Many chefs are first inspired to cook in the kitchen of a family member. Danielson’s muse was his bread-baking Swedish grandmother in hometown Chicago. They watched Julia Child shows together on television. It’s where he learned the Swedish phrase lagom är bäst (“just the right amount” or “everything in moderation”) which is tattooed on his right forearm.

A humble first job as a teenager—washing dishes at a pastry shop—gave him a window into the world of French cooking. While not everyone would (or could) catapult from a local bakery to a French cooking school, Danielson’s entrepreneurial spirit and can-do-anything attitude was already in full force.

After graduating from the Dumas Pere L’École de la Cuisine Francaise in Glenview, Illinois, Danielson attended the École Hôtelier de Tain-l’Hermitage in France’s Northern Rhone wine region where he apprenticed at several Michelin-starred restaurants. His extensive resume is lined with an impressive array of cooking stints at big-name properties including the Ritz Carlton, Rockefeller Center, and the United Nations Plaza Hotel in New York, and Charlie Trotter’s and the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

After returning to Chicago in 2001, Danielson immediately set out to amplify his natural tendency to multi-task. He joined the Chicago chapter of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs and served as its Conseiller Culinaire for six years. He launched a catering company. He created a consulting company to lend his culinary expertise to major sports and entertainment events including PGA Championships, U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, Super Bowl, Lollapalooza, and the GRAMMY Awards.

Danielson’s big win, the event that turned his head toward the next-gen version of his future, was the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Passion for large global events was locked in and destined to become his stock-in-trade.

Several years later, an opportunity to sell his catering company meant that Danielson was free to explore new opportunities. That’s when he heard about the opening for an executive sous chef at Churchill Downs. Levy Restaurants, a Chicago-based restaurant and hospitality company specializing in managing food and beverage programs for major sports and entertainment venues, sent him to Louisville right before the 2011 Kentucky Derby. “I came down to visit and really fell in love with the city.”

Culinary Art: “It’s all about the food and the experience.”

Emphasizing his quest for amazing guest experiences, Danielson is fond of saying that “great chefs have the ability to make people stop for a second and think about what they’re eating. When I started cooking, I realized there is magic in being a chef. We have the ability to bring people together, to make them stop and think, and that was an amazing thing for me. It’s powerful and rewarding.”

With supportive backing from the Churchill Downs Corporation, Chef Danielson and his team can ideate, play with new concepts, create and test them, and learn by doing. “Great food and great experiences are at the forefront of what we do.”

At Churchill Downs, Chef Danielson works to create the magic of breaking bread together across the property’s many venues throughout the year. Derby Day is, of course, the centerpiece. Danielson explains, “Unlike other big sporting events where you grab your food and sit down to watch the event, the people who attend the Derby spend an entire day with us for a two-minute race. The Derby experience goes way beyond the sport itself. There is no other sporting event like this.”

When Danielson apprenticed in France, he began to take seasonality for granted in designing menus. Returning stateside to New York, where it is possible to buy almost any food item every day, that soft illusion continued. Back in the Midwest, however, the farm-to-table dining trend had not yet hit its stride.

Danielson says, “When I moved to Kentucky, I was reminded of France, and very intentionally looked for seasonality in the region’s culture and history.” His menus and dining experiences honor and reflect his new Kentucky home. Partnerships with local farmers make it possible to tell the story and deliver comfy experiences to guests.

Monumental Farm-to-Table Dining: Innovation in Scaling Up for Events

If a recipe works for one person, or even for a dozen, will it work for 160,000 people? Chef Danielson’s process for finding the middle ground between fine dining and concession snacks is both intriguing and replicable. His guiding mantra: “put the money where it counts, in food and guest experiences.”

Here’s how Chef Danielson and his team create new menus every year for Derby Day (and other racing and holiday events). This attention to detail is one of Churchill Downs’ brand promises.

New menu items are tasted by different groups within the Churchill Downs family—board members, the culinary team, servers, etc.—before deciding which items will go on that year’s menu board. There are both qualitative and quantitative elements to the test. Did you like it, and why (or why not)? That’s an important data point. But because most food is served buffet style at Churchill Downs, Chef Danielson can quite literally measure how much people like each dish. Serving vessels are weighed before and after tasting meals to determine which dishes should move on to the next stage, which is scaling up for a large crowd.

Most chefs probably do not have to be proficient at using Excel spreadsheets. At Churchill Downs, it’s a must-have basic skill. Every ingredient of every recipe is scaled up from its original serving count to 160,000 portions. These spreadsheets form the “brain” for buying ingredients and preparing each recipe. Every kitchen has venue- and menu-specific spreadsheets clearly posted on the wall for the team. Over time, Chef Danielson has digitized recipes so that any employee can access them on demand using smart phones or other mobile devices.

