We are proud to announce that Personal Chef Jim Davis is the recipient of the Chef of the Year Award for 2005!

Jim was presented this prestigious award at the 8^th Personal Chef Summit in New Orleans on July 8, 2005 at a gala ceremony which capped off another great APCA annual conference.

Each year the Chef of the Year Award is granted to an APCA member each year by nomination of the membership. It is awarded to an active member who operates a successful business, participates in the Member’s Forums in support of other members, participates in Local Chapter activities as well as the Annual Summit and shares their knowledge and expertise in support of the association and the personal chef industry in general.

Commitment and participation are two of the contributions made to APCA by this year’s Chef of the Year, but they are only a small part of what Jim Davis brings to this organization. Passion, professionalism, integrity, wisdom, talent, expertise and joy in his career and his life are other contributions we are fortunate to receive from Jim.

Chef Davis is not only APCA's Regional Director for East Coast, he also sits on the APCA National Advisory Committee and the Annual Summit Advisory Committee. Those of you who have read his posts on the Member’s Forums know that when you receive a response from "TheCookToo", you will receive a complete and entertaining answer to your questions. Jim has taught and mentored numerous new APCA members in their efforts to start and operate successful personal chef businesses.

Jim Davis, a native of West Virginia, has had two successful professional careers, one in Hospital Administration where he traveled the world building hospitals in 7 different countries plus the United States; and another successful career as a Mortgage Broker in the Gaithersburg Area.

He began cooking when his mother told him to learn to cook or learn to go hungry at the age of nine (she was only kidding, he later found out). Since then he has been an avid home cook and been involved in cooking with his church for large groups for more than twenty years.

He is a graduate of the Part Time Professional Program of L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg and has been a teaching assistant at the Bethesda location of L'Academie for more than 7 years and has assisted both local and world reknown chefs in more than 400 classes.

He has been teaching more than forty cooking classes in all disciplines each year for the last 6 years for the Montgomery County Recreation Department and also does private personal instruction and private cooking class parties.

He and his Professional Chef son, Bryan, operate The Really Good Food Company, a personal chef and custom catering service.

Jim's New Orleans Brass Jazz Band.