The F&B Experience: Who's in the Kitchen?

If cable listings in the TV Guide are any indicator, chefs have achieved celebrity status on the level of professional athletes, actors and pop singers. The world of cooking has become a cult of the personalitiy, where panache and flamboyance are almost as important as pistacchios and flambe.

Part of this comes from a recent influx of foodies into the mainstream. Another part comes from the way they, and the chefs themselves, worship culinary skills.

All this has spilled over into the world of tradeshows, where the rubber chicken buffet is now considered gauche, and a convention center can make or break a deal to land a major event with the private menu tasting its chef offers during a site visit.

With that in mind, we hand-picked a few of the industry's stars to highlight as convention center managers gather in Boston.

• Blair Rasmussen

Title: Executive chef

Company: Centerplate

Venue: Vancouver (B.C.) Convention and Exhibition Centre

Background: Rasmussen was a chef at upscale hotels and private clubs from 1986 to 1993, when he became a freelance food stylist. He's been with the VCEC since 1993.

Signature dish: Asparagus and morel mushrooms in a white truffle sauce, paired with Alderwood smoked duck

Rasmussen vividly remembers the exact moment he found his calling in life: He was 3 years old, helping his mother make bread in the kitchen. Given the task of kneading the dough, he would punch it down, only to watch it miraculously rise up again.

"I remember being fascinated by the dough," he said. "Those experiences as a child gave me the interest in the transformation of food."

Rasmussen also learned something from his childhood trips to the dock with his mother to handpick the freshest catch of the day. "Her cooking was very much based on what was local or seasonal," he said.

These experiences forged the path that led Rasmussen to where he is now and became ingrained in the way he approaches food. Being a Vancouver native, he never strayed far from home. He attended the culinary arts program at Vancouver Community College.

Believe it or not, he and his team make almost everything that's served at the convention center — including stocks, sauces, pastries, etc. — from scratch, a near-impossible feat when there are thousands of people to serve.

"When I started here, 95 percent of everything was premade," Rasmussen said. "Now, it's the exact opposite with 95 percent being made from scratch."

The biggest challenge of making the switch, he added, was convincing the powers-that-be it was financially beneficial. So instead of trying to convince them on paper, he did what he does best: bought all the ingredients to make fresh strawberry tarts, served them to 2,500 people, took the total cost of everything and proved it added up to less than it would to buy pre-made tarts from a bakery.

The hard work paid off, and now people who eat one of Rasmussen's freshly made, locally inspired dishes are reaping the rewards.

"I think that people want to come to Vancouver and have something distinctive," he said. "I hope they can come to the convention center and I can communicate with them what Vancouver is through food."

—Rachel Wimberly

• James Katurakes

Title: Executive chef

Company: Levy Restaurants

Venue: Orange County Convention Center (Orlando, Fla.)

Background: Since graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., when he was 18, Katurakes has been in the culinary industry for more than 25 years, opening 46 restaurants, working at five-star hotels and studying with master chefs. He's been with the Orange County Convention Center for 12 years, and Levy Restaurants since 1998.

Signature dish: Fruitizzas and vegetable biscuits

James Katurakes was in high school when he realized his passion for food.

Affectionately known as "Chef K," he joined home economics when his high school began allowing boys in the class and girls in shop classes. There he won his first award, becoming Delaware's champion in a Vocational Industrial Clubs of America contest.

The award got him into the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., after high school.

Katurakes now is a CIA-certified executive chef and takes that learning to his position as executive chef at the OCCC.

"I've never had the same day twice in 12 years here," he said. "There are challenges, but we continue to develop innovative approaches to the way we prepare and serve our food.

Katurakes' philosophy on planning for large groups is simple: "If you make one meal, you can make 1,000," he said. "If you make 1,000, you can make 5,000."

Still, he's had to do many more than 5,000 at one time. The largest event he's catered had 30,000 plates at each breakfast, lunch and dinner — totaling 268,000 plated, served meals (in other words, no buffets) over a four-day period.

Recently, Katurakes has begun doing what many other chefs around the country are doing: shopping for local ingredients. He developed a relationship with the Florida Farm Bureau and local growers to obtain fresh and higher-quality products.

"By developing a partnership, we create a ripple effect," Katurakes said. "It is healthier for our customers, and it supports our local growers and local economy. Buying fresh and local is also environmentally responsible because it minimizes the carbon footprint."

Katurakes also goes out of his way to keep the human connection with the people who enjoy his creations.

Along with his popular "Chef K in Person" program, where guests cook and serve his signature dishes in front of an audience, Katurakes walks onto the floor of almost every event and mingles with guests.

"Their feedback is very important to me," he said.

—Stephanie Corbin

• Paul Benson

Title: Executive chef

Company: Distinctive Gourmet (a division of Boston Culinary Group)

Venue: Virginia Beach (Va.) Convention Center

Background: Benson has worked in the restaurant and hotel industry in the Washington, D.C., area for 17 years. He's been at the VBCC for eight months.

Signature dish: Corn meal-crusted scallop stuffed with crab and basil, with an Asiago glaze; potato-crusted trout stuffed with lobster mousse with roasted beet and roasted garlic cream sauces

At the age of 13, Benson went with his father to a fine dining restaurant in Destin, Fla. That evening, he said, changed his life: "When I went into this restaurant and I saw the food, the design, the piece of art on a plate, that's when I knew I wanted to do this."

