Lawrence Wells

International / USA

1-718-***-**** In Use.

On Travel Contact by E-Mail

Food Speaks International

Skype- Lawrence.Wells8

ac8qwg@r.postjobfree.com

Professional Objective to secure a responsible position in which my experience and personal abilities will mutually allow for optimum growth opportunities.

Professional Profile

Concepts & Development International Branding World Travel Master Chef. A complete and seasoned Trained European / International Master Executive Chef, Consultant and Food & Beverage Director with 41 years of international experience and a strong record of achievement in a providing the necessary profit/loss, from/back-of- the- house management and personnel motivation expertise to ensure streamlined operations customer satisfaction and increased profitability. Excellent interpersonal communicating, listening and negotiating skill, coupled with the ability to establish and maintain rapport with all levels of personnel, management and clients. Proven background at the highest levels of 4 Hotel Resorts Start-Up and (77) start-up consulting and ongoing restaurant operations. Chef management, personnel development and training encompassing: leadership, team building, planning, organizing and problem-solving all of which realized significant contribution to bottom-line results

Restaurant Management Gourmet/ Cuisine Operations New Century Cuisine Coach Instructor Self-Management Work Teams Personnel Empowerment Nouvelle Cuisine Techniques Menu Development/Pricing Consolidation, Liquidation, Administration, Beverage Controls, Customer Relations/Public Relation, Food/Labor, Cost Controls, Food & Beverage Buying Planning, Bids, Scheduling. Knowledge of wines and Liquors Merchandising Training Complete experience in Fine Dining and diversified Cuisines, Global, Cuisine Background, Eclectic, Fusion Cuisine, Euro Fusion. American, Texas/Mexican, Regional American Cuisine, American BBQ, Brazilian, Caribbean, Classical French, Hawaiian Luau, Pacific Rim, Jewish, Mediterranean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, New Orleans And Cajun, Smorgasbord, Spanish, Soul Food, Asian, Thai, Vegetarian, Venetian, Viennese, Vietnamese, Southern & Northern Indian Cuisine, Indochina Cuisine, Khmer Cuisine, Amuse Bouche, Pan Asian, Pan African,Emirati Cuisine, Omani Cuisine,Uzbekistani Cuisine, Iranian Cuisine, International Coffee & Tea Shop.

People Oriented-Service Oriented-Results/Profit Oriented-Team Player Professional Experience 6/2014 – Present Food Speaks International-Concepts & Development International Branding 17 Restaurant Venus In The GCC, UAE-

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:

GUEST:

-Defines areas for brand-building opportunities by applying an understanding and knowledge of consumer, market and industry trends to serve competitively superior food and deliver new food news.

-Converts brand strategies into compelling core and promotional menu offerings that drive guest satisfaction, guest traffic and brand equity.

-Interacts with media, shareholders, employees, vendor-partners, thought leaders and the community in representing the brand.

EMPLOYEE:

-Oversees and executes selection of top-quality talent to facilitate attainment of team goals and objectives.

-Develops team members by seeking out and supporting training, development, and other professional growth opportunities; manages individual and team performance through coaching, feedback, and performance management discussions.

-Develops and nurtures relationships with other Restaurant Support Center teams to remain informed of initiatives and disseminate applicable guest feedback. FINANCIAL:

-Uses business case to secure approval for department budgets and funding needs; oversees and manages the department budget.

-Oversees and manages all aspects of vendor-related contracts and work – scope statement, contracting, budgets, invoice payment, etc.

-Develops and leverages Darden purchasing and supplier networks; achieves cost efficiencies while procuring quality ingredients and introducing new food.

-Provides strategic direction to develop food within specified cost parameters to ensure the achievement of business targets (guest count, margin, menu mix and sales) while delivering on flavor requirements. Menus Engineering.

PROCESS EXCELLENCE:

-Oversees planning, organizing, monitoring, and control of all aspects of a project and ensures engagement, commitment, and risk management; provides ongoing communications on project status to ensure senior management alignment.

-Drives the concept ideation process and develops a pipeline of new international concepts

-Leads the creation of a range of dishes from creative briefs; takes a lead role in managing all or a portion of the stage gate process.

-Supports long-term menu strategy establishment integrated with brand positioning and business needs; balances variety and breadth of appeal.

-Explores new and exciting culinary techniques and presentations; leverages inspiration from industry trends, ethnic and international cuisine; searches for opportunities to infuse creativity into the development process; evolves cooking styles throughout the team.

-Oversees the consistent application of culinary development standards, processes and established methodologies; ensures effective operations processes to support operations excellence.

-Supports the translation of the development recipes and collaborates with culinary operations to simplify steps for executional replication.

-Collaborates with culinary operations to communicate and coordinate with restaurant operations on the implementation, training, and testing of all menu items; ensures new products support operations excellence.

-Oversees preparation and plating of food for marketing communications.

-Coordinates product quality audits and vendor reviews to ensure end products meet specifications.

-Protects intellectual properties of the brand.

-Oversee and manages vendor/agency partner relationships. 6/2014-2/2017 Jumeirah Madinat Dubai 1000 Rooms

Executive Chef Creator of Brand P&B Smoke House Dubai. Concept & Development Culinary Training Menu Development, Start-up.

6/2013- 5/2014 Living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangkok Executive Chef /Culinary Trainer Concepts & Development. 4/21/2011-6/11/2013 Alabama State University, Montgomery Alabama USA. Executive Chef/Food Production Manager

Directly responsible for the purchasing, receiving and storing of all food products. Also responsible for all food production and inventory control. Ensure the production staff is in strict compliance in all areas concerning production (Student Dinning 6000 meal daily), (90 seats Faculty Dining), (30,000 seat Stadium), (7,000 seat Arena), Banquet Rooms, (6 Venus Food Court), (26, Food Concession, 25, VIP Skyboxes), and Outside Events. Ensure complete compliance with the standardize menus and recipe cards. Cross training of all culinary staff as well as front of the house training. Maintaining budget control, food cost of 25% to 30%. Supervising culinary workforce of 250 employees. 11/08 -02/2011 Coral Strand Hotel Beau Vallon Beach, Mahe, Seychelles, Indian Ocean -Africa 400 Rooms

Executive Chef/Food Beverage Trainer, Concepts & Development. My responsibility as the Executive Chef

& Food & Beverage Trainer was to train and evaluated all food & beverage staff members. Within company guild lines to restructure entire food & beverage department in developing 4 restaurants concepts, Mahek Indian & Middle Eastern Cuisine Restaurant (150 Seats), (1)Bistro Restaurant(160 Seats), (2)(70 Seats) Pool Bars, International Buffet seating (300) Pax Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. And (2) (120) Seats Island Trader Lounges, Pool Side (75 Seats) Restaurant Service. Steps Of Service Front The House. Serving 500- 750 covers a day with an average check of 65 Euro F&B. Total staff of (170) and a 4 Star-350 room hotel.

Development/Pricing Consolidation, Liquidation, Administration, Beverage Controls, Customer Relations/Public Relation, Food (25%) Labor (12%), Cost Controls, Food & Beverage Buying Planning, Bids, Scheduling, Menu Development.

6/02-5/08 HEART & SOUL EXPRESS Las Vegas NV. General Manager/ OWNER/OPERATOR/ WORKING EXECUTIVE CHEF

Eclectic &, Fusion Cuisine

Complete Build-Out Restaurant design fast food take out & free standing 200 seats and catering. Managed all aspects of restaurant start-up kitchen design, food concepts. In charge of all day to day operation. 2/01-5/02 MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO Las Vegas NV 5600 Rooms. CHEF DE CUISINE Train the Trainer Stars Dining Room Cast members and executive dining room. Serving 24,000 meals daily Controlled daily food cost @ 22% budget @ 500 thousand dollars monthly. Train all kitchen personal and improving quality service and menu up grading and presentation for all fellow cast members at the MGM Grand. Evaluated restaurant concepts and ongoing training programs in the culinary department.

10/97-7/02 MANDALAY BAY RESORT. INC EXCALIBUR HOTEL & CASINO Las Vegas NV 5000 Rooms.

SENIOR ASSNTANT EXECUTIVE CHEF/ CHEF DE CUISINE /TRAIN THE TRAINER. Bottom-line senior executive chef responsibility encompassing all aspects of both front and back -of-the-house food & beverage for 15 food outlets and 200 kitchen personal,19 room chefs and 160 steward personal totally over

$150 million in revenues. Instrumental in resultant revenues turning a profit first encountered in 10 years Successfully reduced daily food cost from 56% to currently 28.1% thought with zero waste through excellent monitoring of labor force forecasting, quality control HACCP, customer service and troubleshooting all outlets difficulties while implementing viable solutions resulting in profitable, efficient and smooth flowing restaurant operations Evaluate all profit/loss statements for each outlet increasing overall operation profitability on a daily basis. Additional provide forecasting projections based on previous history. Serve AS Train the Trainer for entire food & beverage department, presenting diversified cooking menu development and cuisine preparation classes and seminars. Promoted to senior assistant executive chef, resulting from job performance excellence and a proven track record. 10/95-10/97 Bravo Restaurant Group. Miami, Florida Executive Chef/ Food & Beverage Consultant Responsibly encompassed development of (6) restaurant concept and start-up, entailing, but not limited to theme creation, cuisine preparation, menu development, menu pricing and preceptor/ pre costing of menu In charge of profit/loss, including: profit planning: food cost formulas: beverage purchasing, receiving storing and inventory control: sales analysis: sales and cash control: break-even analysis. 10/93-10/95 NATIONAL BUSINESS SERVICEC ENTERPRISE EXECUTIVE CHEF WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER WASHINGTON D.C.

