Stephen Valenti, Executive Chef of Bloomfield Hills Country Club (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), and one of the chefs competing in the 2026 Club + Resort Chef of the Year Culinary Competition at next week’s Chef to Chef Conference, says his duet of veal dish is an ode to one of his mentors, Brian Beland, CMC, Director of Food and Beverage for the Country Club of Detroit.
“I took and utilized techniques and recipes he taught me over the many years of working for him and put my own spin on them,” Valenti says. “The stuffed parmesan polenta cake was from his Michigan Chef of The Year dinner back in 2012—before I even started working for him. I was lucky enough to attend that dinner as a culinary student, and that meal changed everything that I thought club food could and should be. Two months after that dinner, I began working for Beland at The Country Club of Detroit.”
Bloomfield Hills CC host a monthly chef’s table dinner, Table 1909, where the culinary team is able to experiment with different cuisines, flavors, and techniques.
“A few months before, I had served a bacon-wrapped, mushroom-stuffed veal loin that went over very well,” says Valenti, “so I knew I wanted to go down the lines of serving veal for this special dinner: All these years later, and I was finally hosting my own [Michigan] Chef of the Year dinner. A full-circle moment for me, Chef Beland was kind enough to join me and my staff along with both of our mentors, Chef Doug Gahns, in my kitchen to help with service that evening—one I will not soon forget.”
