Dave Diffendorfer Email & Phone Number

Albuquerque, New Mexico Area

Portland, Oregon Area

Decades designing and creating the Benson Hotel's Annual Gingerbread Display (media coverage includes Good Morning America, KOIN 6, KTU 2, KGW 8, Vanity Fair). A beloved tradition for nearly 50 years, the edible masterpiece requires 300 hours of work to design and build. It is composed of 200 pounds of gingerbread, 22 pounds of chocolate, and 50 pounds of.

Portland, Oregon Area

• Responsible for curriculum implementation and daily lesson plans. Oversee classes of up to 22 students in specialties such as Artisan Bread Making, European Cake Design, and World Cuisines. Manage inventory / order.
• Read, review and assign specialized books to help students achieve a greater understanding of the subjects presented, ie. ‘Cake: A Global History’.
• Facilitate "thinking out of the box" baking assignments (Rogers and Hammerstein themed cakes, Luche Libre cakes, etc.) to cultivate creative solutions that help students become more competitively employable.
• Teach and maintain high standards of cleanliness and hygiene protocol throughout kitchen and pantry.
• Generated highest ratings in student feedback multiple years in a row, as well as maintained a high level of student placement upon graduation in local eateries. (**see attached for sample student reviews.)
• Produce pastries and desserts for non-culinary events held at the Art Institute of Portland.

Portland, Oregon Area

• Costume fabrication: responsible for patterning, sewing and hand stitching of character costumes and accessories.
• Sculpting: assisted in shaping charter forms from customer’s photographs and sketches.
• Composite work: manufactured hatches, access panels, character body parts in fiberglass and carbon fiber.
• Metal fabrication: fabricated custom mechanical parts for puppet articulation and construction using hand tools, metal lathes, mills, and welding.
• Mechanical work: built, repaired and maintained mechanical puppets using a large variety of hand tools, drills, Dremels, grinders, saws, and mechanical fasteners.
• Painting: assisted in hand and spray painting all aspects of development, form base coats to detailed highlights on puppet parts and accessories using a number of painting techniques.

Portland, Oregon Area

Responsible for menu planning for entire restaurant, two buffet lines, and all hotel banquet events. Managed inventory and ordering of ingredients and bakery supplies. Coordinated with catering staff for specialty items, centerpieces, specialty cakes, desserts, and wedding cakes.

Portland, Oregon Area

Trained new employees on technical projects. Projects included: GIS data collection from aerial photos and USGS quadrangle maps, GIS data conversion, database management, cartographic editing and cartographic production, including data querying and analysis to produce new GIS data coverage’s. Final project consisted of integrating Bureau of Land Management.

Portland, Oregon Area

Pastry Chef and resident Gingerbread artist. Represented hotel management, working closely with clientele, responsible for dessert menu development and banquet menu development and restaurant services in the design and production of all desserts and custom wedding cakes.

United States

• Coast Guard, Sitka AK & Wrightsville Beach NC:
• Responsible for the safety and work performance and training of ten seamen in all aspects of shipboard evolutions and maintenance.
• Maintenance and construction of ~200 navigational lights such as light houses, buoys, and shore aids. Work included walls, siding, roofing, plumbing, electrical, stairs, painting, chain maintenance (buoys), and.
• Construction included boring holes in solid rock for anchor bolts, building steel and angle iron structures to support navigational lights, batteries, and solar panels, including helicopter-lifted components.
• Tools operated: forklift, helicopter winches/cables, crane, hand tools, power tools (gas, electric, and pneumatic), electrical equipment, painting equipment.
• Only sailor on ship with USCG certification to wire, inspect, and service navigational lights.

Bs, Geography

Bs, Industrial Design

Ba, Culinary Arts

Biology/Geography

Education record