The 2023 Chef to Chef Conference ended Tuesday, March 7, after three-plus days of education, events and the annual Club + Resort Chef of the Year culinary competition. The next conference is set for Austin, Texas, March 3-5, 2024.

Tuesday’s sessions included the following:

• Morning Mindset by Michael Matarazzo, CEC, Executive Chef of Farmington Country Club
• How Plant-Based and “Clean” Food Trends Are Influencing Club Menus + Demo by Andrea Mallon-Griffith, Executive Chef of Ocean Reef Residence Club
• Get Your Numbers Right: Menu-Writing Designed Around Budgets by William Rogers, CEC, CCA, Executive Chef of Cosmos Club
• Let the Games Begin: Using Competition to Motivate Culinarians + Demo by Michael Shannon, CEC, Executive Chef of Somerset Club, and Geo Lanez, MBA, CEC Executive Chef of The Patterson Club
• Cooking with Liquid Gold by Joseph M. Leonardi, CMC, Director of Culinary Operations, The Country Club

“I am not a plant-based chef,” Mallon-Griffith stressed during her session. Still, she’s succeeded with innovative plant-based and heart-healthy dishes made from real ingredients, like lentils, tofu, chickpeas, spirulina, microproteins and more. She also plated a plant-based Korean fried ‘chicken’ sandwich she makes for members.

Leonardi shared his beekeeping story and told attendees there’s “no reason” they can’t have a similar program at their club. He shared tips, tricks and facts about bees he’s learned over the years. Perhaps most importantly, he says, are the ways in which the program has brought his club’s staff and members together.

“One of the main benefits of competition are the transferable skills,” Shannon told Chef to Chef attendees during his and Lanez’s session on using competition to motivate culinarians. “It builds trust between [a team] … and acts as an accelerated education.” Skills strengthened by competition, Shannon said, include culinary techniques, professionalism, sanitation, leadership and organization.

This year, attendees also had the opportunity to sign up for different concurring sessions, including The Art of Handmade Pasta, a hands-on culinary experience by Ryan Peters, Chef/Content Creator of Peters Pasta; Advanced Club Confections + Demo by Jeffrey Munchel, Executive Pastry Chef of Ocean Reef Club; Creating a Career Culture for Cooks by Rhy Waddington, Executive Chef of The Palmetto Bluff Company; Drive Dessert Sales With Classic Desserts + Demo by Laura Herman, CEPC, Executive Pastry Chef of Shoreacres; and A Mental Health Toolkit for Chefs by Melinda Dorn, RCP Industry Support Specialist & Founding Secretary of Recovery Friendly Leader.

In Herman’s session, the pastry chef spoke about her unlikely but helpful background in marketing, her club and her role as a chef—and, “most importantly,” a mom. “I am passionate about what I do,” Herman told attendees—and about sharing the keys to her craft with other culinarians. She covered her dessert menu-writing strategy and demoed several dessert plate-ups while offering production tips using existing tools from club pastry kitchens.

To cap off the event, attendees got a front-row seat to the conference’s annual culinary competition, where Sam Brod, Executive Chef of The Landings Golf & Athletic Club (Savannah, Ga.), was named Club + Resort Chef of the Year. The judges awarded points for taste, plating and originality.

Brod received a $2,000 cash prize, a seat on C+RC’s Editorial Advisory Board and a feature in the September issue of Club + Resort Chef magazine. More details on the competitors and their dishes are to come next week.

Former Club + Resort Chef of the Year winners include:

2022: Robert Meitzer, CEC, AAC, Forest Lake Country Club
2022: James Allen, CEC, Blackthorn Club at the Ridges
2020: Scott Craig, CEC, CCA, WCMC, Myers Park Country Club
2020: J. Kevin Walker, CMC, AAC Ansley Golf Club
2019: Eva Barrios, CEC, Austin Country Club
2019: Nelson Millán, San Antonio Country Club
2018: Brandon Gross, The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington D.C
2017: Todd Walline, CEC, CCA, Blue Hills Country Club
2016: Thayer Johnson, Castlewood Country Club

Mark your calendars: The 2024 Chef to Chef Conference will head to Austin, Texas, March 3-5, 2024.