As Daniel Island Club’s Director of Culinary Operations and Executive Chef for 24 years, Tyler Dudley, CEC, CCA, knows what he wants in culinary team members.
Tyler Dudley has been the Director of Culinary Operations and Executive Chef of Daniel Island Club for 24 years. During this time, he’s honed what he looks for in his culinary team members and makes a point of interviewing candidates personally.
However, staffing is a full-time job at a large club with 1,400 families. When the pandemic compounded this struggle, the Charleston, S.C. club hired Talent Acquisition Specialist Stacy Kelly, a decision Dudley says he continues to benefit immensely from.
“It’s a lot of work to ask chefs or front-of-the-house management to recruit, hire, fire, interview, tour. … I think hiring specialists or recruitment managers is something every club should invest in, especially the larger ones,” Dudley says. “If I put a position on LinkedIn or any other social outlet, I might get 100 resumes. Being able to send it out to [Kelly] to the vet is a huge help. It gives me more time to do some of the things I should focus on.”
Since she came aboard, Dudley has built a good relationship with Kelly and communicates often and openly about his staffing needs, a factor Kelly says is key to her role’s success.
In vetting candidates, Kelly says she first looks for effort and detail on the application itself.
“Not necessarily the resume because some people are just terrible at filling out resumes,” she notes. “But our application’s pretty lengthy, so if somebody takes the time actually to fill out that application and give personal details, I always enjoy a conversation with them. I’ll ask, ‘What made you sit down and type all of this out, and why Daniel Island Club?’ If you can hear the passion in their voice, that’s the person I like to bring forth to Chef [Dudley]—somebody who cares. And you can feel that through a phone call.”
Daniel Island Club has found success in hosting recruiting events several times per year, visiting local schools, including technical schools, and implementing programs, such as the Birds of Feather program, which rewards team members who successfully recruit someone they know to join the team.
“If we find someone who works well in the club, we say, ‘Do you know anyone who would like to work in this type of club environment?’” Kelly says. “Last year, each person got $500 after 90 days, but sometimes people left after those 90 days. So now, the person who refers the candidate receives $500; they get $200 after 90 days and $300 after six months. But we did expand that to part-time and seasonal (with lesser amounts).”
Daniel’s Island Club hires individuals its management staff believes will meld well with the team.
Despite his busy schedule, Dudley notes he still prioritizes interviewing every culinary candidate at every level; during these interviews, he considers a few factors before deciding whom to hire.
“Of course, you hire a skill set, depending on what they’re applying for … but first and foremost for me is attitude,” he says. “How do they carry themselves? I don’t hire egos. We hire people we think will meld with every single team member we have here.”
Untapped Potential
When Hildebrandt Alfredo Hildebrandt joined Lakewood Country Club (Westlake, Ohio) as the General Manager at the start of the year, it was a bit of a homecoming.
Hildebrandt worked at Lakewood CC from 2014 through 2019 as Food & Beverage Manager and then as Clubhouse Manager. He then followed General Manager Chris Hampton to Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Ind., to serve as Assistant General Manager, where he remained through 2023.
“It has been amazing to be back at the place where I started my career,” he says. “There are so many exciting things happening here. We have a strong commitment to capital improvements for the next couple of years. … And, of course, [Executive Chef Geoffrey Sowl] being on [C+RC’s] 40 under 40 list has been great for us. We’re crushing our numbers on a la carte, and Chef provides an awesome culinary experience.”
Alfredo Hildebrant, General Manager of Lakewood CC, believes culture is key to
club culinary success, including building trust with his team and connecting personally.
Hildebrandt notes that Lakewood CC has about 375 families, and its membership skews younger. Its annual food-and-beverage revenue is $2.1M, and the goal is to hit $2.5M within the next year.
Before Hildebrandt rejoined the team, culinary was a bit short-staffed. Still, he’s since hired several team members, including two additional full-time servers, a director of special events, and a food-and-beverage assistant, both of whom he found through his own connections.