Managed all aspects of convention banquet/restaurant start-ups kitchen design, food concepts and implementation of entire food and beverage system. Labor cost @11-13% food cost @18-22%. Troubleshooting profit for restaurant operations increasing bottom line.Montored food & beverage costs, profit/loss statement and established budget analyst. Trained and consolidated kitchen staff accountabilities 11/92-10/93 WINNERS CIRCLE RESTAURANT NEW YORK NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHEF Manage complete restaurant operations serving 600 guests on a daily basis to include menu design profit/loss for 250 seats restaurant, with annual revenues over $3 million. Assisted architects in section of cutting-edge gourmet kitchen equipment: originated name of restaurant. Identified and selected food service vendors, ordered food and beverage, tableware and linens. 9/91/-10/92 MRS.J SACRED COW RESTAURANT 11/86-3/89 NEW YORK NEW YORK 4/84-4/85 EXECUTIVE CHEF In charge of daily operation of 120 seat restaurant serving over 270 guests daily. Developed menu design, produced over 140 creative recipes and overall productivity of all food preparation.

Utilized nouvelle cuisine techniques

7/90-9/91 TAVERN ON THE GREEN RESTAURANT NEW YORK NEW YORK SOUS CHEF Oversaw kitchen staff of a 2,000 seat restaurant supervising and preparing dishes for 15,000 guests thought the 1990 New York City Marathon. Food cost @ 24% Labor @ 12% .Trained kitchen staff on innovative culinary techniques, including evaluation of recipes and food photography. Working with the following: Gold Medal Winning Team of World Culinary Olympics, Frankfurt Germany And the 1990 Silver Medal Winning Canadian National Team, Salon Culinary Singapore Assisted chefs from several restaurants thought Paris, France at Tavern on the Green.

4-89-7-90 New York HILTON & TOWERS HOTEL NEW YORK NEW YORK 3500 Rooms SOUS CHEF MAIN KITCHEN CHEF

Responsible for operation of 170 seats restaurant supervised and train 110 employees. Served 1,500 meals daily worked with union representatives to enhance work productivity. Monitored food service for 2,500 room hotel evaluated daily menu selections. Reduced food cost from 40% to 26% troubleshoot for guest concerns

5/85-11/86 AMERICAN HAWAII CRUISES, SS. LIBBERTY PAPEETE, TAHITI (Pacific Rim Tour) EXECUTIVE SOUS CHEF 1

Responsible for the operation of the reef restaurant planned daily menu for 24-hours food service operation. Utilized continental cuisine techniques. trained the 100-member kitchen staff. Researched the French and Polynesian cuisine monitored food service budgets

4/81-4/87 VISTA INTERNATIONAL FOOD RESEARCH CENTER HILTON HOTELS WORLD TRADE CENTER NEW YORK NEW YORK FOOD RESEACHER

Researched culinary heritage of ingredients for recipes, evaluated recipes for menu items. Coordinated project to microfiche 4,900 tested recipes, participated in the fine dining of the 80s program. Tested and screened original food products, responsible for taste-tasting all recipes for Hilton Hotel Worldwide. 4/81-4/84 AMERICAN HARVEST RESTAURANT, VISTA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL WORLD TRADE CENTER NEW YORK NEW YORK DEMI CHEF, CHEF DEPARTIE, CHEF SAUCIER Prepared daily menu supervised and trained kitchen personal. Work the saucier station and meat butcher seafood butcher.

6/79-3/81 AMERICAN HAWAII CRUISES, SS. Independences HONOLULU HAWAII (South East Asia Tour) SECOND COOK FLOATER, SAUCIER

Assisted in planning International menus, monitored all food functions. Trained gallery crew, second and assistant cooks. Prepared entrees including Polynesian, Hawaiian Chinese, Philippine and Korean cuisine EDUCATION

Harry Lundberg School of Seamanship Saint Mary's County Piney Point Maryland (Feb 1995) Cruise Ship Culinary Arts

FOOD & MARITIME TRADE SCHOOL 250 W. HOUSTON STREET NEW YORK CITY (Sept, 75- June 79) Culinary Arts

NEW YORK CITY TECHNICAL COLLEGE 360 J STREET BKLYN. HOTEL/ RESTURANT MANAGEMENT COURSEWORK (1980-1982) Culinary Arts VISTA INTERNATIONAL FOOD RESEARCH CENTER 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER VISTA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL HILTON HOTEL (1981-1987) Test Kitchen AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

CHAIRMAN OF THE 1998 CULINARY SALON LAS VEGAS NV.

CHEF HALL OF FAME- GOURMENT FOOD SERVICES INC FIRST PLACE SOUTH FLORIDA WHITE TRUFFLE FESTIVAL MEMBER OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE APPERARED ON THE GOOD MORNING AMERICA SHOW MEN WHO COOK, NEW YORK CITY MEMBER OF THE A.C.F.

I AM THE TASTE OF DUBAI BEST OF THE BITE.

I AM IN 98 PUBLICATIONS AND OVER 27 MILLION INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION IN THE GCC AND INTERNATIONALLY.

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