Founder-Director Of Operations
Winery Chefs Llc
Winery Chefs provides wineries the services of a full time winery chef at a fraction of the cost. Winery Chefs creates customized events, wine and food programs, educational tools and content specific to a client needs. I created the idea for Winery Chefs back in 2004 while working at Cakebread Cellars. It was a busy day at the winery and we were doing a cooking class, small lunch for Jack Cakebread, Wine and Food program and preparing for a corporate dinner. It was at that moment I realized most wineries don't have chefs or access to chefs that can provide the skills and services of a winery chef. I thought "Wouldn't it be great to create a business that provided these services". I went home that night and typed an executive summary for Winery Chefs Services. I shelved the summary until 2008.I launched Winery Chefs LLC in 2009. The original tag line was "culinary marketing for the wine industry" because I knew my job was to help wineries sell wine through content, programs and events.That's exactly what we did, we started out doing a lot of wine and food programs and recipe development during the recession. When the economy came back the events returned, trade wine club and corporate. We change the tag line to "Culinary Service for the wine industry". Needless to say it was a successful business.During my tenure as owner my duties included menu and program development, event planning and management,event chef, delivery driver,dishwasher, sales and marketing, client relations, staff hiring and training, budgeting, payroll, compliance, business and event consulting, We produced a wide variety of cuisines, presented in a myriad of ways with a focus on the wine and maintaining its integrity.My wife and I had our son in 2013, it was shortly after that i decided to sell the business. Winery Chefs still exist today under new ownership. I proud to have created such an innovative business and to work with great clients and staff members.