VOL 26 | ISSUE 9 | MARCH 3, 2025
Five Delaware North chefs, who traveled to the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Texas campus in San Antonio on Feb. 21, earned their CIA ProChef® I certifications.
The newly certified culinarians – Anthony Lucido, Petco Park in San Diego; Gary Davis, Chris Stephens and Allen Childs, Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati; and Kristina Olson, Holiday Inn Estes Park in Colorado – join nearly 30 culinarians who have achieved ProChef certifications through the CHEFS program.
The CIA ProChef® is a three-tiered culinary credential that Delaware North chefs can earn through their involvement in the CHEFS program.
The 12-month CHEFS program provides emerging culinarians (full-time sous chefs) with professional development through online learning, hands-on experiences and mentorship from an executive chef. The vision for CHEFS, which launched nearly three years ago, is to build the company’s culinary bench strength as well as provide more formalized learning opportunities for chefs, such as the ProChef certification.
The ProChef I exam tests foundational culinary skills, knowledge and professionalism through a written exam that qualifies candidates for a live practical assessment, usually conducted over several days by ProChef proctors/CIA instructors. The group traveled to the CIA’s Texas Campus in San Antonio the week of Feb. 17 for the four-day, hands-on practical judged by CIA professors Uyen Pham and Ana Sofia Sada Cervantes.
“Passing the ProChef I certification felt like a great accomplishment, and one of the first milestones in growing as a chef, while also getting back to classical cooking and refining basic techniques,” said Allen Childs, emerging culinarian and sous chef at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. “I received a lot of support at the corporate level and from my peers to help prepare for the exam. I’m looking forward to pursuing ProChef II in the future and seeing the CHEFS program continue to grow.”
Delaware North hosts mock exams for ProChef candidates, who are tested on fundamentals such as soups and stocks, sauce making, protein, vegetable, egg and starch cookery, hygiene, sanitation, presentation and plating.
“While it was challenging at times to complete the CHEFS and ProChef coursework during a crazy busy baseball season, it was well worth the efforts to further my knowledge and to be able to pass it on,” said Anthony Lucido, emerging culinarian and sous chef at Petco Park in San Diego.
More than 100 Delaware North culinarians from every U.S. division are involved in the CHEFS program.
Main caption: Five Delaware North chefs, who traveled to the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Texas campus in San Antonio, on Feb. 21 successfully earned the CIA ProChef® I certification. Pictured (left to right) are Anthony Lucido, sous chef at Petco Park in San Diego; Allen Childs, sous chef at Great American Ball Park (GABP) in Cincinnati; Kristina Olson, executive chef at Holiday Inn Estes Park in Colorado; Ana Sofia Sada Cervantes, CIA assistant professor and exam proctor; Gary
Davis, executive chef at GABP; and Chris Stephens, sous chef at GABP.