Then comes the challenge of preparing such a large volume of food at scale so that the result is as tasty as the original “normal” recipe serving. The spreadsheets and digital recipes are a big advantage. In addition, some 60 CVap (controlled vapor) ovens ensure that protein dishes are cooked to the proper temperature and held in that state until time to serve them. This technology was actually invented in Kentucky by Colonel Sanders for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Many chefs use CVap ovens, but typically need only one.

Time is always of the essence for fresh food. Imagine how much time it takes to cook 7,000 pounds of pasta in order to replenish that item on a buffet. With a simple problem-solving innovation using jet-flame burners and woks, Danielson trimmed seven hours in a big vat to seven minutes in a wok. And that’s just one example of how he has used technology to improve cooking processes.

Renaissance Man

Figuring out how to turn the cogwheel of Churchill Downs would be enough of a challenge for most people. But not Chef David Danielson.

2018 was a big year even for a guy who always has many projects going at the same time (in addition to his full-time job) to fuel his creative juices. It was the year he launched The Old Stone Inn and Tavern in a 200-year-old building. Why? “I wanted to get back in a restaurant kitchen myself and bring history to life by telling the story of this beautiful building.” Unfortunately, the restaurant closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic and because Danielson’s adaptive skills and leadership focus were needed at Churchill Downs to prepare for the first-ever postponed Kentucky Derby (which eventually took place with no spectators on September 5, 2020).

Danielson also published a cookbook in 2018 with co-author Tim Laird, the now-retired CEO of Brown-Forman. Edward Lee, chef/owner of Louisville’s 610 Magnolia restaurant, wrote the forward for “The Bourbon Country Cookbook. New Southern Entertaining: 95 Recipes and More from a Modern Kentucky Kitchen.”

Chef Danielson has several rashers of new ideas cooking for his 10^th anniversary in 2021 and, if all goes well, the 147^thKentucky Derby and Oaks on April 30/May 1. While details are still being sorted out, and back-up plans generated for the possibility of another COVID-related interruption, this year’s innovation will be all-inclusive food and event tickets. Guests will be able to visit any number of socially distanced food stations spread throughout the property. (Premium ticket holders will continue to access reserved venues but may also explore new food concepts in other parts of the property.) This strategy is certain to create a “wow” factor, once again assuring that Churchill Downs remains fresh and engaging for its guests.

Matt Winn’s Steakhouse

Matt Winn’s Steakhouse is stunning testament to Chef Danielson’s tenacity and creativity. It also speaks volumes about Churchill Downs’ trust in his leadership and judgement.

Remarkably, the new restaurant opened on July 29, 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic with no apparent sacrifice to quality, charm, or ingenuity from the health and safety measures built into its design. Unlike other race-day venues at Churchill Downs, Matt Winn’s is open to the public for dinner four days a week, Wednesday through Saturday.

Who was Matt Winn? Perhaps the most important person ever associated with the history of Churchill Downs. Chef Danielson channeled Winn’s spirit as an innovator and change agent to create the new steakhouse.

A young Matt Winn attended the very first Kentucky Derby race in 1875, when he was only 14 years old, and every race thereafter until his passing in 1949. In an era when the popularity of horse racing was faltering, Winn established many enduring Derby traditions including the official Mint Julep glass, the Derby Trophy, and the epic garland of roses bestowed upon the winning Derby horse. “Room 20,” Winn’s private room for drinking and gambling at the track, has been faithfully recreated within the new restaurant.

The steakhouse strikes a perfect balance between Winn’s traditions and Chef Danielson’s sparkling modern influence. Upon entering the restaurant, guests get a stunning visual introduction to the restaurant’s extensive Bourbon offerings, including the Corti Brothers’ Van Winkle Special Reserve from the 1960s and 70s, among the rarest Bourbons in the world.

The carefully curated wine list offers nearly 700 bottles of excellent international offerings, including a robust by-the-glass program.

Guests can choose between a Chef’s Tasting Menu or a dinner menu rooted in Kentucky specialties with a French twist. Borrowing from the Michelin-star restaurant tradition of gueridon service, enthusiastic tableside servers present three custom-designed trolleys for charcuterie, seafood, and delectable desserts.

Churchill Downs VIP Parking Gate
750 Central Avenue
Louisville, KY 40208
(502) 636-4888
Reservations on OpenTable

Links

Matt Winn’s Steakhouse https://mattwinnsteakhouse.com

Churchill Downs https://www.churchilldowns.com/ and https://www.churchilldownsincorporated.com/

Levy Restaurants http://www.levyrestaurants.com/

The Bourbon Country Cookbook: https://atasteofkentucky.com/product/the-bourbon-country-cookbook/ or amazon.com