A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CORPORATE SALES CHEF:

ACF Chef Peter Hyde, Catania Oils

Q: How did you transition to your role as corporate sales chef with Catania Oils after many years in the industry?

A: I’ve been with Catania Oils for three and a half years. I’ve been a chef for 30 years, having owned my own restaurant and worked my way up from dishwasher, line cook, sous chef and eventually to executive chef of several hotels and resorts. I’ve worked in specialty food sales as well, but I really like my current job because I get to meet with other chefs from all segments of the industry. Recently, I was traveling with a sales rep, going in the back door of restaurants and country clubs and multiunit locations. The sales rep warned me that the chef we were going to visit was very particular about certain products and might not want to consider something different. However, when I met with him for our appointment, we talked about food and exchanged ideas and had a great conversation. It’s a chef thing; chefs know how to talk to other chefs, and they enjoy it! I am fortunate that I get to do that all day long, which is essential to my job.

Q: What’s a typical day like for you?

A: I have my own customer base, so I manage that and then I also travel to sales meetings, trade shows, events, conventions. I might be at a sales meeting, presenting in front of people one day, meeting with a potential new customer another day, cooking and serving samples at a trade show or giving an educational presentation at a convention another day. It’s all about organized multitasking and working with lots of different people in different roles.

Q: How do you educate other chefs about your products?

A: I love the education piece of my job. There’s nothing better than to not only educate other chefs, but also salespeople about why certain products work better in certain dishes. Since salespeople are not often trained chefs, a corporate chef can help them understand how to better sell their product. When you’re a corporate chef, you’re the one who gets to create that excitement and energy that gives sales reps more motivation to sell the product. I also spend time in test kitchens experimenting with our products, so I can come up with new ideas to share with our customers and stay up to date on my own knowledge and skills.

Q: What are some of the tools you use to educate others about your products?

A: I use a variety of training materials, including digital and even some printed documents, although we’re getting away from that. I also enjoy filming short videos under three minutes and sharing them on LinkedIn and Instagram. One day, I’d love to create or help create a course that’s ACF-approved on plant-based oils. Another thing I’m seeing is that you must keep up with changes in foodservice to improve your training tools. To that end, I’ve been working on making our training tools geared specifically toward Spanish-speaking chefs and foodservice employees. It’s not as simple as just translating the English materials verbatim. By doing this, we are the ones who are adapting by being able to reach a chef or restaurant owner through their native language; the chef doesn’t have to adapt or change. It’s our job to keep up with changes in the industry.

Q: What are some of the benefits of being a corporate chef?

A: As mentioned, I enjoy talking to chefs all day about food and cooking. I also get to travel quite a bit, so I get to work in all different parts of the country with a lot of different people. It’s exciting to visit new places and definitely keeps me on my toes!

Q: What’s your advice for budding chefs or students who might want a career as a corporate chef one day?

A: The first thing I would say is get as much experience as you can working in a kitchen and really exhaust all of those possibilities. You need to be able to go into your toolbox of knowledge and draw from any of those experiences. For example, when I set up for a show and I’m cooking food, I have to be able to make that happen quickly, stay very organized, have all my mise en place, and be prepared to cook for 50 people, 500, 1,000 or even more people at a time. You have to be prepared to do that and one thing that teaches you how is actually working in a kitchen and learning how to manage your time, your ingredients, and remain calm under pressure. I also suggest getting a job in foodservice sales for a while to learn what it’s all about. I was a rep for a specialty food company and that helped me learn how to listen and communicate with others and not get frazzled. If you do both of those things, you will have kitchen skills and business skills and can put them together. You can become a very well-rounded chef who has the ability to market yourself in ways that pays dividends in the end!

Cooking by his mother’s side as a child and working in restaurants as a teen, ACF Chef Peter Hyde embraced the culinary world at a young age. He trained in hotels and resorts in the U.S. and traveled to Europe, including Rome, Italy, to visit where he was born; he eventually began working as a chef at the Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, Switzerland. Returning to Boston, Chef Hyde served as the executive sous chef for Swissotel and then furthered his career as an executive chef for DoubleTree Hotels, Hyatt and Starwood. Eventually finding his way to Cape Cod, he culminated his career with his own restaurant, the Blue Moon Bistro. Chef Hyde also served as president of the ACF Cape Cod & Islands chapter for more than 10 years and was awarded the President’s Medallion by the Epicurean Club of Boston.