Intellex Acquires Expert by Big Village

We're thrilled to announce that Intellex has acquired Expert by Big Village, effective March 22, 2024. This strategic move enhances our capabilities and strengthens our commitment to delivering exceptional solutions to our customers.

Stay tuned for more updates on how this acquisition will benefit our clients and experts.

For inquiries or more information, please contact us at info@intellex.com.

×

Expert Details

Food and Beverage

ID: 737879 Wisconsin, USA

Request Expert

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

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 2020 Degree: MS Subject: Hospitality Management Institution: Florida International University
Year: 2019 Degree: BS Subject: Hospitality Mangement Institution: Florida International University
Year: 1999 Degree: AAS Subject: Culinary Arts Institution: Joliet Junior College

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2021 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Lecturer Department: Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management
Responsibilities:
Teaching courses in hospitality management through the hotel/restaurant/tourism management department
Principles of Food Production, Restaurant Operations, Security and Risk Management, Beverage Management Hospitality Employee Relations, Food and Beverage Finance Controls, Wine, Spirits and Beverage Management, Institutional Food Purchasing, and Food Service Administration
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2019 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Freelance Hospitality Consultant Department: Freelance
Responsibilities:
Leading the food and beverage programs, developing curriculum, hosting workshops, systems implementation, and planning in education and industry
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2017 to 2019 Employer: Woosong University Title: Assistant Professor Department: Culinary Arts - SICA
Responsibilities:
One of the international instructors on the culinary faculty team. Conduct classes based on school curriculum. Prepare presentations of daily subjects. Grading students based on performance and preparing them for their internships abroad. Develop curriculum.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2007 to 2016 Employer: Shangri-la Hotels and Resorts Title: Executive Chef Department: Food and Beverage
Responsibilities:
Fully responsible for all culinary division activities including HR management, finance, purchasing, cost control, annual CAPEX, yearly budgets, hygiene management, menu development, sales and marketing, revenue management, equal member of the executive committee team reporting directly to the general manager. Managing large teams in existing and pre-opening hotels of over 100 culinary members.

Managing teams of over 135 with food revenue budgets of $20 million annual budgets.

International Experience

Years Country / Region Summary
Years: 1999 to 2019 Country / Region: Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, Oman, Malaysia, China, South Korea Summary: Germany - 1999-2000
Switzerland - 2001-2001
Singapore - 2004
Thailand - 2004-2007
Oman - 2007-2009
Malaysia - 2009-2011
China - 2011-2016
South Korea - 2017-2019

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
ACF Member - American Culinary Federation
Member of the Society of Wine Educators
Member of the American Homebrewers Association
Wisconsin Restaurant Association Member
Licenses / Certifications
Special Certificates and Continuing Education
CHE - Certified Hospitality Educator - 2021
Certificate in ISO22001:2005 & HACCP in Practice -LRQA
ICC Zertificat Deutsch – International German Language Certificate - TELC (B2 level)
Certified Beer Server - Part of the Certified Cicerone™ program
ServSafe: Food Protection Manager Certification - 2020
Certified ServSafe® Instructor & Registered ServSafe® Examination Proctor
ServSafe Allergens™ Certificate - 2022
ServSafe Alcohol Advanced Certificate - 2022
ServSafe Alcohol Registered Instructor and Proctor - 2022
Wine & Spirit Education Trust - WSET Level 2 in Wines - 2020
Wine & Spirit Education Trust - WSET Level 1 in Spirits - 2022
Certified Executive Chef (CEC) written test passed August 2020 (still pending practical exam)
Illinois State Board of Education - ELS (CTE) Teaching Certificate in Cooking and Related Culinary Arts CIP: 12.0500 - Grade 7 through Grade 12
Professional Appointments
Board of Directors Member - Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation
Advisory Committee Member - CVTC - Chippewa Valley Technical College (Culinary Arts Department)

Language Skills

Language Proficiency
German Advanced
Chinese (Mandarin) Beginner
Thai Beginner

Fields of Expertise

Request Expert

Dev Tool:

Request: expert/food-and-beverage
Matched Rewrite Rule: expert/([^/]+)(?:/([0-9]+))?/?$
Matched Rewrite Query: experts=food-and-beverage&page=
Loaded Template: single-experts.php