Two years later, Benson took a summer job as cafeteria busboy and a pot washer. He worked his way up from there, later attending L'Academy de Cuisine in Maryland while working at the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Arlington, Va. That's where he met his mentor, Bill Jackson.

"He was the greatest chef I've ever met in my life," Benson said. "He taught me more than (I learned in) school. He spent a lot of time with me, taught me my work ethic, my passion for food. He also taught me that if you're going to do this, you're going to do it right."

After three months of studying his craft at La Varenne cooking school in France, Benson returned to the D.C. area and worked his way up through the restaurant and hotel industry, from sous chef to executive chef.

When the executive chef position at the Virginia Beach Convention Center presented itself, Benson was unsure but open-minded. Impressed with the facility, which has a state-of-the-art kitchen, he recognized that the management's vision was in line with his own.

"The high volume really interested me ... that and doing it at a very high level and quality of food," he said. "I knew it would be a nice challenge to learn a new outlet ... I love taking over a property and making it grow."

The best thing about working in a convention center is the nonstop action, he added. "There's always room for improvement and growth."

Benson likes to think outside the convention center box. He's currently developing wine dinners, tastings and hosting food shows.

"People ask me, 'How are you doing today, Chef?' and I'll say, 'Living my dream,'" he said. "They think I'm kidding, but I mean it."

—Lisa Plummer

• Adam Pagan

Title: Executive chef

Company: Aramark

Venue: John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center

Background: Pagan started as a dishwasher at a restaurant when he was 16 and worked his way through culinary school. Before joining Aramark in 2004, he spent 15 years working in restaurants, hotels and catering. He also owned and operated an upscale deli and take-out restaurant in Cape Cod, Mass., in the late 1990s.

Signature dish: Truffle mushroom risotto

Adam Pagan's culinary education came on the advice of his father.

The younger Pagan began working in an upscale Italian restaurant when he was 16, and spent three years working his way from washing dishes to prepping salads to making pastas and sauces — and everything in between.

"My father, actually, has been in food service his whole life," Pagan said.

The elder Pagan advised his son to go to culinary school, and Adam Pagan graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island in 1996.

"I think it's important because it gave me the fundamentals," Pagan said. He's still putting those principals into practice more than 10 years later.

One of the recent events that made Pagan proud was July's Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference, at which the Hynes staff served 3,100 people a four-course meal: three intricate dishes followed by a chocolate mousse pyramid topped with chocolate ganache.

"I was so psyched about how it turned out," he said.

Pagan has prepared menus for other large events, including the North American Intl. Auto Show in Detroit, the Democratic National Convention press party in Boston and an upscale reception for neurological surgeons, for which he and his staff handmade 12,000 canapés.

"We do a ton of client-friendly, customized menus," Pagan said. Meals built around from-scratch ingredients, such as stocks, sauces and salad dressings, are part of his special offerings.

His experience in the restaurant, hotel and catering business are essential to his success at Hynes, according to Pagan. "I really think it's made me very well-rounded," he said.

For the large-scale events where Pagan and his staff ensure that thousands of people are served and the food is the best quality, "organization is really the key," he added. "There's really so much more room for error once you get over 100 (or) 200 people."

Pagan has also brought his touch to the Hynes by shifting to food that's locally grown or organic.

"We started seasonal menus using local and fresh ingredients," he said. "Now we're starting to delve into the milk-fed veal and that aspect."

The change was prompted by demand. "I've noticed more and more, the quality is better when you stick with your local vendors," Pagan said.

—Stephanie Corbin

• Roger Morgan

Title: Executive chef

Company: Waterford Hotel Group

Venue: Connecticut Convention Center (Hartford, Ct.)

Background: From his first job at a local New Jersey bakery, to executive chef at the Connecticut Convention Center, Morgan has devoted most of his life to the food and beverage industry.

Morgan said he "bounced around from hotels to seaside resorts in New Jersey, learning resort cooking and working at oceanfront restaurants." Then, at 21, he started school at the Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover, N.H., from which he emerged two years later with honors, awards and scholarships.

In Atlantic City, Morgan started his 12 years with Bally's Park Place as sous chef, eventually working up to assistant executive chef. The casino-hotel resort honed his experience with high volume service, as well as working with a large staff.

In search of change and career advancement, Morgan left Bally's in 2005 to join the CCC in Hartford, Conn., where he was charged with establishing the facility's own exclusive catering department. He described the experience as "exhilarating."

His extensive catering experience and ability to balance high volume with quality had prepared Morgan for the move into the convention side of the industry. So far, his largest function has topped 2,800 meals.

The characteristic that most clearly distinguishes Morgan from other chefs is what he calls his "open door policy." By this he means being receptive to special requests, accommodating guests the same way chefs do in fine dining, and seeing customer expectation as an interesting challenge rather than something to stress out about.

Although Morgan believes in maintaining a diversified approach to his cooking, especially in custom-creating menus, he enjoys putting a twist on classical dishes using Latin and Asian influences.

"I like playing around with Peking duck to see how many ways I can do it," he said. "I wrap it up, do it with avocado, put it in a martini glass as an appetizer, make a salad out of it, make it with soba noodles and sesame ... I like to see how many (variations) I can come up with."

Morgan said he's fortunate to work for a facility that allows him to be creative, and purchase high quality product, on a large scale.

"I get to have a lot of fun here, and they see it in my attitude," he said.

—Lisa Plummer