I was recently named as a weekly winner and finalist in a recipe contest.    What I didn’t know when I won was how much I’d learn from how the contest was structured. This was the second contest I’ve won this year.  It’s also the second time I’ve received a call from an agency where […]

I just returned from 2 weeks in Europe. We entered through Dusseldorf, toured the Burgundy and Champagne regions of France and returned to Dusseldorf through Belgium. It was an interesting trip as I was traveling with someone who has little to no interest in dining. That’s not to say he doesn’t enjoy food, he just […]

2014 is my year for goals. My first goal was to reach out to my LinkedIn network — individually. 375 e-mails later, I felt good about what I’d done. My second goal was to enter (and hopefully win) some recipe contests. The first contest I entered was the “Potato Goodness Guilt-Free Potato Recipe Contest”. I […]

I try to keep up with restaurants and restaurant trends as much as I can.  Typically this means eating at moderately priced independent restaurants but a few times a year, I like to see what the “new and notable” are doing.  This past weekend I went to a dinner with friends at restaurant with a […]

I had the opportunity to judge a cooking contest last week for FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America).  It was my first time as a judge at a live competition.  It took place at Kendall College and the competitors were very nervous high school students. The task was to prepare a series of […]

2013 was a good year for the Culinary Strategy Network. We worked on interesting and varied projects including putting together a set of school foodservice menus, doing a lot of recipe development, tracking and presenting trends, and helping to put together and judge a recipe contest. The year reminded me what I love about my work – the diversity of projects.