Chef Spotlight -  Mike Minor, CEC, AAC, HGT
Director of Culinary Services - Custom Culinary, Inc.

• Years in the Food Industry: 43                           
• Residence: Avon, OH                             
• Memberships: American Academy of Chefs, American Culinary Federation                 
• Recognition: Inducted into the Order of Golden Toque; Winner, Grand Gold Medal, World Culinary Olympics, Frankfurt, Germany – 1984; Honored with the first foodservice degree program to an individual’s name (The Michael L. Minor Master of Science in Foodservice Management Degree, Michigan State University)

Q. Where do you get your inspiration?
A. From God, and from my family

Q. What's your favorite food?
A. Soup—creamy, comforting soup

Q. What's the best advice you have ever received? 
A. My father [Dr. Lewis J. Minor, founder of L.J. Minor Corp in 1951] told me when I went to work for him: Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. When you’re young and cocky, you can do and say things that can put yourself in jeopardy. I took his advice, and worked, observed, listened and asked questions; I learned to take the time to understand a situation before trying to solve the problem.

Q. What’s always in your pantry?
A. Peanut butter and jelly, for toast and sandwiches. With the crust.

Mike Minor may have done it all, but now he's ready to do it again. “I found out that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” says Minor, who left corporate life two years ago, at age 55, after 41 years working in the food and foodservice industry. “I missed having a purpose when my feet hit the floor in the morning.”

For Minor, a nationally respected chef and lecturer who literally grew up in the industry, a large part of that purpose is sharing his knowledge. That’s why, when   Custom Culinary, Inc., acquired DM Foods of Avon, OH, in November 2005, Minor jumped at the chance to join forces with the company.

“These are people that I’ve known and trusted for many years,” says Minor of his new employer. “They think the way I think, and they have the same approach to developing products and delivering service.”

Coming up in the school of hard knocks—he started his career at age 14, washing pots and pans in a bakery—Minor is a believer in the process of hands-on learning. From his earliest days as a short order cook at a golf course, to a 3 ½-year apprenticeship at the prestigious Greenbrier Hotel, Minor has been learning the ropes. By the time he went to work for his father in the L.J. Minor plant, he knew the outside and in of foodservice operations.

It’s that level of skill and understanding that he aims to impart to colleagues at Custom Culinary, Inc. “I’ll be teaching our sales staff to help customers solve problems.” And he’ll do that not by lecturing and demonstrating (“I saw a videotape of myself doing that, and was it ever boring!” he quips), but by involving people directly in the process. “You have to get your hands in there,” says Minor. “It’s like a computer—I can tell you what buttons to push, but you don’t really understand it until you push the buttons yourself.”

With this additional training, believes Minor, Custom Culinary, Inc. will be even better positioned to help customers achieve quality, consistency and profitability in their own kitchens. “It’s demonstrating the versatility of what you can do with our products that makes the difference. You can’t just go out and plunk down a product; you have to understand the customer’s need. That’s what Custom Culinary^® is about: working with customers, listening to their problems, and helping them address their needs.

“Having the finest flavor systems in many forms gives us the ability to listen to the customers’ needs and bring quality solutions that truly are helpful to their operation,” continues Minor. “I think it’s very satisfying to be a part of their success.”