Chef Thomas - Personal Chef Service

Chef Thomas Carrig won the 2008 Vegetarian Times Chefs Challenge!!

Chef Thomas' original recipe for the customer favorite "Vegetables Wellington" was submitted to Vegetarian Times magazine's annual Chef's Challenge and after exhaustive testing was declared the winner in the Entree category.  The March 2008 issue of the magazine features the dish on the cover and the editorial on page 4 provides some context to the honor of winning:

"As editor in chief of Vegetarian Times, I get invited to my fair share of benefit dinners. At these events, the menus are usually vegetarian.  They also tend to be a lot tastier than the 'rubber chicken' banquets of my omnivorous past."

"Why is this so? Caterers know they have to satisfy epicurian vegetarians and meat eaters alike. And the meat eaters might very well be eyeing a veg menu with the same doubt and suspicion I used to reserve for rubber chicken.  In these scenarios--where the pressure to please is on--the main course is often a beautiful plate of Vegetables Wellington.  It's a meatless twist on a British classic, and a vast improvement over the beef and foie gras laden original."

"Want to try it yourself?  Simply turn to page 72 where you'll find the recipe for perhaps the best Vegetables Wellington I've ever tasted.  Created by Thomas Carrig, it is one of the winning dishes in VT's Chef's Challenge 2008 recipe contest.  Carrig's version not only dazzled our taste buds, it looked so good that it made this month's cover." 

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Who I Am:

THOMAS CARRIG

I am passionate about food!

How passionate?  I walked away from a very rewarding and well paying 20 year career as a research scientist to pursue a degree in the Culinary Arts and Culinary Nutrition and become as involved in the business of real food as I can be.  I believe that food is grown and raised, not manufactured.

I am serious about service - I mean what I say.

No lip service from me.  If I can't do something, I'll tell you.  If I take on a job, it will be done right.  I am a meticulous planner and no detail gets overlooked. 

• AAS Culinary Arts;  Johnson & Wales August 2006.
• BS Culinary Nutrition; Johnson & Wales, May 2008.
• ServSafe certified
• Fully insured
• Certified Wine Training from German Wine School in Koblenz, Germany.
• Certified Dining Room Professional.
• TIPS certified.
• Certified Barbecue Judge by Kansas City Barbecue Society
• Member American Dietetic Association
• Member Research Chefs Association
• Member Slow Food USA