Expert Details
Culinary Innovation & Product Development: Sensory Science & Testing, Food Product Commercialization, R&D Ideation Facilitation
ID: 740799
Minnesota, USA
Expert spent 17 years as Corporate Executive Chef for a major national food company, directing front-end product innovation with a strong focus on sensory-driven development, designing and leading sensory testing programs, and co-founding an internal culinary innovation collective. Expert subsequently led a large multi-venue university dining program as District Executive Chef, directing a $45 million operation and a team of 11 executive chefs through a period of pandemic response and organizational transition, before serving as Director of Culinary for a senior living organization, where Expert achieved the site's first full-year of financial compliance after years of budget overages.
Expert currently operates an independent culinary consulting practice, leading product development and commercialization projects for food industry clients, facilitating high-impact ideation sessions, and delivering training and education programs supporting cross-functional innovation. Expert holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota and an Associate of Occupational Studies in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute of America, and has been recognized with multiple internal R&D performance awards and an innovation recognition award. Expert is the founding President and Board Chair of a regional chapter of the American Culinary Federation.
Education
| Year | Degree | Subject | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year: 1997 | Degree: Associate of Occupational Studies | Subject: Culinary Arts | Institution: Culinary Institute of America |
| Year: 1994 | Degree: BS | Subject: Graphic Design (minor in Computer Science) | Institution: University of Minnesota |
Work History
| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years: 2021 to Present | Employer: Undisclosed | Title: Consultant | Department: |
Responsibilities:Lead high-impact product development and commercialization projects for food industry clients, collaborating with R&D, Marketing, and Executive stakeholders to align formulation, storytelling, and sensory objectives. Facilitates ideation sessions tailored to consumer trend insights and operational feasibility, and delivers training workshops and internal education programs supporting cross-functional alignment.Notable engagements have included producing 23 market-ready comfort food concepts from an initial pool of 300+ ideas through a multi-day ideation and prototyping session, leading paired gold-standard workshops that corrected product inconsistency issues, and guiding a structured single-day ideation session that generated 30 dessert concepts across four categories. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2023 to 2024 | Employer: Ebenezer Senior Living | Title: Director of Culinary | Department: |
Responsibilities:Oversaw dining operations serving 100+ residents, ensuring quality dining experiences aligned with dietary needs, seasonal variety, and culinary standards. Introduced innovative menu planning and resident-centered programming, managed a team of 14 (including training, certification, and daily production oversight), and developed inventory and budget systems that achieved the site's first-ever full-year financial compliance, ending six consecutive years of budget overages while reducing food waste. Also launched recurring dining events that increased resident participation and satisfaction survey results. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2019 to 2023 | Employer: University of Minnesota Dining | Title: District Executive Chef / Senior Executive Campus Chef | Department: |
Responsibilities:Directed operations across a $45M multi-venue dining program spanning residential, retail, catering, and stadium platforms, leading a team of 11 executive chefs in delivering scratch-based menus aligned with student preferences and university standards. Drove ideation through faculty partnerships and visibility campaigns, and led pandemic response efforts, including converting stadium inventory into bulk-prepared meals and take-home kits within 72 hours. Also launched a promotional initiative that improved campus-wide perception of the dining program. |
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| Years | Employer | Title | Department |
| Years: 2002 to 2019 | Employer: Schwan's Company | Title: Corporate Executive Chef | Department: |
Responsibilities:Directed front-end product innovation for national retail and foodservice brands with a strong focus on sensory-driven development, playing a central role in designing, executing, and interpreting sensory studies that informed product refinement, brand positioning, and shelf-life stability. Co-founded the company's internal Chef Collective, leading cross-functional workshops integrating consumer insights, lexicon development, and analytical evaluation into culinary concept pipelines.Responsibilities included designing and executing structured sensory evaluations (descriptive analysis and consumer preference testing), collaborating with sensory scientists and statisticians on blinding protocols and testing standards aligned with ISO and internal guidelines, creating gold-standard reference materials and lexicons for panel use, and leading internal/external sensory panels for benchmarking, shelf-life tracking, and competitive analysis. Developed SOPs for in-house sensory processes, trained R&D teams on evaluation protocols, and built onboarding curricula to deepen non-culinary teams' fluency in sensory methodology. Led development of a full in-house pizza program and produced in-house food styling and visual documentation supporting sensory storytelling and consumer panels. |
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Career Accomplishments
| Associations / Societies |
|---|
| Founder, President & Board Chair — American Culinary Federation (ACF), Southwest Minnesota Chapter |
| Licenses / Certifications |
|---|
| • Certified Executive Chef (CEC) — American Culinary Federation • Certified Research Chef (CRC) — Research Chefs Association |
| Awards / Recognition |
|---|
| • High Performance Award — Internal R&D Recognition, awarded 4 times • Innovation Recognition Award — Schwan's Company |