Chef's Roundtable
From shrinking labor pools to an increasing emphasis on off-premises dining to streamlined menus, there’s no shortage of factors shaping today’s culinary scene. Navigating these challenges requires creativity and resourcefulness as well as a well thought out design and equipment package. This panel of chefs will discuss how the culinary landscape will continue to evolve in the coming years and how they will apply the lessons learned to navigate this new foodservice terrain.
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Moderator
Joe Carbonara
Editorial Director
Foodservice Equipment & Supplies
Chef Kimberly Brock Brown, CEPC, CCA, AAC, is a 37-year veteran of the culinary industry as a certified executive pastry chef, culinary instructor, culinary competitor, entrepreneur, author, and TV personality. A native of the Chicago area and longtime resident of Charleston, South Carolina, Chef Kimberly is the founder of Culinary Concepts, LLC, offering catering corporate chef, personal chef, and consulting services. Chef Kimberly became the first woman chef of color elected to the ACF board in 2017, and she is the first woman chef of color and first pastry chef to have been elected ACF president.
Chef Kimberly’s journey as a professional chef began in 1981 while completing an ACF-accredited apprenticeship program at Dallas’ El Centro College, where she was later inducted into the college’s Chefs Hall of Fame in 2015. During her career, Chef Kimberly has worked as an executive chef and pastry chef in the hospitality, healthcare, and corporate settings, and she has served as an adjunct professor at Trident Technical College and Johnson & Wales University, both in Charleston. She is also the self-published author of "Here I Am!: Chef Kimberly's Answer to the Question ‘Where Are the Female and Minority Chefs?’”
With over two decades of multinational culinary and foodservice experience, Chef Aatul is currently at the helm of the stoves at St. Peter’s Health System in central New Jersey. An alum of the CIA, a Certified Dietary Manager, he holds a MS in Management and Leadership. His experience includes fine catering, Michelin star restaurants, volume food service production in B&I and Healthcare within the self op and contract management realm. Aatul believes in transformational servant leadership and lives with the mantra: dream and you shall see it, ask and you shall receive.
A familiar face in the kitchens at the University of Michigan, Frank Turchan has been the Michigan Dining Campus Executive Chef for over ten years. Prior to becoming the Campus Executive Chef, he served as an Executive Chef for Michigan Dining.
He has managed the operations of four separate residential dining halls, utilizing his expertise in menu and recipe development, staff training and development, and high-quality culinary standards for large and small dining operations. His specialized experience in multi-concept dining, as well as ethnic and international cuisine, was instrumental in the design and planning of Mosher-Jordan dining hall and North Quadrangle dining hall, as well as the subsequent success of those new operations.
Turchan studied Hospitality Management at Ferris State University and holds culinary arts and hospitality management degrees from Henry Ford Community College and the Culinary Institute of America.He also sits on the Culinary Advisory Board for Henry Ford Community College, Ann Arbor Public Schools.