Chef Robert G. Wysong

Executive Chef – The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort

Certified Executive Chef – American Culinary Federation

Classically trained and mentored by pedigree industry professionals, Chef Robert Wysong now calls upon the full breadth of his talent and leadership style to drive the food-and-beverage division of the acclaimed Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, near Charleston, S.C.

At an early age, family meals influenced Wysong’s interest in cooking and entertaining, thus guiding him into the field of professional cooking. By his mid twenties, his goals would include service in prominent restaurants and hotels. Aware of his need for more formal training, Wysong was accepted to Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, where he achieved honors upon graduating in 1993.

Post-education, Wysong continued to seek positions where quality of experience prevailed. Among other positions, he worked for the Pensacola (Fla.) Country Club and then served as Chef Tournant, Executive Sous Chef, and Executive Banquet Chef for the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, N.C., for almost five years. The culinary mystique of The Ritz- Carlton organization then attracted him to the opportunity to help open the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla.

Following a very successful opening and more than five years of operation, Chef Wysong moved to his current position in 2005 as Executive Chef for The Sanctuary, a unique Forbes Five-Star/ AAA Five-Diamond luxury oceanside hotel.

The cuisine of Low Country coastal South Carolina is a major attraction for guests and friends of The Sanctuary and Resort. The procurement and use of fresh, seasonal farm offerings continue to guide the concepts and menus of The Sanctuary’s restaurants. This philosophy keeps everything in agreement with the region’s climate, agriculture, resources, and social customs. It further enables Chef Wysong to promote a robust cuisine defined by a simple, yet refined and ingredient-driven cooking approach. This approach was highlighted in a “Chef to Chef” interview with Chef Wysong that appeared in the February 2009 issue of Club & Resort Business (“A Sanctuary for Dining Excellence”).

A two- time Chapter Chef of the Year and managing member of the Greater Charleston Chapter of the American Culinary Federation (ACF), Wysong has supported the ACF mission and purpose since 1995. In 1997 he was recognized as Certified Chef de Cuisine, and currently as Certified Executive Chef. The greater goal is to continue the ACF certification track to its fullest potential.

Chef Wysong also serves as advisor to several Hospitality and Culinary programs based in the Charleston area.

Chef Patrick Wilson, PC-III, WCC, CCA, CEC, ACE, FMP

Patrick Wilson, PC-III, WCC, CCA, CEC, ACE, FMP, is the Executive Chef and House Manager at The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings On Hudson, N.Y. Dating to 1888, Saint Andrew’s is America’s oldest continuously existing golf club (1888) and a founding member of the United States Golf Association. Located 20 minutes from New York City, members and guests enjoy golf in a spectacular setting while playing one of the metropolitan area’s best-conditioned and more exciting layouts – a challenging par-71 layout that was redesigned as a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course in 1983.

In the light and airy dining room of Saint Andrew’s turn-of-the-century clubhouse, Wilson and his food-and-beverage team offer lunch and dinner menus with offerings for all styles of food. Wilson recently changed the club’s menu to a two-sided presentation: one side for a more traditional menu called “Club Fare,” and the other for an a la carte-style menu called “Modern Fare.” Items on the Modern Fare menu are lower in price, smaller in portion, more healthful, and allow for quicker service. The Modern Fare menu also includes non-prime cuts of meat, such as Hanger Steak, Braised Short Ribs, Filet of Fluke/Sole, and Sushi-Grade Pan-Seared Tuna, served in non-traditional china platters and bowls.

To keep menus more healthful, Wilson thickens soups with rice, potatoes or purees, and does not use roux in anything. For sauces, he makes glazes through reductions to enhance flavor, and uses a variety of seasonings, dashi, vinegars and compounds. He personally makes all pastry in-house and features healthful grains like spelt, quinoa, wild rice, Basmati rice, polenta, cous cous, brown rice and spaetzli, to supplement heavier starches.

Under Wilson’s direction, Saint Andrew’s started a fixed-price special on Wednesday nights in July and August (normally slow months for the club), and the offer drove business and bar consumption up 400% during that period. Thursday nights have become  theme nights at the club, with special menu items for themes such as Bistro Night, Steak Night, Lobster Night, Italian Night, Sushi and Sashimi Night, German Night, North African Night, French Night and Mediterranean Night.