“I never post an ad for any of my managers,” Hildebrant notes. “Even [when I was] in Fort Wayne, being a small city, we always had top talent. … We bring them in, we teach them, and we treat them well. Sometimes, you have to teach people to become rock stars. Some people don’t have the patience or the time to do that. But there’s so much untapped potential in people.”
Staffing, Hildebrandt says, is all about culture, especially in club culinary.
“It sounds cliche,” he says, “but culture is so important—creating a great culture and keeping it fun—food and beverage is supposed to be fun!”
For Lakewood CC, this means an environment where all culinary staff is encouraged to be creative and where the opportunities for learning and growth are abundant.
In seeking new talent, Hildebrant says he’s searching for what he calls a “world-class person,” and in F&B in particular, a sense of energy and passion for the industry.
“You can feel somebody’s passion in the first four minutes of an interview—and passion is a driver for culinary excellence,” he says. “You can teach almost anybody how to do financials and how to cook, but a person who is going to work hard for you and the club and who’s going to be respectful and treat everybody well is tougher to find.”
First and foremost, Hildebrandt notes that leadership must build trust with their team and then continue setting a positive example.
“You have to connect as a person before you can connect as a leader,” he says. “I’m a big believer that good people attract good people, and great people make great places.”
Opportunity in Clubs
When The Stanwich Club’s former Chef de Cuisine decided to move on, Executive Chef Corey Chow knew he needed to be strategic in filling the role.
Most of Chow’s experience stems from fine dining restaurants. Clubs, of course, are a different beast, and The Stanwich Club is based in Greenwich, Conn. Chefs seldom land there by accident.
In his fourth season at The Stanwich Club, Executive Chef Corey Chow is bringing on a new Chef de Cuisine and J-1 interns for the first time. No matter the role, Chow believes attitude and humility are paramount to culinary success.
“In New York City, there are always tons of people, let alone when you’re at a Michelin-starred restaurant,” Chow says. “Greenwich is a high-income city where normal ‘Joes’ can’t really live. So where am I going to find people?”
Chow does much of his own recruiting and visits culinary schools in the area. However, he relied on his industry connections for the chef de cuisine position, asking around for chefs who might be interested in taking a break from New York City or restaurant life.
“I was trying to find the right person who would fit the mold, who understands the country club model and understands fine dining,” Chow says. “Our a la carte is very high-end; our members [expect] a unique experience.”
After an extensive search, Chow found this in Esther Ha, the club’s new Chef de Cuisine. Ha previously served as Executive Chef at Momofuku Ko in New York City and, most recently, as Executive Chef of Cabot Citrus Farms, a golf club in Brooksville, Fla.
New this year, too, The Stanwich Club is hiring J-1 culinary interns for the first time, Chow says, noting their eagerness to experience the U.S. and learn from the club’s culinary team.
No matter the role, Chow says, that’s the most important factor in hiring new staff: attitude.
“It doesn’t matter where you’ve worked,” he says. “It’s your attitude and humility of constantly learning and wanting to push yourself. You don’t have to know anything, but I can teach you everything if you have the correct attitude.”
For younger, eager culinarians in particular, Chow believes the club environment provides a valuable opportunity to work in various venues, from the snack bar to fine dining a la carte to large-scale events.
“I never really thought about that for myself,” Chow notes. “I’d always been in restaurants. But to see all the different outlets and to get that exposure—you can’t find that at a restaurant.”
While Chow recognizes the challenge of working with new staff, particularly inexperienced culinarians, he believes that’s part of what it means to be a chef and a leader. Going back to basics with new staff and continuing to explain the ‘why’ of fundamental procedures requires a certain level of patience, which Chow says he honed through his degree in psychology and subsequent work experience.
“Sure, we cook, we create menus. But that’s kind of easy for us if you’ve done it for a while,” he says. “The teaching and the mentoring of the next generation is what we signed up to do. And that’s how we got to where we are—because someone mentored us.”
