About Carlton Brooks

Dear Friends and Col­leagues and wage earners

Have we made a comeback?

In 2011 the Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion com­mis­sioned Indus­try Insights, Inc. to per­form a Salary Study of the Culi­nary pro­fes­sion. The last sur­vey done in 2008 was updated and inten­si­fied. This sur­vey pro­vided valu­able infor­ma­tion about the state of the culi­nary indus­try and what fac­tors influ­ence ACF mem­bers’ salaries.

In Octo­ber 2011, an email invi­ta­tion was sent to approx­i­mately 21,000 culi­nary pro­fes­sion­als. Some of you may have par­tic­i­pated in this sur­vey. Indus­try Insights stated that “In total, 2,711 com­pleted online sub­mis­sions were received by the Novem­ber dead­line, rep­re­sent­ing a response rate of 13%. Data was checked man­u­ally and by a spe­cially designed com­puter edit­ing pro­ce­dure. Final results were for­mu­lated by Indus­try Insights, Inc., and the report was com­pleted in Decem­ber 2011.”

Accord­ing to the sur­vey results, here are the top five of the survey’s key findings:

1. The industry’s unem­ploy­ment rate is low.
Only 3% were not employed but actively seek­ing employ­ment, com­pared with the Jan­u­ary 2012 national unem­ploy­ment rate of 8.3%. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

2. Cor­po­rate executives/managers and research chefs bring in the high­est median base salaries.
Cor­po­rate executives/managers earned $97,000, fol­lowed by research chefs ($90,000) and admin­is­tra­tors in edu­ca­tion ($74,000). Exec­u­tive chefs earned $66,000.

3. Hold­ing ACF cer­ti­fi­ca­tion increases aver­age com­pen­sa­tion.
Respon­dents with at least one ACF cer­ti­fi­ca­tion reported 7% higher aver­age total com­pen­sa­tion than those with­out an ACF certification.

4. The gen­der pay gap is sig­nif­i­cant.
The median base salary for male cor­po­rate executives/managers was $28,000 higher than that of a woman. In terms of total cash com­pen­sa­tion, men earned $38,500 more than female cor­po­rate exec­u­tives.
Male exec­u­tive chefs earned nearly $18,000 more than women exec­u­tive chefs.

5. Where you live affects how much you earn.
The high­est median base salary was in the mid­dle Atlantic ($65,000), fol­lowed by New Eng­land and the Pacific (each $60,000).

The last ACF Salary Sur­vey was con­ducted in 2008 and found that:

• The aver­age ACF mem­ber made an annual salary of $54,100.
• On aver­age, chefs who held the Cer­ti­fied Exec­u­tive Chef (CEC) or Cer­ti­fied Exec­u­tive Pas­try Chef (CEPC) des­ig­na­tion or higher earned $10,900 more per year.
• Cor­po­rate orga­ni­za­tions typ­i­cally paid higher salaries than other places of employ­ment.
• Those employed in the North­east and West­ern regions were paid slightly more than in the Mid­west and South.

The 2011 ACF Salary Study results reveals valu­able indus­try sta­tis­tics on aver­age salaries, length of work­weeks, high­est pay­ing indus­try seg­ments, gen­der pay dis­crep­an­cies and the finan­cial ben­e­fit of obtain­ing ACF cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the culi­nary indus­try. Pur­chase this CD for $25.00 from the ACF National Office, which includes the com­plete 81-page study and gain access to the vir­tual Salary Study Cal­cu­la­tor. The accom­pa­ny­ing Salary Cal­cu­la­tor allows pro­fes­sion­als to enter spe­cific pro­fes­sional infor­ma­tion to deter­mine what the aver­age salary is for some­one in their posi­tion, where they live and in other parts of the country.

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Your local ACF Chap­ter is busy plan­ning it meet­ing sched­ule for the fall of 2011. We have some inter­est­ing top­ics that we are work­ing on.

With just a board meet­ing sched­uled for July, we will start up again with a reg­u­lar edu­ca­tional meet­ings on August 1. We will be meet­ing at The Audubon Cen­ter, 3131 S. Cen­tral Ave., Phoenix. We will be dis­cussing energy, con­struc­tion, ven­dor prod­uct dis­play, LEED Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Build­ings, and how they can help our food ser­vice establishment.

On Sep­tem­ber 12 our theme is Octo­ber Fest & Thanks­giv­ing, while on Octo­ber 3 we will dis­cuss the use of Tech­nol­ogy in the food ser­vice industry.

The Novem­ber 7 meet­ing is about Wine & Spir­its, glass­ware, the hol­i­days, alco­hol safety, and insurance.

We are always on the look out for ven­dors that would like to par­tic­i­pate. If any one has a prod­uct to dis­play or wants to talk about please con­tact us through our website.

We have sched­uled on Octo­ber 22 and 23, 2011 (pend­ing final ACF approval) the Robert Bland Culi­nary Salon, and also a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exam on Novem­ber 12, 2011. More details will fol­low once we have final approval, but last years com­pe­ti­tions were great. We had over 50 stu­dent and pro­fes­sional competitors.

For cur­rent infor­ma­tion please fol­low us on our web­site acfaz.org, on Face­book at facebook.com/acfchefsofaz and Twit­ter at @acfchefsofaz and #acfaz

ACFAZ

Face­book of ACFAZ

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

Dear Friends and Colleagues

In just a few short weeks Much is hap­pen­ing with the national and local Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona. With the upcom­ing FATA the 2011 West­ern Regional Con­fer­ence, hosted by ACF Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona, Inc. (ACFAZ), tak­ing place at the recently opened Talk­ing Stick Resort, Scotts­dale, Ariz., April 29–May 2. For a spe­cific time line of events, or to reg­is­ter for the con­fer­ence please go to www.acfchefs.org and look for the West­ern Regional link on the bot­tom left.

The board and I would like to thank every mem­ber for entrust­ing us to rep­re­sent and lead this great chap­ter not only for the future, but also for the present. We will do every­thing in our power to serve each and every mem­ber to the best of our abil­ity. We are only as good as each and every mem­ber. It will take each and every one of us to grow our chap­ter, to not only pro­mote our proud pro­fes­sion, but to also become more vis­i­ble within the com­mu­nity. We must con­tinue to be the author­i­ties on cook­ing and get oth­ers involved and excited about ACF.

As a board, we want to know what you would like the orga­ni­za­tion to do for you. We would like to chal­lenge each and every mem­ber to become more involved, even if it’s to ask a col­league to get involved or to join the chapter.

The fol­low­ing is just a sam­ple of the oppor­tu­ni­ties in which mem­bers can get involved:
• Chef and the Child
• Chefs Move to Schools
• Men­tor­ing young culi­nar­i­ans
• Men­tor­ing culi­nar­i­ans through the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process
• Bring­ing edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties to get younger culi­nar­i­ans involved though webi­nars, forums, web­cast­ing & social media.
• Become an Eval­u­a­tor for the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process
• Work with to sup­port our mil­i­tary who put their lives on the line for us
• Part­ner with local culi­nary pro­grams to sup­port and grow our pro­fes­sion
• Be involved in the West­ern Regional Con­fer­ence, to be held April 29 – May 2

As you can see there are many things that we do as a chap­ter and this only names a few of them. It is not all about work but also net­work­ing and fel­low­ship with one another, in order pro­mote our proud profession.

Keep apprised of what is hap­pen­ing with our group by vis­it­ing us on Face­book at http://www.facebook.com/acfchefsofaz or on Twit­ter at ACFChef­so­fAZ.
Madonna Kash is work­ing with the Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona in help­ing us keep every­one aware of local food trends and such.

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

Another month has come and gone, the hol­i­days are now behind us and we must now focus on the new year ahead.

Just the other day I received some dis­heart­en­ing news. It seems that the ACF North­ern Ari­zona chap­ter has decided to sus­pend oper­a­tions. Chef Richard Crow­ell stated “Offi­cially, our char­ter and activ­i­ties will be sus­pended, but encour­age any­one inter­ested to con­sider a role in ACFNA’s rebirth. Towards this end, we will do all that we can to help in this process should it occur.” We at ACFAZ would encour­age any mem­bers of ACFNA in the mean­time to give us a chance and par­tic­i­pate and inter­act with our mem­ber­ship here in the valley.

In the mean­time we at the ACFAZ have many projects that are com­ing along with which any mem­ber or non mem­ber can participate.

On March 6th we will be assist­ing in spon­sor­ing the FATTAZ Meat­ball Cook-Off. The pro­ceeds from this event will be ben­e­fit­ing the St. Mary’s Food Bank and C-CAP. For more infor­ma­tion read Heidi Lees’ arti­cle in this issue.

The 2011 West­ern Regional Con­fer­ence, hosted by ACF Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona, Inc. (ACFAZ), takes place at the recently opened Talk­ing Stick Resort, Scotts­dale, Ariz., April 29–May 2. Atten­dees will Expe­ri­ence the Power of Con­nec­tion as they attend edu­ca­tional sem­i­nars and demon­stra­tions together, com­pete, net­work and enjoy enter­tain­ment activ­i­ties in the evenings. At the trade show, April 30, you will view the lat­est culi­nary prod­ucts and ingredients.

This event is a big feather in your local asso­ci­a­tions toque, so to speak. We need to put our best foot for­ward. In this regard we are ask­ing for your help. With just about 90 days to go we are work­ing on devel­op­ing vol­un­teer sched­ules for many of the events that are sched­uled. Please con­tact us at acfaz@acfaz.org to let us know how you might be able to assist us.

Again thank you for all your sup­port. We look for­ward to hear­ing from you soon.

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

Dear col­leagues:

As we ven­ture into the fall months where many of our ven­dors that we pur­chase our goods from have food shows, great sales pitches and more, let us remem­ber what they are there for.

From the Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion stand point they are our friends and allies. They help in sup­port­ing our meet­ings and many projects that we are involved with. Almost all of this is at no cost to the asso­ci­a­tion. It is with the intent that if their prod­ucts are dis­played and demon­strated that we as chef’s, and culi­nar­i­ans would buy their prod­ucts or use there services

A good ven­dor rela­tion­ship comes about not from mak­ing arro­gant demands with supe­rior atti­tude that a busi­ness owner or pur­chaser is far more impor­tant than a lowly ven­dor. A good work­ing rela­tion­ship gives ben­e­fits for both.

Here are some sure-fire meth­ods to main­tain good ven­dor relations.

Ven­dor Respect
Treat the ven­dor com­pany rep or owner with respect will war­rant you the same treat­ment. No one likes to deal with a chron­i­cally auto­cratic, pain-in the-butt twit who thinks he or she orbits in a more rar­efied atmos­phere. Ven­dors run busi­nesses that cater to your needs. Some­times things go amiss. Going bal­lis­tic isn’t going to solve the prob­lem of a delayed, lost or erro­neous deliv­ery any faster, but adopt­ing a rea­son­able tone and atti­tude can greatly enhance your ven­dor man­age­ment results. There’s lit­tle to be gained by scream­ing at a ven­dor rep stand­ing in front of your desk. Mis­takes hap­pen in orders and deliv­ery all the time. Even those rar­efied breathers expe­ri­ence deliv­ery prob­lems with their own prod­uct line. Some­thing that they’ll rarely admit.

Be a warm per­son
Some busi­ness own­ers seem to think that main­tain­ing a dis­tant, cold atti­tude cre­ates more ven­dor man­age­ment power than being approach­able. It doesn’t and only serves to cre­ate ulcers within hap­less reps assigned to serve your needs. Lucky them. Rest assured that ven­dors talk, and if you oper­ate in the auto­cratic mode, you’ll gain a deserved rep­u­ta­tion of being dif­fi­cult to deal with.

Build Ven­dor Rela­tion­ships
Ven­dor rela­tion­ships are devel­oped over time and based on mutual trust and respect. Even large cor­po­ra­tions have local offices with which you can develop a rela­tion­ship. If the local rep is at all savvy, you can be sure that he’ll do what he can to main­tain it.

Reap The Ben­e­fits
Don’t for­get ven­dors are in a posi­tion to offer you train­ing about the prod­ucts they rep­re­sent. Take advan­tage of as much free train­ing you can get. Try to get a rep to become one of your trusted con­tacts, thereby assur­ing you that any prob­lems you develop will be the first to be solved.

But even if you pur­chase items that need lit­tle or no train­ing, ven­dors and their reps are golden sources of mar­ket­ing infor­ma­tion con­cern­ing job oppor­tu­ni­ties open­ing up, or new busi­nesses mov­ing into the area. You can learn a lot not only about new oppor­tu­ni­ties but a lot about your com­pe­ti­tion, espe­cially from reps who want to stay on your good side. So work to stay on their good side as well. You’ll both benefit.

Lastly, and not to be preachy buy locally. It will ben­e­fit you, your busi­ness and lastly the Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Arizona.

The Culi­nar­i­ans Code
As a proud mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion, I pledge to share my pro­fes­sional knowl­edge and skill with all culi­nar­i­ans. I will place honor, fair­ness, coop­er­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tion first when deal­ing with my col­leagues. I will keep all com­ments pro­fes­sional and respect­ful when deal­ing with my col­leagues. I will pro­tect all mem­bers from the use of unfair means, unnec­es­sary risks and uneth­i­cal behav­ior when used against them for another’s per­sonal gain. I will sup­port the suc­cess, growth, and future of my col­leagues and this great fed­er­a­tion.
Adopted at Board of Gov­er­nors August 3, 2010

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

To all read­ers, ACFAZ mem­bers and associates

I would like to yield the first part of my monthly col­umn to a great friend and col­league, as well as past pres­i­dent of the Asso­ci­a­tion, Chef Eric Watson.

“For the last 15 years, I have made Phoenix my home and have been an active mem­ber of the ACF Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona. I have served many posi­tions within this orga­ni­za­tion and have received many more benefits.

My fam­ily and I have decided to relo­cate to Charleston, South Car­olina. This is not an easy deci­sion for us as we have many friends and ties in Ari­zona and have made many com­mit­ments to col­leagues and friends. Never the less, a move at this time is what is best for us and we will be head­ing east at the end of September.

As imme­di­ate past pres­i­dent and cur­rent chair­man of the board of direc­tors for ACFAZ, I real­ize the impact I have had on this chap­ter and the events that are pend­ing where I have strong ties and respon­si­bil­i­ties. I am work­ing closely with Carl­ton Brooks and the rest of the board to make sure that my respon­si­bil­i­ties to the chap­ter are met, and that the events I have helped to plan and bring to Ari­zona are still a suc­cess. I plan to remain a proud mem­ber of the ACFAZ and I look for­ward to being an active mem­ber and par­tic­i­pant when our chap­ter hosts the 2011 West­ern Regional Con­fer­ence. This should be a shin­ing moment in our chapter’s history.

Thank you all sin­cerely for your sup­port over the years, and I leave with noth­ing but the high­est level of respect and pas­sion for what we as a chap­ter have accom­plished over the years. I wish con­tin­ued suc­cess for the ACF Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Arizona.

Respect­fully,
–Eric Watson”

With Chef Watson’s leav­ing the Asso­ci­a­tion and Val­ley have a large hole to fill. Eric was a friend, edu­ca­tor, men­tor, and com­mu­nity involved indi­vid­ual. We all wish him luck in his new position.

As Octo­ber is upon us if you are in the com­pet­i­tive mode, remem­ber that you have a short time to reg­is­ter for the ACF Sanc­tioned Robert Bland Culi­nary Salon. You can see our web­site for details.

Our Octo­ber meet­ing at the time this col­umn is being writ­ten, will be held at the Phoenix/Mesa Hilton, and hosted by Chef Renae Hannum.

The ACFAZ Chef of the Year din­ner is sched­uled for Jan­u­ary 22, 2011 at the Talk­ing Stick resort. At this years din­ner we will be announc­ing the new offi­cers for the year, as well as Chef of the Year, Pas­try Chef of the Year, Edu­ca­tor of the Year, Stu­dent Culi­nar­ian of the Year, and the Team that will be rep­re­sent­ing Ari­zona in the West­ern Regional Competition.

Regards to all.

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz

Dear Friends and Colleagues;

I am writ­ing this col­umn as the National Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion comes to an end. What a great con­fer­ence, offer­ing many diverse classes, pro­vid­ing indus­try updates, a fab­u­lous trade show, and much more.
The one topic that caused the most dis­cus­sion at our Board of Gov­er­nors meet­ing was the newly pro­posed revised Culi­nar­i­ans code. The first Culi­nar­i­ans Code was adopted in 1957 by a fine cadre of chef’s.
But, times have changed. In 53 years we have gone from a job title asso­ci­ated with maids, but­lers, and ser­vants. To one which rec­og­nizes chef’s as pro­fes­sion­als, like doc­tors, lawyers and many oth­ers.
It took the com­mit­tee over three years to bring this new code to fruition, with much hard work from its mem­bers and the ACF mem­ber­ship.
The Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion has now brought the code in line with 21st cen­tury beliefs and philoso­phies. As the code states

“As a proud mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion, I pledge to share my pro­fes­sional knowl­edge and skill with all culi­nar­i­ans. I will place honor, fair­ness, coop­er­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tion first when deal­ing with my col­leagues. I will keep all com­ments pro­fes­sional and respect­ful when deal­ing with my col­leagues. I will pro­tect all mem­bers from the use of unfair means, unnec­es­sary risks and uneth­i­cal behav­ior when used against them for another’s per­sonal gain. I will sup­port the suc­cess, growth, and future of my col­leagues and this great federation.”

Let us attempt to live our per­sonal and pro­fes­sional life with this code as it’s basis. Let us prac­tice this as we go through life, and pass on it’s mean­ing to the younger gen­er­a­tion which will fol­low us.
Post this infor­ma­tion in your work place. Show that you are a proud believer in the Amer­i­can Culi­nary Fed­er­a­tion and what it stands for.
For those indi­vid­u­als in a com­pet­i­tive mode, the ACFAZ is spon­sor­ing an ACF sanc­tioned com­pe­ti­tion The Robert Bland Culi­nary Salon will be held on Novem­ber 12–14, 2010. For more infor­ma­tion go to our web­site at acfaz.org.

If you would like to be put on our email list please con­tact us at acfaz@acfaz.org. Also remem­ber we are on Face­book and Twit­ter as well. Just fol­low the links on our website.

We look for­ward to see­ing you soon.

Carl­ton W. Brooks CEPC, CCE, ACE

Pres­i­dent, Chefs Asso­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (ACFAZ)

 www.acfaz.org

facebook.com/acfchefsofaz

Twit­ter acfchefsofaz