Chef Charles M. Carroll, CEC, AAC
Author of Leadership Lessons From A Chef: Finding Time To Be Great, Chef Carroll is currently the Executive Chef of River Oaks Country Club, in Houston, Texas. River Oaks, with 1,500 members and a culinary staff of 61, enjoys the reputation of being rated as the number-four country club in the United States.
Chef Carroll has spent the past year and a half traveling around the United States mentoring, sharing and presenting his messages to culinary students, chefs, industry professionals and executives. His influence and inspiration has helped thousands of individuals reach their full potential and strive to be the best they can be.
Prior to taking his current position at River Oaks, Chef Carroll was Executive Chef at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., from 1996-2000. Oak Hill Country Club is rated as the number seventeen country club in the United States and has hosted the Ryder Cup, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, and PGA Championship.
Before moving to Oak Hill, Chef Carroll was Executive Chef and employed at The Balsams Grand Resort, a four-star, four-diamond resort located in Dixville Notch, N.H., for 13 years. He also served as Apprenticeship Coordinator for one of the country’s leading apprenticeship programs.
Over the course of his career, Chef Carroll has received over 70 national and international awards, including American Culinary Federation (ACF) chapter Chef of the Year in 1988 and 2005, and the ACF President’s Medallion three times from three decades: 1989, 1999 and 2005. He was the regional and national winner of the Chef’s Professionalism Award in 2008. He received the Central Regional “Good Taste Award” in 2006 and the Sharing Culinary Traditions Award from the American Academy of Chefs in 2008. He has twice been nominated as ACF regional Chef of the Year.
Chef Carroll has been inducted into several prestigious chefs’ organizations: World Master Chefs Association (July 2000), American Academy of Chefs (July 2001), Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs (March 2002) and the Honorable Order of the Golden Toque (August 2005). He has been guest speaker at several ACF meetings, regional and national conventions, as well as a wide variety of culinary classes, colleges and universities. Chef Carroll serves as President to the Board of Trustees of the LeNotre Culinary Institute, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Les Amis d’ Escoffier Society in Houston.
The James Beard Foundation selected Carroll as one of the Great Country Inn Chefs of 1993, and in that same year he was awarded Educator of the Year by the American Culinary Federation Educational Institute.
A 1985 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Carroll served as a Coach for the 2008 United States Culinary Olympic National Team, marking his seventh participation with a national or Olympic team. His roles and accomplishments with other teams have included: 2004 Manager of the United States Regional Team, which captured third in the world and the best in the world, Category B; Team USA 2000 national team, which received four gold medals and one silver in the world Culinary Olympics held in Germany; ACF New England Olympic Team in 1988, which won more gold than any other regional team; Team USA Northeast 1992, which placed number two in the world; Team USA National 1993, Basel, Switzerland, which placed third in the world; and Manager of Team USA National Apprentice Team, which placed number two in the Taste of Canada Competition.
