Featured Keynoter
Ina Pinkney, Culinary Entrepreneur
Chef/owner, Ina's Kitchen
www.breakfastqueen.com
2010 Personal Chef Summit
February 20, Kendall College, Chicago
Pinkney was 37 years old when it occurred to her that no one sends a surprise cake to recognize a birthday. "People send singing telegrams, but never a cake," she says. Pinkney discussed the business idea with her neighbors and doorman. Instantly, a neighbor she didn't know requested a cake delivery for that very week. "I had never baked a cake," says Pinkney. "But as an entrepreneur, you say yes. Then you figure it out." Pinkney was the chef/owner of The Dessert Kitchen Ltd. for 10 years and supplied private customers, restaurants, caterers and hotels with desserts.
Thanks to her business' success, Pinkney only saw her husband for breakfast, and they began to frequent the breakfast places of Chicago. "I became annoyed at the mediocrity, the sameness and lack of attention breakfast was given," she says. And then Pinkney asked her husband one of those life-changing questions: "How hard can it be to make breakfast?" With her husband's encouragement, Pinkney created a place in her mind where she wanted to go. The fantasy breakfast place was a "nurturing environment that fed your soul." There would be white tablecloths, flavor profiles that would leap off the charts and gracious service. "I wanted the staff to have respect for the food I made and for the customer."
The rest is history. Pinkney opened Ina's Kitchen in Chicago's trendy West Loop Market District during the recession of 1991, and it quickly became Chicago's premier breakfast restaurant. Today, Ina's serves distinctly American breakfast, lunch and dinner.
This media-savvy professional with a camera-ready personality has appeared twice as a guest on "Sweet Dreams" with Gale Gand on the Food Network and was featured on "The Best of" on that network, as well. She is a frequent and welcomed guest on local news and cable TV and has conducted interviews on shows in the United States, Canada and Germany. Pinkney has developed recipes for World Book, Inc.'s Christmas Around the World series, The Popcorn Institute and Quaker Oats.
In April 2005, Ina's was the subject of a CNN show called "The Turnaround." She also appeared in a national Quaker Oats commercial as herself-the Breakfast Queen. Articles about her have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Details magazine, Vogue, The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, Gourmet, Crain's Chicago Business and Midwest Living, as well as several trade and in-flight magazines. Her recipes are featured in many cookbooks.
A leader in the effort to ban artificial trans fats, Pinkney made national and global press when she testified before the New York City Board of Health and helped pass that city's ban. She led a coalition of Chicago restaurateurs and chefs to support a smoking ban (which went into effect in January 2006), and created a "green" purchasing co-operative for restaurants in Chicago.
In demand thanks to her wealth of life experience, she has been a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship at Northwestern University, DePaul University and the University of Illinois, Chicago, as well as keynote speaker for schools and professional organizations. Because of her attention to the changing tastes of consumers, she is a sought-after judge at competitions such as the 2007 National Beef Cook-Off (filmed for the Food Network) and The Battle of the Hospital Chefs, and is a valued participant in a "think tank" on menu futurist work.
Pinkney has served on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier, was vice president of The Women's Foodservice Network, and was honored by the Women's Foodservice Forum in 2004 as a "Woman Making Her Mark." In June 2008, she was named SBA Woman in Business Champion, and in 2009 was a candidate for Women Chefs & Restaurateurs' Women Who Inspire Awards in the Golden Bowl category recognizing excellence in baking and pastry arts.
To register for the 2010 Personal & Private Chef Summit, click here or phone us at (800) 644-8389.