Each year, hundreds of personal chefs from around the country (and globe) gather together for the annual conference of the United States Personal Chef Association. This years event was in beautiful Denver, CO from July 30, 2010 to August 1, 2010, with pre and post conference events the day before and after allowing both seasoned personal chefs and new personal chefs the opportunity to network and gain valuable new ideas and information to take home so they can continue offering the best services in the industry to their clients.

Attendance at the annual conference is also worth certification and recertification points for the Certified Personal Chef® (CPC) designation, showing a high commitment from the chef to continue their education beyond the initial designation of Professional Personal Chef bestowed upon all USPCA chefs upon completion of a series of exams each has to take in order to receive that distinction. The USPCA remains the only organization for personal chefs to require testing for their membership as well as the only organization to hold the federally recognized distinction of Certified Personal Chef® ensuring all clients of USPCA personal chefs are receiving the highest level of service in the industry and knowing that their chefs are keeping up on new trends within the industry with the organization that began it all nearly 20 years ago! No matter how long or how little each chef has been in business, or even if they have not officially started their business, this conference offered a wealth of information geared towards all levels of experience and no one comes away without several new ideas to implement into their business plans! This is all in addition to the information provided to any USPCA chef taking one of the variety of Personal Chef Courses offered through the accredited programs of the Culinary Business Academy and the wealth of information provided with all USPCA memberships, all designed to create an environment where all USPCA personal chefs can continue to learn and expand their own businesses while networking with fellow member chefs.

After 19 years, the USPCA is still changing the way America and the World Eats by providing top notch seminars and speakers to attendees of the National Conference and this year was no exception! Even after being in this industry for a few years and having cooked in restaurants for nearly 3 decades (I started really, really young!) I know that the investment made into attending this conference is an investment into the future of my business, the industry as a whole and most importantly, my clients! This is an investment that has paid for itself multiple times over each time I attend and will continue to do so for years to come and I am excited to implement  the knowledge I have gained from this one! The information presented helps to strengthen everyone’s business, new and old, and gives the chefs a chance to learn from each other as well as learn from a variety of speakers hand picked from other areas of the industry and related businesses.

One of the many highlights for me was, as President of our local USPCA Chapter, West PA Chefs, accepting the honor of USPCA Chapter of the Year! I must give kudos to all the members of our chapter for making this a great year for our chapter! So, thanks to Chefs Catherine, Carole, JoAnn, Marcia, Melody and Sarah and past member Jennifer for making that all possible! Here’s to another great year!

I had the opportunity to present 2 seminars of my own this year as well as assist with a third in addition to attending several other seminars that will bring my business to the next level! Many of the seminars were presented by fellow USPCA chefs, but there were others that were presented by experts in their own fields, such as a CPA and a member of the local Toastmasters group. Lunch of Friday and Saturday included keynote speakers Denise Vivaldo (Food Fanatics and author of several books on Food Styling and Catering) and Chef Troy A. Guard from local Denver restaurant, TAG.

On Friday, Jordan from Soap Alchemy and I presented a demonstration to attendees on Creating Lotions from Ingredients in Your Pantry. Participants were able to make their own lotions and Jordan also created a lip balm from many of the same ingredients. The class was great! What chef doesn’t need a little lotion after constantly washing their hands and placing them into dishwater every day?

On Saturday, I presented my seminar: Selling Yourself on a Budget to a room full of both new and seasoned chefs. I had a great time teaching it and hope the participants walked away with some ideas to help them promote their businesses.

Just 3 years ago, I would never have entertained the idea of getting up in front of any group to present a seminar, let alone a group of my peers, but this year, I presented not just once, but twice (in addition to helping Jordan with his!) Originally, there was supposed to be a different speaker in my time slot for my Fusion Marketing: Promoting Your PC Business with Demonstrations, and it was supposed to be a Turkish Foods Demonstration, but the speaker had to cancel due to a family emergency and I was asked to create this class in its place. It was a little stressful getting a 2 hour and 15 minute seminar together in a short period of time, but I think the attendees were able to walk away with information that will help them set up their own demos in their areas.

To start the seminar, Chef Catherine, the VP of West PA Chefs, also helped me by playing the part of a morning news show anchor while I showed the audience of the show How to Boil Water! It was a hoot! Obviously not meant to be serious, but it did show what one might need to set up their own demo, and I hope made everyone relax and wake up on the morning of day 3 of the conference! Chef Carole, West PA Chefs Treasurer also played a small role as another anchor tasting the finished product at the end of the segment. I should also thanks Jordan Henderson from Soap Alchemy, who recorded a video of the demo and Phil Ellison from CBA and USPCA for running the video camera that showed the demo on the big screen. You can see the video on the Dinner Magician Facebook Page.

During the seminar, I presented the 7 steps of Fusion Marketing and then a checklist of how to go about setting up an actual demo. We ended the seminar discussing several different options on how to find a venue to set up a demo and choosing which locations might be best as well as discussing the target markets for each and possible recipes one might pick for each. I was worried I wouldn’t have enough information to fill up such a long class, but my fears were unfounded and the class went for the full time, and we probably could have gone on longer!

View from our table at the Opening Session at the USPCA National Conference in Denver, 2010!

Classes I personally attended included: Cooking for Families with Cancer, Gluten Free and Casein Free, Toastmaster, Accounting by the Numbers, and Expanded Business Plans and Marketing 501. I especially enjoyed the Toastmasters class and learned much from the others that will help me as I continue to grow my business! There was also the SPAM carving event at the vendor reception on Friday evening. I can’t carve anything that would resemble anything out of a block of SPAM, so didn’t participate, but what creative things that were carved by those who did! And it was just fun to watch! Who would have thought you would even want to do that with SPAM?

Other sessions included a Share Our Strength Volunteer Day the day prior to conference as well as a Gourmet Market Tour, a Cook Street Microbrew and Food Tasting and a Flambe Demonstration by Chef Dean. On Friday there was Business Plans 101 and a Grilling Demo a seminar on Winning American Cheeses and one on Google AdWords… And that was all before lunch! After lunch there was Developing Your Palate and a seminar by the West PA Chefs Chapter Treasurer, Chef Carole on Health Supportive Cooking. Then, there was a Healing Foods lecture and a seminar designed to Go Beyond the 5×4.

Saturday’s sessions began with Elite Catering and Events, Law and Order PCS and a Demo by Chef Troy A. Guard from TAG Restaurant as well as a class on Pop Up Restaurants and Waterless Cooking. After Lunch, chefs were treated with Dinner is Served, Kids Rule and Plating and Garnishing followed by the annual Iron Chef style competition, the Personal Chefs Knockout!

The Chef’s Knockout was, once again, one of the highlights of Saturday afternoon! Chefs Dean and Susan make quick work out of whipping several different dishes using the secret ingredient Xagave Nectar! They really should have a way for everyone to sample these dishes! They all looked so good and the presentation was fantastic! Congratulations to both competing chefs and their teams for a great job and Congratulations to this year’s winner: Chef Susan!

Sunday morning dawned for another great set of seminars! There was Chefworx, Sous Chef, Staying on Point and Escaping Danger, followed by Pasture to Plate and Recipes for Internet Success. A boxed lunch designed for those needing to catch a plane was provided for lunch giving the chefs one more opportunity to network if they were staying on a bit longer but also giving those traveling a chance to have a good lunch if they were traveling as opposed to eating at the airport. So much information packed into 3 days! The conference book provided to all conference attendees was huge! It contains all the handouts from every seminar so chefs could still get all the information from all the classes regardless of which they attended! The book will provide me with many nights of reading over the next few weeks and months and will join my others as reference material as I encounter situations where that information will come in handy. And believe me, I’ve used past books over and over and know this one will be the same.

Some other highlights included the CPC Dinner at the Brown Palace on Thursday night, before the conference, dinner at TAG restaurant, owned by Saturday’s Keynote Speaker Chef Troy A. Guard and a visit to the Denver Art Museum to see the King Tut exhibit with Chef Tom Fox and his wife Patty and chapter member Chef Carole on Sunday afternoon. What a great couple! Last year I attended Chef Tom and Patty’s seminar on Cooking with Kids and that began all the different activities I have since set up with my local YMCAs and Libraries during the past year!

Jordan and I also had a chance to visit a really cool bowling alley with USPCA President and Vice President Chef Gail and Bruce Kenagy Sunday evening. It was called Lucky Strike and they had the best menu of any bowling alley I have ever seen! And the bowling was fun, too, even though it didn’t seem as though any of us were actually very good at it! What a fun way to end a great trip!

One thing I must say is that the hotel location was spectacular! What a nice city and a great time to have spent with other USPCA chefs from all over the country and world! The USPCA continues to promote the personal chef industry as a whole to the general public while providing cutting edge educational and networking opportunities for all their member chefs and I look forward to what the next year will bring! What started as an idea in 1991 and the United States Personal Chef Institute has grown into an accredited school for personal chefs and the largest organization for personal chefs anywhere! 2011 will be 20 years since the founders formulated the very first training materials for personal chefs, the benchmark materials that have trained thousands of personal chefs, and it’s going to be one big celebration at the next conference so if you are a personal chef and you want the best of the best, then make plans to join the USPCA next year at their 20th anniversary celebration!

For more pictures, please visit my USPCA Conference: Denver 2010 photo gallery on my Dinner Magician Facebook Page!