Managing a team of nine people in a fast pace production kitchen and maintaining ServSafe standards. Within last six years I have gathered and trained a team of cooks that produce about $50,000 worth of food on a weekly basis. Overseeing the daily production of hors d’oeuvres, entrées, desserts and developing recipes for custom items. Assisting in food preparation and presentation during tastings and tours on a weekly basis. Key Contributions: • Creation of workflow in the kitchen by rearranging the work station areas, food storage spaces and dish room; this significantly improved production preparation times. For example, it used to take a cold station cook 40 minutes to prepare 5 gallons of balsamic blackberry dressing from start to finish; new workflow shortened this task to 25 minutes. • Cross training of all kitchen staff to ensure that production does not fall behind the schedule when missing a member of my team. Also, in the times of hot line being overwhelmed the cold line steps in and helps to complete the production, and vice versa. • Comparison of food cost with different vendors and ordering on a weekly basis. Finding savings in product cost without sacrificing the quality is my constant goal. Inventory control on a monthly basis. • Saved about $500 of food cost per week by adding a function for my assistant chef to manage and reuse the garnish kits every Monday. About 10-12 garnish kits come back from each weekend’s events and they were not handled properly and finally thrown away, each kit has about $50 worth of product.• Introduced weekly Tuesday meetings with all of my cooks to go over the production list for the week, distribute tasks and set up daily timelines. Such meetings improved the productivity of my team and just within a month the cooks collaborated better with each other.

Opened 1757 Golf Club restaurant kitchen, catering department and a cafe upon the opening of the golf club. Worked under an Executive Chef and managed a team of 5 cooks to prepare food from scratch for restaurant guests and catering events. Key Contributions: • Set up all kitchen stations: hotline, sauté, fry, salad and dessert; managed and delegated the production to the cooks and trained them on seasonal menu items. • Managed kitchen inventory on a monthly basis and ordered production every other day as well as small inventory on all of stations every night before closing. • Managed and executed food production for all catering events: weddings, golf tournaments, barbecues and corporate luncheons. • Covered Executive Chef responsibilities and worked under the pressure during the golf club opening and a month thereafter as originally hired Executive Chef had withdrawn from his position. • Learned the art of smoking a variety of food items, including various pork and beef cuts, poultry and cheese using brining, dry rubs and marinating techniques.

Worked on a hot line under the supervision of a Kitchen Manager - Chef and found my love for catering. Additionally, I worked at about 15 events every month as a Banquet Chef and was responsible for supervising the food on all areas during the evens. Key Contributions: • Learned butchering skills by breaking down and portioning out meat products based on upcoming events menu items. • Responsible for the production of all meats, starches, soups, sauces, and hot side items while collaborating with another hotline chef. • Maintained the ServSafe standards and assisted the Kitchen Manager with hot line inventory. • Packed and expedited the food for all of the outgoing events.