For private parties, corporate outings and tournaments as well as member dining, the Saint Andrew’s food and beverage team also takes full advantage of the sweeping and spacious new deck that is poised dramatically from the clubhouse and overlooks the spectacular topography of the golf course’s fourth hole.

Beyond his role as Executive Chef and House Manager, Wilson, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), is also a mentor for the Pro Chef Exam and has floor-judged the Pro Chef exams. He is also an Approved Practical Examiner for the American Culinary Federation, and as such is one of only two chefs in the world who has both completed the Pro Chef exams and is an ACF-approved examiner.

Wilson has earned numerous certifications and accolades during his career, including Pro Chef Levels 1, 2 and 3; ACF Competition Gold Medal Winner; New York Hotel/Motel Show “Best Fish Platter”; Certified Culinary Administrator; Certified Executive Chef; World Certified Chef; Food Management Professional, National Restaurant Association; and Approved Culinary Evaluator. He is currently an Approved Master Chef Candidate for the Certified Master Chef exam.

Wilson has cooked at the James Beard House and consulted in Shanghai, China at the Nine Dragons Resort on cooking for Western tourists. He has also demonstrated Western Pastry at the Szechwan Institute for Higher Learning in Chengdu, China.

Randa Warren, M.S., CWE, DWS, CSS

Master Sommelier
Certified Wine Educator
Diploma of Wine and Spirits
Certified Specialist of Spirits

Randa Warren has been involved in the wine business for over 12 years.  She began through home study of WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust in England) wine courses through the International Wine Center in New York in 1998, and completed the final WSET Diploma program in 2001.  During this period, she also embarked on a rigorous journey with the Court of Master Sommeliers, gaining her Advanced Sommelier title on her first attempt in Las Vegas in 2000.

In the spring of 2001, Warren added the distinguished title of Certified Wine Educator, through the Society of Wine Educators in the United States. Fewer than 150 people that have earned access to this prestigious title.

In the spring of 2007, Warren became the sixteenth female Master Sommelier in the world, in the Spring of 2007.  Currently, there are only 167 Master Sommeliers worldwide, of whom 17 are women.

Currently based in Tulsa, Okla., Warren has written a local wine article for over ten years for Tulsa People, a monthly consumer publication.  She conducts private seminars and classes for financial institutions, business organizations, country clubs, resorts and private wine collectors around the country.  She also conducts monthly wine classes for many local Tulsa residents, and currently assists the Court of Master Sommeliers in teaching their Introductory and Certified Sommelier exams around the country.

Warren has been a member of the Confrerie du Tastevin in Burgundy for over 10 years and is a Dame de la Chaine des Rotisseurs in the United States (formerly Vice Eschanson of the L’Ordre Mondial, a sub-division of the Chaine des Rotisseurs specializing in the area of wine).

Clive Smith, Clubhouse Manager, Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa.

Coming from a large family that loved to entertain, Clive Smith opted for a career in Hospitality and Hotel Management  and graduated from the TWR Hotel School in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He then worked on three different continents, in kitchens as well as at the front-of-the-house, for both restaurants and resort hotels, before returning to South Africa for his first experience in the club industry at The Country Club Johannesburg.

Smith has been in the United States for the past 12 years. After a six-year tenure with Restaurant Associates, a – premier hospitality company, he moved back to the private club industry.  The last six years have been spent at Merion Golf Club, where his passion has been to deliver superior hospitality and create events that members and guests will enjoy and remember.

Having always had a special passion for wine, Smith has completed the Introductory Sommelier Course offered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, and is preparing to take the next steps towards certification. As Merion’s Clubhouse Manager, he has developed a wine program that has continued to grow over the past five years, with at least 10 wine dinners a year now on the club’s events calendar. Smith has brought winemakers from South Africa, France, Italy, Argentina, the U.S. and elsewhere around the world to showcase their country’s products and add to the “wow” factor of Merion’s wine program. “The success of our wine dinner events sell themselves,” Smith says. One of the most successful concepts (C&RB, July 2008, pg. 64) has been the Sundowner Wine Dinner held on Merion’s famed East Course (where the U.S. Open will be contested in 2013).

