NECI's 2010 Commencement Speaker
Chef Charles Carroll, CEC, AAC, is the award-winning author of Leadership Lessons from a Chef: Finding Time to Be Great and his second book to be published this summer, Tasting Success: Your Guide to Becoming a Professional Chef. Chef Carroll is currently the Executive Chef of River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas. River Oaks enjoys the reputation of being rated the number four country club in the United States. The Club has 1500 members and 61 culinary team members.
Chef Carroll has spent the past three years traveling around the United States and the world, including Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, Chile, and Canada, mentoring, sharing and presenting his messages to culinary students, chefs, industry professionals and executives. His influence and inspiration have helped thousands of individuals reach their full potential and strive to be the best they can be.
Charles has received over seventy national and international awards, including chapter Chef of the Year in 1988 and 2005 and the American Culinary Federation President’s Medallion three times in three decades, 1989, 1999 and 2005. He was the regional and national winner of the Chef’s Professionalism Award in 2008. He received the Central Regional "Good Taste Award" in 2006 and Sharing Culinary Traditions Award from the American Academy of Chefs in 2008. He was nominated twice for ACF regional Chef of the Year. The James Beard Foundation selected Charles as one of the Great Country Inn Chefs of 1993. He was awarded Educator of the Year by the ACFEI in 1993. In July of 2000 he was inducted into the World Master Chefs Association, in July of 2001 he was inducted into the American Academy of Chefs, in March of 2002 he was inducted into La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, and in August of 2005 he was inducted into the Honorable order of the Golden Toque. He has been guest speaker at several ACF meetings, regional and national conventions, as well as culinary classes, colleges and universities. Chef Carroll serves as President to the Board of Trustees of the LeNôtre Culinary Institute and Secretary Treasurer of the Les Amis d’ Escoffier Society Houston.
Chef Carroll was Executive Chef at Oak Hill Country Club from 1996 to 2000. Oak Hill Country Club is rated the number seventeenth country club in the United States and is home of the Ryder Cup, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, and PGA Championship.
Chef Carroll was Executive Chef, and employed at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel for thirteen years. The Balsams is a four-star four-diamond resort located in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. He also served as Apprenticeship Coordinator for one of the country’s leading apprenticeship programs.
Charles is a 1985 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Chef Carroll served as a Coach for the 2008 United States Culinary Olympic National Team. This marks Chef Carroll’s seventh Olympic Team. Other teams have included 2004 Manager of the United States Regional Team which captured third in the world and the best in the world Category B; Team USA 2000 national team which received four gold and one silver in the world Culinary Olympics held in Germany; ACF New England Olympic Team in 1988, which won more gold than any other regional team; Team USA Northeast 1992, which placed number two in the world; Team USA National 1993, Basel Switzerland, which placed third in the world; and was Manager of Team USA National Apprentice Team, which placed number two in the Taste of Canada Competition.
For more information about Chef Charles Carroll, please visit www.chefcharlescarroll.com.