Lexi Burns, Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks Restaurants has brought aboard Lexi Burns to be its new director of training.

Burns will be responsible for all personnel recruiting and training for Twin Peaks, including management, kitchen staff, front-of-house support, and the sports restaurant chain’s most prized assets: the friendly and attractive Twin Peaks girls.

She comes to Twin Peaks from Texas Wings, Inc., Hooters of America’s largest franchisee, where she served in a similar role for four years. 

She’s the most recent addition to an upper management and executive team that’s suddenly brimming with Hooters expats, including COO Rick Akam and vice president and general counsel John B. Gessner. Burns will report to Akam.

“I’m very excited about being part of a company that’s growing fast like Twin Peaks ,” Burns said. “The opportunities are endless: refining management development, continuing to build a solid operational infrastructure, and taking the image and the service level of the Twin Peaks girls to the next level. This will be a challenge since we are already leading the industry in many ways.”

Burns started her career as a Hooters bartender in 1995 and quickly worked her way up, eventually becoming the franchisee’s lead new store trainer, then training coordinator in 2003.

She supervised staff and management training at 17 new sites, as well as at existing locations, before being named director four years later; in that role, she restructured much of her department by creating new management development and back-of-the-house programs, producing a corporate magazine to bolster and refine server image standards, and other achievements.

“We’re really lucky to have Lexi join the Twin Peaks family,” says Randy DeWitt, Twin Peaks’ co-founder and CEO. “Her track record of implementing programs that are effective, uniform, streamlined, and innovative is exactly what we need as we grow. With Lexi, I’m confident that Twin Peaks locations everywhere will consistently provide the great food, friendly service, and sense of adventure our customers expect.”

Burns considers her breadth of experience, her sense of the Twin Peaks  brand requirements for service and image, and her ability to connect with and effectively train young, eager-to-please employees as her overriding strengths.

“What excites me the most about being here is the quest to take all of our training programs from good to great,” Burns said.

 

Renée Shortlidge, American Culinary Commission

The American Culinary Federation (ACF), the nation’s largest organization of professional chefs, recently appointed Renée Shortlidge, Certified Sous Chef (CSC), of Olathe, Kansas, to serve a three-year term on its certification commission.

The certification commission’s executive committee appointed Shortlidge to the volunteer position May 1. She will work closely with the 17 other members to add value and credibility to ACF certifications.

 “It is indeed an honor and privilege to serve on this commission,” says Shortlidge. “I am anxious to help shape the future of the certification process and, as a result, bring more young culinarians to ACF and to strengthen the perceived importance of becoming certified.”

Shortlidge is the hospitality purchasing/lab coordinator at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) in Overland Park, Kansas. After years working in the legal profession, she followed her passion and graduated from the ACF apprentice program at JCCC. She spent her apprenticeship at Shadow Glen Golf Club in Olathe, and worked as a sous chef and cooking class facilitator at The Culinary Center of Kansas City, Overland Park.

In her current position at JCCC, Shortlidge manages purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, storeroom, culinary lab and equipment upkeep, and ensures adherence to program budget requirements. She is also coach of the school’s culinary knowledge bowl team. Shortlidge is a member of ACF Greater Kansas City Chefs Association.

The Certification Commission currently comprises 18 professionals with experience in culinary, media, marketing, management, education and government.

Commission members represent many different levels of ACF certificants, including Certified Culinarian (CC),  CSC, Certified Chef de Cuisine (CCC), Certified Executive Chef (CEC), Certified Executive Pastry Chef (CEPC), Certified Culinary Educator (CCE), Certified Culinary Administrator (CCA), and Certified Master Chef (CMC).

 ACF Certification Commission members are:

• Chair Derek Spendlove, CEPC, CCE, AAC, chair, baking and pastry arts, Sullivan University, Louisville, Kentucky
• Chair- elect Ronald DeSantis, CMC, AAC, director, CIA Consulting, The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York
• Past chair Karl J. Guggenmos, AAC, university dean of culinary education, Johnson & Wales University, Providence, Rhode Island
• Alex Askew, president, BCA, North Babylon, New York
• Kirk T. Bachmann, CEC, AAC, president, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago, Chicago
• Brad Barnes, CMC, CCA, AAC, senior director, culinary education, The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York
• Russell D. Campbell, CEC, chief, Advanced Food Service Training Division, U.S. Army, Fort Lee, Virginia
• Wendy Chan, president, Definity Marketing, New York
• Donald G. Dickinson, CEC^,CCA, AAC, culinary division director, Institute of Technology, Citrus Heights, California
• Theresa Hopkins, executive director, The Italian Culinary Foundation, New York
• Erica D. Lattimore, CC, banquet cook, Villas of Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida
• Jeanette Scarcella, culinary relations/program officer, Johnson & Wales University, Providence, Rhode Island
• Leonard D. Scranton, CEC, CCA, vice president culinary services, Morrison Healthcare Food Services, Atlanta
• Travis Smith, CEC, CCA, AAC, executive chef,One Ski Hill Place and Breckenridge Mountain Dining,Breckenridge, Colorado
• Nick Versteeg, producer/director, DV Cuisine, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada
• BJ Whitmore, CEC, executive chef/adjunct instructor and consultant, Ottumwa, Iowa
• Grace S. Yek, CCC, assistant professor/chef-instructor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati