By Lynn Schwartz

What’s the difference between a private chef and a personal chef? Audrey Heckwolf of Grand Rapids Community College, who cooked for a Fortune 500 family, can tell you.

Private chef and personal chef are titles that evoke “glamour job” images—globetrotting with celebrity employers and preparing ultra-luxe dinners for very important people. But do we really understand what these jobs entail? Audrey Heckwolf, a former private chef, says, “Most chefs don’t know. And they don’t know the difference between a private and personal chef. This is a growing part of the culinary industry. Chefs need to educate each other and their clients about the differences.”

By Lynn Schwartz

Veteran chef to two administrations, Scheib believes Americans’ biggest culinary challenge is to figure out how to meet increasing demand for fresh, local and artisanal food products.

Walter Scheib is modest about how he found himself “inexplicably” at the White House, chef to America’s chief executive and the First Family. But his arrival in April 1994 can be explained as a clear case of opportunity meets preparedness.

By Brent T. Frei

Michael Holleman gets to the bottom of a top-of-mind foodservice issue.

“Sustainable” is one of the hottest buzzwords in the foodservice industry today. Yet, ask 10 people to explain what sustainable food production means, and get 10 different responses. At least one supplier has defined the term, the result of maintaining a business model that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 30 years.

Michael Holleman, corporate chef of Bemidji, Minn.-based Indian Harvest, Inc., a niche supplier of rice and rice blends, exotic grains and legumes to foodservice, believes that diners today are looking for more than food. They want an event. “It has to be something special: stunning plate presentation, culinary adventure, distinct pairing,” he says.

He also believes diners hanker for a story behind the food that brings the experience to life, evidenced by unprecedented interest in foods’ origins before they land on the plate. That’s why Indian Harvest grains and grain blends are borne of a passion that extends from farm to fork.