Mark Petchenik, CRC

Experience

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  Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants

  Jan 1985 - Jan 1993

  General Manager and Executive Chef

  Lettuce Entertain You is a restaurant group currently comprised of 120 restaurants mainly located in the Chicago, Illinois area.

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  Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

  Jan 1993 - Jan 1996

  General Manager and Executive Chef

  Oversaw restaurant operations for a popular craft brewery and restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.

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  Petroot de Mexico, SA de CV

  Jan 1996 - Jan 2001

  Owner and Operator

  Trusted partnership with co-owner to build the restaurant, hire the team, design the menu options and overall, deliver a great culinary experience for every customer• Developed and managed restaurant construction company, budgets, menu designs, operational procedures, and cost and labor analyses • Served as a productivity and profitability consultant to restaurants in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Cabo San Lucas

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  TLC Hospitality Group

  Jan 2001 - Jan 2003

  Operations Manager

  Served as an operational consultant for TLC, which provides broad and deep consulting to the food industry.• Conducted financial planning and POS system utilization audits• Conducted financial, operational and systems audits and reporting

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  Land O'Lakes

  Aug 2003 - Oct 2019

  Corporate Executive Chef

  Led development of on-trend new products through market observations, consumer testing, and recipe modifications.Partnered with food scientists to advance food-processing sector by finding better ways to retain flavor, freshness, consistency and nutritional content of mass-produced, packaged food products.Partnered extensively with QA through product testing, sensory analytics, packaging design and end-user product integrations. Culinary Management• Developed and implemented trend-forward, values focused products within budget• Developed recipes across commercial channels with emphasis on Fast Casual and Quick Service segments• Conference and food show planning and execution• Culinary sales presentations including food industry trend research• Designed new test kitchen facilities• Created and implemented operational, safety and sanitary procedures for test kitchen facilitiesBusiness Leadership• Collaborated with R&D, packaging, QA, Marketing, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Sales• Contributed expertise in Mintel and Datassentials data sources to support company initiativesProduct Development• Revised engineering stage-gate process to include culinary collaboration including ideation, product definition, benchtop work, gold standards development, feasibility studies, regulatory and food safety analysis, prototype creation, taste panels, focus groups, consumer feedback, labeling, packaging and commercialization• Developed and test new SOP’s for culinary evaluations across LOL portfolio• Represent LOL at national and international food and industry shows to support innovation and expertise in trends, replacing externally purchased trend data analysesLeadership and Communications • Translated culinary jargon into easily understood wording to understand quantitative and qualitative results• Guest speaker at multiple culinary programs focused on product development, Culinology in action and how to stay current on today’s food and dining trends. Show less

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  Petchenik Consulting

  Oct 2019 - now

  Actively Searching for New Opportunities

  Currently open to new opportunities in product development consulting and full-time employment while also serving as an active mentor and guest lecturer for Southwest Minnesota State University and the Culinary Institute of America.