Chef Spotlight -  Van Atkins, CEC, AAC, HGT
Corporate Executive Chef, West Region - Custom Culinary, Inc.

• Years in the Food Industry: 35+                              
• Residence: Las Vegas, NV                              
• Memberships: American Culinary Federation, Research Chefs Association, American Academy of Chefs                            
• Recognition: One of only 100 members worldwide of the Exclusive Order of the Golden Toque; invited to be executive chef at the White House in 1987 (he passed)

Q. Where do you get your inspiration?
A. From product development through the entire sales process, the very nature of my job keeps the creative juices flowing

Q. What's your favorite food?
A. It depends on the mood, whom I'm with, and the occasion, but I enjoy seasonal foods and find Spanish small plates (tapas) very interesting right now.

Q. What's the best advice you have ever received? 
A. Getting an education is no longer an option for an aspiring chef, and that includes not only culinary skills, but also computer skills, people skills, and management skills

Q. What’s always in your pantry?
A. Onions—“I couldn’t do without “onions”, natural fruit juices, whole grains, great Italian cheeses, aged Balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.”

“I aced psychology when I was in college,” says Van Atkins, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, “but at the time I wondered what psychology had to do with cooking. Well, now I know it’s got everything to do with cooking.
 “When you’re just out of school you’re just a journeyman cook, working your way up the ranks,” he adds, “but to become a chef you need people skills. You have to be able to motivate and lead your people.”

That belief has served him extraordinarily well in his current job, where the ability to “read” customers is every bit as important as being able to interpret and enhance their menus. Traveling as frequently and as widely as he does, Atkins encounters not only differences in food preferences and lifestyle, but also cultural and social variations. 

In fact, Atkins loves the fact that no two days are the same at Custom Culinary, Inc., and having worked in a number of large, preeminent hotels in Dallas, San Francisco and Las Vegas (including opening the Luxor Las Vegas in 1993), he’s had no shortage of challenges in his career. At Caesars Palace, he was responsible for a staff of more than 400, and $75 million in annual sales. “Talk about needing to read people,” he says. “In a position like that, you learn to recognize talent pretty quickly.”

Making the change to product development 10 years ago was a tremendous shift, says Atkins, but one he’s never been sorry for making. “I’m working for a company that’s very serious about its culinary focus,” he explains. “It’s not just marketing department rhetoric. These are products developed by chefs, for culinary professionals.

“We’re paid to help other chefs be successful, and I love that about my job,” he adds. “Being able to go into someone’s facility and show them hardworking, superior products they have never seen before—hearing the “wows” and the “oohs” when they taste the results—that’s what gets me up in the morning.”