The success of the wine programs has also translated into other popular regular beverage events at Merion, such as single-malt scotch whisky tastings with The Macallan and The Glenlivet, and Brewmaster Dinners with Victory Brewing Company. A goal of the beverage programs at Merion is  to try to keep all palates happy, and that goal is pursued by having a full complement of lists in place for Reserve, Regular, Wines by the Glass, Port, Dessert, Single Malts, Beers, and fully stocked bars.

“The key element in making our beverage programs successful at Merion Golf Club,” Smith says, “is by having good controls on a fully stocked wine cellar and liquor room; on-the-job training and staff education; product knowledge, and marketing.  But most of all, a beverage program is not complete without the complement of great food. I am fortunate to have a great food-and-beverage team that constantly strives for the best.”

Chef Gerald Schmidt, C.E.C.

Gerald Schmidt, C.E.C., is Executive Chef and Culinary Director for Linger Longer Communities, which includes Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga. In this position, Chef Schmidt oversees all culinary operations for five clubhouses, The Lake Club and a full-service, country-style, as well as all catering events for the community that was named the “Best of the Best” Golf Community by the Robb Report.  He manages a culinary staff of over 50 people at this 10,000-acre golf and lake community, which covers more than 80 miles of shoreline on Lake Oconee.

Chef Schmidt’s experience before taking his current position in 1999 included four years as Executive Chef at The Citrus Club in Orlando, Fla.  As part of his work with this ClubCorp property, he became a Regional Chef Specialist, working with 14 clubs, and created a legendary “Chef’s Dinners” series that featured guest chefs from other ClubCorp properties. He also was part of the team that opened the University Club at Florida State University’s Doak Campbell Stadium, and was part of a traveling team of chefs specializing in corporate, wine and fundraising dinners throughout the ClubCorp network.

During his career Chef Schmidt has also worked as Sous Chef Tournant for the Grande Floridian Beach Resort in Orlando, a luxury property within Walt Disney World; as Executive Chef at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City; as Executive Chef at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, Long Island, N.Y.; as Chef de Cuisine for the Trumpets Dining Room (Donald Trump’s first hotel endeavor) at the Grand Hyatt New York; as Chef Tournant for Les Chefs de France at the EPCOT Center in Orlando; and in an externship that covered every line position at the Hyatt Palm Beaches and Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.

A 1982 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Schmidt was a finalist for the White House Chef position in 2005 and prepared state dinners and cuisine for Congressional receptions as part of the interview process.

Throughout his professional career, Chef Schmidt has put an emphasis on community involvement and has been an active participant of the Share Our Strength food drive for the hungry, including serving in an organizer capacity for several years in Central Florida. He also prepares monthly and yearly meals for active-duty military personnel at Veterans Hospital in Augusta, Ga.

Chef Schmidt has also been active in forming the Lake Oconee chapter of Chaine des Rotisseurs and has helped to build it up to now be the organization’s third-largest starting chapter. In 2006, he received the Silver Star of Excellence award for leadership, dedication and commitment to the Lake Oconee Chaine, and was also awarded

first ever nationally-awarded Jeunes Commis Medal of Merit for commitment in training and mentoring young staff.

Chef Walter Scheib

“For the last eleven years, I have had the honor of doing on a daily basis what most chefs would be lucky to do once in their lifetime. That honor was serving the First Family of the United States.”

—Walter Scheib, March 2005

Walter Scheib has quite a story to tell. In fact, he has two stories to tell. The first involves the rise of an American chef to the most storied position in the land. The second offers an intimate, human view of two First Families, the corridors of political power, international personalities, and the most famous building in the United States, all from a unique vantage point: the kitchen.

Food has been Scheib’s lifelong passion. He discovered his mother’s pots and pans early in life and soon felt comfortable preparing meals for parents and friends. By the time he graduated from high school, he was eager to pursue a profession in the culinary arts. He attended the Culinary Institute of America, from which he graduated with high honors in 1979. Immediately thereafter, Scheib started as a Rounds Cook at a premier Washington, D.C. hotel, and within three years was promoted to Executive Chef. He then served as Executive Chef at other major hotels and resorts, including the Boca Raton (Fla.) Resort and Club, before becoming Executive Chef at the famed Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.

