Chef Christopher Mikovich

I started cooking with my grandmother as soon as I could reach the counter and never looked back! I have been a professional chef for over 35 years in all areas of the food industry from restaurants to catering to new product development. I began my professional career as a dishwasher/prep cook at Brookside Country Club at age 16, where I would rush to work the second I could get out of the drudgery of 11th grade High School. I continued working in kitchens throughout my time at Penn State University obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, but ended up more proud of the recipes I had learned and events I had catered than my honors degree and was more determined to make executive chef than to attend graduate school. I have catered events for governors and CEOs and lots of regular folks alike, and every one of them is a VIP to me, but perhaps my most treasured group of clients were the group of mentally and physically challenged children I provided meals for while executive chef at Crossroads Camp in Port Murray, New Jersey. I have traveled the country as a consulting chef and presented food at the Forbes 30 Under 30 event in 2019 and at Sysco Foods headquarters in Houston, Texas. I also designed and taught culinary classes at a college in my home state of Pennsylvania and ran an internship program with our local culinary school. In addition, I am currently the head chef at Present Day Club and approach each day with the appropriate passion and pride deserved by a place where the lengthy list of dignitary speakers since 1898 includes Albert Einstein and Elanor Roosevelt. I look forward to bringing that same passion and pride for you guys!