Sharon Van Meter, Executive Director of the Milestone Culinary Arts Center, was recently featured in an article in the Dallas Business Journal. Excerpts from the article appear below.
A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in paris, France, Van Meter has more than 30 years' of culinary experience. Today, she's using her expertise to whip up new revenue-generating concepts at her Dallas-based company, SVM Productions.
Three years ago, she signed on as executive director of Milestone Culinary Arts Center; located in The Viking Cooking School and Showroom on McKinney Avenue. The vision of Milestone Distributors management was to allow visitors to experience top-of-the-line Viking kitchen equipment.
SVM Productions runs all Milestone Culinary Arts Center events, which now include coporate team-building classes, fundraising dinners, television shoots, the Stainless Steel Chef class and more extensive cooking classes. Says Van Meter on team-building, "Cooking is the ultimate team-building activity; nobody can do it all themselves."
The Viking Cooking School continues to be a big revenue maker, despite Van Meter's expectations that the economic climate would cause attendance to dip. The trend toward more home cooking is causing many of the classes, which range from $59 to $129 to sell out.
Additionally, local not-for-profit organizations often host their fundraising events at Milestone, which often underwrites part of the cost.
Lately, Van Meter was recently named the first female director of the Texas Chefs Association, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary profession. She has also created two new MCAC divisions: a continuing education collaboration with El Centro College to hold cooking classes on Sundays and Mondays, and the Milestone Farmer's Market, in partnership with EatGreenDFW.com, North Texas' only online farmer's market.