Scheib’s direction of the Greenbrier’s culinary team and overall highlighting of American cuisine as the resort’s Executive Chef made him a leading candidate when the White House chef position became open shortly into the Clinton Administration’s first term. In April 1994, after a lengthy application and screening process, Scheib was named the new chef to America’s Chief Executive and First Family. First Lady Hillary Clinton, who personally hired Scheib to come to the White House, was particularly impressed by the comprehensive spa menu he had developed for the Greenbrier.

In the following 11 years, Schieb prepared everything from simple family meals to elaborate and formal state dinners. His culinary creations dazzled and delighted White House guests, including Nelson Mandela, Emperor Aikihito, Jacques Chirac, Boris Yeltsin, Vaclav Havel, Lady Diana Spencer, Tony Blair, Vicente Fox, and others, not to mention the thousands of Congressional members, journalists, and other White House visitors who got to know his food.

A highlight of Scheib’s White House achievement was his creation of a distinctly American repertoire for the nation’s First House. He continues to speak with eloquence and pride about America’s bounty today, praising the artisan cheese makers, green grocers, mushroom foragers, master bread makers, fishermen, ranchers, and farmers who have helped our national market basket to evolve and have made quality cooking more accessible than ever.

“America is rich in amazing produce, meats, and fish,” Scheib says. “Using just a few excellent ingredients, anyone can make a perfect meal, with very little formal training.”

Upon returning to private life, Scheib co-authored the book White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen, which was released in January 2007. He also founded The American Chef™, to be a company through which he could share his knowledge of the development of American cuisine at the White House, as well as White House remembrances, with audiences across the country.

The special events now offered through The American Chef often aim to bring together business leaders, using group cooking as a method of team bonding. They also offer home entertainers and party planners unique approaches to special events. For cooking schools, cooking demonstrations and lectures, Scheib teaches classes ranging from “State Dinner Secrets” to “Throwing a White House Birthday Party.” The American Chef also offers a multitude of special-event concepts, such as White House-style cocktail receptions, First Lady Luncheons, State Dinners, and Outdoor “South Lawn” barbecues and picnics.

The American Chef has become a great success. Scheib’s educational and entertaining sessions and demonstrations are filled with a fascinating White House insider’s perspective, culinary insights, and thoughts on team building and bonding, as well as exercises with a culinary twist. Sessions frequently feature hands-on cooking demonstrations with audience participation and interaction. Scheib has developed a very popular speaking approach, regaling guests with interesting, informative and often humorous anecdotes from his years in the White House.

Throughout his career, Scheib has made numerous television appearances, both national and local. On the CBS Early Show, he demonstrated how to make a “presidential burger”…on the Fourth of July, no less. Additional television appearances include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Good Morning America, Weekend Today, Nightline and Iron Chef on the Food Network Station, where he defeated Cat Cora. Newspaper and magazine stories and interviews about his company and his food have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S. News and World Report and other publications (all of the articles can be read at www.theamericanchef.com).

An avid fisherman, Scheib still enjoys cooking as much as he did as a child and at the White House. He currently lives in Great Falls, Va., with his wife, Jean, and their two sons, Walter and Jim.



Chef Christopher J. Ropp

Christopher J. Ropp, C.E.C., is Executive Chef at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio, a privately held club serving more than 900 members. Ropp received the club’s Manager of the Year Award in 2007.

Ropp’s contributions to the continued growth of Kenwood’s food and beverage program—which led to an Achievement of Excellence Award from the American Culinary Federation in 2009—were highlighted in a profile in the November 2009 issue of Club & Resort Business (“Finding Profit in Options”).

Prior to coming to Kenwood in 2006, Ropp worked in Cincinnati as Executive Chef at Parkers Blue Ash Grill, a property of Select Restaurants, Inc., and before that as Executive Chef at The Bankers Club, a ClubCorp of America property. While at The Bankers Club, Ropp was featured in Private Clubs (July /August  2005) for the magazine’s “Off the Menu, Chef” department.  He also earned ClubCorp of America’s Food & Beverage Team Award in 2004, and partnered with The Culinary Institute of America to make The Bankers Club an approved “extern training site.”

Ropp holds an Associate of Applied Business in Culinary Arts from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, and honorably served in the United States Army and the Ohio Army National Guard for 12 years.

Ropp, who lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two sons, currently serves as Adjunct Professor at Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. He is a member of the Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, the American Culinary Federation and the World Academy of Chefs.

