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Expert was born and raised in Chicago, IL, USA. He started his career as a dishwasher in a small 9 table restaurant in his hometown of Frankfort, Illinois. He continued working there for many years and eventually took over as chef. After working in various other food and beverage establishments, he decided to attend culinary school and enrolled in the nearby Joliet Junior College where he earned an associate degree in Culinary Arts.

After graduating from Joliet Junior College, he worked his way around the United States including being employed as a pastry cook in Chicago and a hot kitchen cook at the famous Mount Washington Resort in New Hampshire. Eventually the travel itch took over and he took a private chef’s position on a luxury yacht that sailed the Mediterranean Sea including stops in Greece, France, Italy and Spain.

His career continued in other areas of the globe when he was hand selected for a mini-ambassadorship and a 1-year exchange program in Germany, which is where Expert learned the German language. Enjoying Europe, he accepted a 1-year position in Zurich, Switzerland at the Dolder Grand Hotel. He then returned home to the United States before joining Holland America Line where he cooked on large cruise ships traveling the globe, from Russia and Northern Europe, to Hawaii and South America.

Eventually, Expert left the ships and moved to Singapore where he worked while attend a 3-week Asian cooking school, learning traditional Chinese Dim Sum, Chinese BBQ, Thai Cuisine as well as Chinese Vegetarian and Regional Cuisines. This led to a job working as a chef de cuisine with the Novotel group in Bangkok, Thailand and then various chefs position working for the Shangri-la Hotel Group in 5 different hotels located in Oman, Malaysia and China for close to 10 years.

In total, Expert has lived overseas for more than 20 years and has worked in almost every hospitality industry situation one could imagine. During this time, he also earned his bachelors and Master of Science in Hospitality Management remotely from Florida International University while working in South Korea as a culinary/hospitality professor.

After 2 years, he went back to China to work in Shanghai as a culinary consultant. This was at a start up food and beverage training incubator focusing on education and operations. He continued to consult back in the USA and led to him finding a full time lecturer position at the Employer.

Expert continues to research, grow, and develop his educational skills in Wisconsin.

Special Skills and Experiences

Instructing Skills
Hands-on instructor expressing real world situations through passion and personal experiences
Ability to personalize and present essentials updating curriculum to what is essential and relevant in today's world
Research skills to create new curriculum and classes benefiting students while enhancing the institution's reputation
Knowledge on how to instruct diverse audiences to maximize learning and information retention

Management Skills
Hotel opening experience in China with problem solving to meet difficult deadlines while being adaptable
Food and beverage marketing and promotion planning for hotels and restaurants
Talented in finding root causes to repeating problems taking a hands-on approach using holistic methods of assessment
Revenue management skills in problem solving through tactical promotions with pricing in any hotel revenue generating departments
Excellent all around knowledge of all aspects of culinary/food and beverage/hotel operations dealing with hygiene, management of people, strategic planning and resources

Culinary Skills
Smoked cuisine specialist with originality and refinement over the last 25 years while working in various kitchens on 3 continents
Intense knowledge of the international food and beverage world through work, travel, and continuing education
Thorough knowledge of the Thai, European, American, Regional Chinese, and Southeast Asian Kitchens
Many successful American food promotions and professional presentations held in various Asian countries
Passion for fermentation of all kinds of food and alcoholic/non-alcoholic beverages

Leadership Skills
Able to lead a kitchen team speaking German, Thai, Chinese and or Spanish through my extensive international experiences
Team leader by personal example holding a deep understanding of different internal and external cultural characteristics
Over 9.5 years with one company working in 5 different hotels/resorts
Public relations and marketing skills in front of media through many years of experiences performing cooking demos, public relations, and hotel promotions
Experience in almost every aspect of food and beverage operations in almost any setting one can imagine
6 years as a hotel EXCOM member in various 5 star properties while being responsible for multi-million dollar operations and large operational teams