Michael Matarazzo, left, 2010 U.S.A.’s Chef
of the Year, is congratulated by Steve
Jilleba, CMC, CCE, AAC, representing
Unilever Foodsolutions.
ACF Culinary Regional Team USA earned
a gold medal and the regional world
championship against 61 other teams.
Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
During his three years there, he worked in
every kitchen and ultimately served as lead
cook at Sam Snead’s at The Golf Club.
“Someone once said to me to try always
to follow great chefs until one day people
are trying to follow you,” Matarazzo says.
“When you’re at the top at your property,
the window to learn from others around
you is almost closed. So why close it so
early in your career when you can build
your repertoire and learn from others until
one day people want to learn from you?”
Immediately upon graduating from The
Greenbrier’s program, Matarazzo went to
work at Westchester Country Club in Rye,
N. Y., and within a year was promoted from
banquet chef to executive sous chef. Before
he left The Greenbrier, though, he earned
a spot on and was selected to captain ACF
Culinary Regional Team USA, which would
spend two years practicing to compete
against regional teams from around the
world in the culinary-art categories of cold,
hot displayed cold and pâtisserie in the
2008 Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung,
or “culinary Olympics,” in Erfurt, Germany.
“We definitely did not expect to win the
world championship,” Matarazzo says. “There
were four of us and our pastry chef, Jennifer
Kopp. Joe Leonardi, Drew Garms and I had
each started new jobs, and our practice
sessions were pretty scary leading up to
the competition. We even had a conference
call to discuss if we should go on or not. But
we put our heads down and brought it to a
level we were happy with—we’d come a long
way from where we were. Jennifer, however,
scored the highest in pastry among all 62
teams. She carried us over the top.”
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