William P. McMahon, Sr., AIA, OAA – Chairman

Mr. McMahon is an operational, financial and architectural planning consultant to clubs throughout North America. He established McMahon Group in 1983 as an affiliate of the family architectural firm his grandfather founded in 1906. Over the ensuing years, the firm has expanded its club consulting services beyond clubhouse improvement planning to encompass a full range of services for all aspects of private club challenges. To date, the firm has assisted more than 1,300 private clubs across the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

Mr. McMahon is unique among club consultants in providing an integrated strategic planning and architectural approach to solving club problems. His personal involvement with his own clubs in St. Louis (serving in the roles of President, Board member and committee member) has allowed him to bring unparalleled experience to each client. Mr. McMahon’s club memberships have included Bellerive Country Club (St. Louis), Racquet Club Ladue (St. Louis), University Club of St. Louis, Spring Lake Yacht Club (Michigan) and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Mr. McMahon is a graduate of the Washington University School of Architecture in St. Louis and holds architecture licenses in 45 U.S. states and in Ontario, Canada. He is a featured author in industry publications and a featured speaker at the annual conferences of the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA), the Canadian Society of Club Managers, the National Club Association and the Hospitality, Financial and Technology Professionals. He also serves as a visiting lecturer at continuing education sessions offered by regional CMAA chapters and at Michigan State University. Bill is the co-author of McMahon’s Club Trends™, the comprehensive research reports on strategic issues facing private clubs.

Mr. McMahon is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the National Club Association. He is a former president of the Missouri Council of Architects, AIA.

Chef Vincent Horville

Chef Vincent Horville is from Versailles, France.  He grew up in the restaurant business and helped out in the kitchen from an early age. Trained in classical and modern cooking, Chef Horville received his first award as one of France’s Best Apprentices in 1982.  His passion for cooking has taken him to two continents, four countries and some prestigious properties, including the famed Noga Hilton and the New Sporting Club (both in Geneva, Switzerland) and the Dorchester Hotel in London, where he worked under Master Chef Anton Mosimann.

Chef Horville moved to the United States in 1988 and has since worked in a number of prestigious restaurants and institutions. He is currently the Executive Chef of The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, D.C., where he has worked with Assistant General Manager/Food & Beverage Michael Redmond (a 2009 Chef to Chef Conference presenter). The approaches that Chef Horville has used to bring significant change that has drawn favorable response from the membership and guests of one of the oldest and most valued private institutions in our nation’s capital (the Metro Club was founded in 1863) were highlighted in a “Chef to Chef” interview (“Winning Their Votes”) in the July 2009 issue of Club & Resort Business.

Prior to joining The Metropolitan Club in 2006, Chef Horville was Executive Chef of two properties operated by the City Clubs of Washington, D.C. Before moving to private clubs, his experience in the nation’s capital included being a consulting Production Manager for the city’s Convention Center; serving as Executive Chef at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank complex; Executive Sous Chef at the National Gallery of Art; Chef/Sous Chet at Le Rivage restaurant, an upscale seafood bistro; and Chef De Partie at Four Ways restaurant.

Holding certifications in French Classical and Modern Chef disciplines and having studied at two technical colleges in France (Santos Dumont and Du Breuil), Chef Horville has also worked on several occasions as an on-call chef for state dinners and other functions held at both the White House and Camp David. He has also been a participant in James Beard Foundation fundraising dinners and participated in an “Iron Chef” battle in 2006. He has also been an organizer and speaker for Campus on the Mall seminars held by the Smithsonian Institute. He was a finalist in the Chaine des Rotisseur competition held in England in 1987 and also participated in various European team competitions during the 1980s.

Throughout his career, Chef Horville’s food philosophy has been built around four basic principles:

Following these steps, he says, will always make for a successful recipe.

Chef Kevin Cromwell

Kevin Cromwell was the Executive Chef at Charles River Country Club in Newtown, Mass., where he oversaw a staff of 14 people. In this role he increased sales by 130% to $1.4 million in food sales per year, while decreasing the amount of “outside” golf outings by 50%. He designed a new kitchen, bar, snack bar and related rooms in 1998. He also held the position of Food & Beverage Director during the club’s nine-month search for a new General Manager.

After leaving Charles River CC, he started Cromwell Consulting, Inc., a full-service foodservice consulting firm specializing in foodservice design and operational consulting.

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