Forsyth CC Director of Culinary Operations Lance Cook won the ACF-sanctioned Cabbage, Potato, and Bacon Festival in Hastings, Fla., in April.
As the club chef with, perhaps, the single most professional certifications, Lance Cook is uniquely qualified to tout the benefits of continuing education. With the support of his club behind him, it comes down to Cook’s commitment to lifelong learning and to continuously better himself as a chef and leader.
Cook is a World Certified Master Chef (WCMC) through the World Association of Chefs’ Societies (Worldchefs), a Master Member of the World Master Chefs Society (MWMCS) through the World Master Chefs Society, a Certified Club Culinary Director (CCCD) through the Club + Resort Chef Association (CRCA), a Certified Executive Chef (CEC) and a Certified Culinary Administrator (CCA) through the American Culinary Federation (ACF), a Certified Food and Beverage Executive (CFBE) through the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals (NRFSP), and a WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Level 2.
“You have to have a hunger to learn, to push yourself and get out of your comfort zone,” says Cook. “You’re going to be rewarded with knowledge, [and] you’re going to be rewarded with those letters after your name, branding yourself and setting yourself apart.”
And he’s not satiated yet.
Following seven years as Executive Chef of Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast, Fla., Cook joined Forsyth CC in Winston-Salem, N.C., as the Director of Culinary Operations in June, a role he says he secured because the club’s late General Manager and COO of 22 years, Lee Smith, took notice of his certifications and commitment to learning.
“He [was] very supportive of continuing education,” says Cook of Lee, who he’d worked with originally in 1998 at Wilson (N.C.) Country Club. “We parted ways, but we kept in touch. Through social media, he’d been watching; he said, ‘Chef, I love what you’re doing. You’re still hungry and motivated. What do you think about coming up here and doing a tasting for my search committee?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, sir.’”
“I actually got this job because [I’m a] Certified Club Culinary Director,” Cook adds. “I think that one specific certification grabbed his attention—then came the offer.”
Later this year, Cook plans to complete his WSET III. He’d also been training to take the Certified Master Chef (CMC) exam, though he put this on hold for one year while he acclimates to his new club.
“The Certified Master Chef motto is ‘forever the student,’” notes Cook. “I don’t think any one individual knows everything there is to know about food. Even [CMCs], they’re still learning on a daily basis.”
Keeping Skills Fresh
While he got his start at restaurants, Executive Chef Benjamin Guaman has been in clubs for many years, the past 14 of which at Governors Club in Chapel Hill, N.C. Guaman loves the club culinary world for the emphasis placed on continuing education, as well as the variety of events and the relationships built with members.
“My club’s members are so diverse,” notes Guaman, “from many different backgrounds, places, countries and states. They’re always asking for something new.”
To accommodate the membership’s needs, Guaman updates menus often, staying abreast of the trends and keeping his skills fresh through certifications and conferences, including the Chef to Chef Conference, as well as PlateCraft, which Guaman is attending for the second year after the inaugural event last November.
Governors Club Executive Chef Benjamin Guaman was among attendees at PlateCraft 2023 at Cullasaja Club. The event is designed to create club chef connections, foster continuous learning and advance culinary skills.
Attendance at these events is made possible, Guaman says, thanks to support from his club and in particular General Manager and COO Doug Shifflett.
“It’s another thing that’s kept me here [for 14 years],” Guaman says, “that my GM is very proactive, always making sure that we—not just me, but the directors of each department—are going out and seeing what we can bring back to the club. … It’s crucial that chefs have a GM who encourages us to go out there, meet people, benchmark, see what other clubs are doing, and then come back with new ideas.”
At Coral Bay Club (Atlantic Beach, N.C.), Executive Chef Geneveive Guthrie, too, has always been encouraged to pursue opportunities for learning.
In fact, 2024 marked five Chef to Chef Conferences for Guthrie; and because Coral Bay is going through a complete renovation of its clubhouse, she was able to bring three other members of her team.
“I didn’t know [Chef to Chef] existed until my first year [as Executive Chef]. One of our members was a member at a different country club, and he was talking to James Patterson [Corporate Executive Chef, McConnell Golf] who told him about the conference. He came back to the club and said, ‘Genevieve needs to go to this.’ And that’s how it all started.”
Chef to Chef 2024 in Austin marked five C2C conferences for Coral Bay Club Executive Chef Geneveive Guthrie; and because Coral Bay’s going through a complete renovation of its clubhouse, she was able to bring three other members of her team.
At her first conference in New Orleans, she made a reservation for one at Commander’s Palace, a famous Creole restaurant.
“By the time I made it to the restaurant, there were four of us,” she says, “We had a great time.”
And Guthrie has kept all of those initial connections to this day.
“We still talk. We still send out group texts. We’ll encourage each other, and we still contact each other to help out as well,” she says. “When I was designing a new kitchen, a lot of the contacts that I made at Chef to Chef, I was sending them the blueprints to ask their opinion.”
Just Jump In
Guthrie says she’s adapted ideas from Chef to Chef at her club, and she always appreciates the networking and the opportunity to connect with chefs who experience similar challenges.
“I also think some chefs get into a rut, and when they go to these conferences, it’s rejuvenating, it’s inspirational,” she says. “I take so many notes each year, and I still go back and re-read them.”
Coral Bay has a new General Manager who’s encouraging her to get certifications, too—something she’s considered in the past but hadn’t yet committed to.
“I think continuing education is very important,” Guthrie notes. “It’s not that I don’t think I can [get certified]; it’s just those internal nerves that you have to fight.”
Lance Cook plans to take the CMC exam, though he’s put training on hold while he acclimates to his new role as Forsyth CC’s Director of Culinary Operations. Pictured is a CMC Assessment in Livonia, Mich., in 2023.
Forsyth CC’s Cook believes nerves—and fear of failure—are only natural, but he finds opportunity and motivation in failure, too.
“Whether it’s a [CMC] exam, or even one of the classes for certification, if you fail something, that determines what you’re going to do next,” he says. “Either you’re going to be done with the process, or you’re going to refine it. That’s my mentality, if
I ever don’t do well at something—I’m going to go back and crush it.”
“From competition, my favorite metals are my bronze medals,” Cook adds. “I learned the most because of the situations that each of them represented.”
Ultimately, success comes down to preparation.
“When I was at Hammock Dunes Club, I had a pastry chef who wanted to go for her CEPC,” Cook notes. “I said, ‘Put together a menu, get all the requirements in there, and then we’ll practice it.’ So she practiced it, and she went 30 minutes over on her time. I said, ‘Let’s look at your menu and see what we can alter.’ After that first run, she did a revised run, and she was 20 minutes under. The next week, she took that routine she practiced, and all the evaluators said she was by far the best they had ever seen. The biggest thing is practice. You have to practice your routine in order to be successful.”
Cook notes his own certifications give him an extra sense of credibility, especially with a new team. At Forsyth, he’s already motivating others to become certified themselves; two of the club’s chefs de cuisine are preparing to take their CEC exam.
“I always tell people, no matter what certification you go for, just jump in,” says Cook. “Jump in where you qualify. You might not qualify for the CCCD, for example, but you might qualify for the CECC (Certified Executive Club Chef). So jump in there, and then, over the years, try to get the other qualifications. … It pushes people out of their comfort zones, to do different things than they would normally do. And that’s always the goal.”
