CIA Alumni Bio
It’s convenient when you open an executive training company that uses culinary team building as its core to have a seasoned chef and a master trainer and facilitator running things. It’s even more convenient when they’re married and understand each other’s strengths, style, and rhythm. Marcove Executive Training brilliantly benefits from the expertise of Jeff as chef and his wife Kathy as a team facilitator. Together they have melded their talents to create a whole new approach to corporate team building.
Marcove Executive Training
The couple is hired by businesses to help develop communication, trust, and a sense of teamwork among their employees. Jeff typically begins a program in the kitchen. After participants don aprons and listen to a five-minute talk on sanitation and hygiene, the fun and the training begin. He starts off with the “great onion challenge” and then moves into a 60-minute team-building exercise as groups make everything from paella to tapas. All the while, Kathy is observing, taking pictures, and getting ready to shepherd the teams through discussions of how the events in the kitchen revealed issues of communication, participation, negotiation, appreciation, evaluation, and problem solving. Depending upon the areas the client company wishes to strengthen, all aspects of the program are adapted—from the food to the subsequent discussions.
Jeff’s experience as a chef and Kathy’s experience in intercultural management make this a perfect professional and personal—yup, mighty convenient.
Chef Jeff Marcove majored in culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He is the co-owner of Marcove Executive Training in San Luis Obispo, CA.