Denver 2010
July 29 - August 1
- Denver,
- Denver,
Dinner is Served
- Class
Event Times
# Day Times Status 40 Saturday, Jul. 31 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Half Full
Description / Notes
Dinner is ServedABC’s of fabulous dinner parties, conception to cleanup
Overview of class:
This class is aimed at members who have never focused on or thought about doing dinner parties. You will work your way from conception to cleanup, including marketing, menu selection, prep and onsite cooking, the use of additional help and how to leave them wanting more. Cal will share his ideas and techniques that have lead to years of successful repeat business for his dinner party business.
What you will take away from this class:
• Understanding menu development, including sample menus that you can use to jump start your own dinner party operations
• Understanding costing and portion control to maximize profit and how it is different than a multi-meal service
• Understanding of how and when to bring in additional help – servers, bartenders, rentals, etc.
• Recipes from a recent 7-course dinner party – “From Italy with Love”
Target Audience: Beginner / GrowthBeginner = beginner level – few if any regular clients, in business less than 6 months, green at every level
Growth = growth level – has regular clients but needs to get more business in mainstream PCS, understands concepts
Instructor/Speaker
Calvin Kraft
For thirty years, Cal worked in the corporate world of the travel and hospitality industry, from flying the friendly skies, to Director of Customer Relations at Amtrak, to Regional Vice President for the Council of Better Business Bureaus. He retired in 1995 to pursue his interest in both cooking and running a country inn. For several years Cal was an Innkeeper at the Bailiwick Inn, a historic 14 - room inn in the heart of Fairfax, Virginia. It was here that he developed his true love of cooking and fine dining. Whenever he was not attending to his inn keeping duties, he was in the kitchen watching as Executive Chef Jeff Prather created his culinary magic night after night. The Inn was sold in late 1999, and in 2000, Cal started “Dinner Is Served” Personal Chef Service, LLC.
While being a Personal Chef was certainly a career change, it was one Cal had been long preparing for. He studied Northern Italian Cuisine under Chef Instructor Jane Woods as well as having taken culinary studies at both L’ Academe de Cuisine and the Culinary Institute of America. He is a member of the United States Personal Chef Association; served on the USPCA National Advisory Council; is a Certified Personal Chef, and Past President of the Capital Chefs of the USPCA Capital Region. He was Chef Instructor at Kitchen University, a division of Kitchen Etc., teaching all culinary classes from 2001 – 2004. He is currently a Chef Instructor for the Fairfax Country Adult Education Programs in Culinary Arts as well as an Instructor for the Culinary Business Academy. He was a part-time consultant to Don Tango Foods, Inc. and has cooked for A Taste of DC and on several occasions been a guest chef at the Home and Garden Expo of Northern Virginia. He has for two years been the Guest Chef Instructor at the Briar Patch Inn in Middleburg, Virginia. Cal has been a presenter at past USPCA National conferences in Atlanta, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
You can contact Cal at ChefCal@juno.com.