Candy Wallace, APCA Executive Director, was honored as Entrepreneur/Businessperson for the 2003 IACP Awards of Excellence at IACP's Annual Conference Awards Gala in Montreal on April 12, 2003.
The IACP Awards of Excellence are presented annually to honor members whose outstanding achievements and unending pursuit of excellence embody the highest standards of the association. Any current, active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals
who is engaged in, or recently retired from, a full-time career focused on the culinary industry may be considered for an IACP Awards of Excellence excluding Lifetime Achievement and Humanitarian Awards, which are also open to non-members of the IACP. Winners are determined by
majority vote of the IACP Membership and were announced Saturday, April 12th at a Gala Awards Ceremony in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in conjunction with the 25th Annual Conference of the IACP.
Candy Wallace is executive director of the American Personal Chef Institute & Association based in San Diego. Rather than starting a business, Ms. Wallace's efforts the past 10 years have advanced and legitimized the role of the personal chef and facilitated the start of new industry.
From 1992 to 1996, while operating her own personal chef service, Ms. Wallace recognized the need for education, support and promotion for the growing ranks of personal chefs. Today, after establishing a two-day comprehensive training program, more than 3,000 personal chef businesses have been successfully opened using materials created by Ms. Wallace. Today, three trained regional directors
conduct seminars across the country. The training program is now available for sale in videos, audiotapes, and a college-edition textbook. To combat the isolation unique
to this career path, Ms. Wallace created a Web site to foster communication within a fragmented industry. The site doubles as a way for chefs to network and to develop community chapters while also serving as personal chef registry so clients looking for chefs anywhere in the country can review their information and contact them. Ms. Wallace's perseverance on behalf of personal chefs has now validated this career.
In 2002, after years of prodding, the American Culinary Federation (ACF) partnered with Wallace’s company and announced its first new certifications in their 73-year history: Personal Certified Chef, and Personal Certified Executive Chef.
For more information visit http://www.personalchef.com.
Chef2Chef News Desk