Centerplate has promoted Carmen Callo to the newly created position of vice president and corporate executive chef for North America, the Stamford, Conn.-based company said Friday.
Communications director Paul Pettas called the appointment “another step in our trying to establish [consistent] customer experience standards across all of our venues,” including entertainment venues, sports stadiums and convention centers.
A graduate of Johnson & Wales University, Callo has been with Centerplate since 2002, when he was executive sous chef at the expanded Colorado Convention Center in Denver. He opened Blue Bear Farm in 2012 to provide local, seasonal produce for the convention center.
“Carmen is a proven professional who has played a critical role at the Colorado Convention Center for us over the last 14-plus years,” Centerplate president and CEO Chris Verros said in a release. “He is an asset to our organization and someone who will help strengthen the overall offering that we provide our guests on a daily basis.”
Callo will oversee menus at all of its North American locations, including sourcing local ingredients, creating menu items and engaging with the chefs at each venue.
He said he would focus on empowering local chefs to use their creativity and to purchase “relevant products locally,” as well as inspiring collaboration among the foodservice provider’s hundreds of chefs, “to capitalize on the power of the group.”
He added that he would work to further define the company’s “culinary culture and philosophy” around creating memorable and locally relevant experiences.
“If you can connect it to the memory of the event, I think that’s where the win is,” he said.
Callo will remain based in Denver.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary