November marked year three of PlateCraft, a Chef to Chef Experience, hosted by Club + Resort Chef and Cullasaja Club (Executive Chef Scott Craig, WCMC, CCCD) in Highlands, N.C., with additional support from neighboring Highlands Country Club (Executive Chef Angel Herrera).
Like the annual Chef to Chef Conference, PlateCraft is an event specifically dedicated to club and resort chefs’ continuous learning, but the experience for attendees of these events is vastly different. While Chef to Chef hosts hundreds, PlateCraft is an immersive, two-day workshop for a small group of about 25 club chefs from across the country who want to push their craft in a highly hands-on environment.
While last year’s PlateCraft centered around The Grand Buffet, this year’s event honed in on the Chef’s Table. Teams of attendees collaborated, cooked together, and created a chef’s table-style meal together with guidance from top culinary leaders: Cullasaja Club’s Craig; The Country Club of North Carolina’s Adam Deviney, CEC; Forsyth Country Club’s Lance Cook, WCMC, CCCD, WSET II; Mizner Country Club’s Daniel Montano, CECC; and Andy Chlebana, CMPC, instructor at Joliet Junior College.
At the end of day two, attendees were able to take a seat at the table to experience the meal as members would, tasting the results of their work, collaboration, and shared commitment to craft. The evening served as a celebration of process, precision, and the connection that happens when chefs get the opportunity to gather and create together.
Deviney, the Director of Culinary and Hospitality for The Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C., shares the inspiration behind and process surrounding his group’s course, plus the full recipe, linked below.
Club + Resort Chef (C+RC): Tell us about the planning for this dish pre-PlateCraft and how it evolved. What were the biggest challenges?
Adam Deviney (AD): The dish started as an à la carte special in our bistro restaurant. We received great feedback from our membership that evening, so I felt we had something unique. This is why I chose this dish for the PlateCraft event.
In the weeks leading up to the event, I spent time working on each element of the dish. The biggest challenge was that it contains many strong flavors and spices, and I didn’t want those flavors to overpower the sea bass. Even though it features bold ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chiles, and fish sauce, with an acidic punch from the nuoc cham, the delicate flavor of the sea bass was not lost.
C+RC: What was the impact of PlateCraft’s team collaboration on the final version?
AD: Going into the event, I had all of the flavors and the presentation figured out but was open to working with the group on any ideas they had to bring it up a notch. During our time working together, the team contributed some great ideas, and we managed to elevate the presentation of the dish together. We also added a hushpuppy stuffed with trim from the sea bass as another layer of flavor and texture.
It was a one-of-a-kind experience working with such a talented group of chefs on a single dish. In the end, the dish was a success because we presented bold, amazing Vietnamese flavors at a high level.
C+RC: What do you believe makes for a successful chef’s table experience?
AD: I believe that a successful chef’s table experience comes from gaining the buy-in of my staff and getting them excited about what we are cooking for a special event. Creative simplicity, in my opinion, is underrated these days. Our members want to experience food that is approachable but still blows them away, like the best version of something they have ever had. If you do it right, they will tell you that, and they won’t be able to stop thinking about their experience at your chef’s table.
