Author Archives: Quinn Pochekailo

Driving Culinary Excellence Through the Culinary Forum in 2025 and Beyond

Growth and Impact in 2025

In 2025, the Culinary Forum strengthened its role as a driver of collaboration and operational excellence across Guest Services. The program operates as a two-part platform by engaging monthly conference calls supported by a growing resource-rich digital hub.

Monthly conference calls continued to see steady growth in attendance, reinforcing their value to chefs in the field. Each session delivers actionable insight through unit spotlights, food safety updates, cost management strategies, Healthy Balance initiatives, limited-time offers, sales-driving promotions, and guest chef presentations. The objective is clear: provide practical tools that enhance performance, spark innovation, and drive revenue.

Engagement on the Culinary Forum website also expanded. Chefs actively contribute recipes, food cost strategies, promotion results, menus, and catering highlights, creating a shared knowledge base across properties. The migration of food safety resources from the former intranet, along with expanded chef and food cost tools, has strengthened operational support. New plant-based content and enhancements to the catering gallery further broaden available resources.

Strategic Expansion and Healthy Balance in 2026

Looking ahead, the Culinary Forum will build on this momentum. Conference calls will continue expanding their reach, while the platform integrates more closely with GSI’s Food Safety Program, Building and Sustaining a Strong Food Safety Culture, creating a centralized destination for innovation and compliance.

Healthy Balance initiatives will evolve into structured monthly promotions focused on nutritious foods and informed menu choices. Reinforcing the philosophy that Food Is Power, campaigns will highlight lean proteins, cruciferous vegetables, beans, mushrooms, berries, and root vegetables. Business units will receive supporting materials including signage, logos, and educational handouts to strengthen messaging and encourage healthier guest decisions.

Together, these initiatives position the Forum as a strategic resource and a catalyst for continued culinary advancement in 2026.

Team Member Spotlight: Duane Stutzman Brings Experience and Perspective to Giants Ridge

New Leadership at Our Four-Season Destination in Minnesota’s Northwoods

Located in northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, Giants Ridge has long been known as a four-season destination shaped by outdoor recreation and a strong connection to its surroundings. From skiing and snowboarding in the winter to golf, biking, and hiking in the summer months, the resort continues to serve guests looking for authentic experiences rooted in the Northwoods.

For Duane Stutzman, the new General Manager at Giants Ridge, that sense of place was evident early on when he arrived at Giants Ridge. Reflecting on the property and its potential, he noted that it is a destination where guests return year after year and feel a strong connection to both the resort and the surrounding landscape.

A Career Shaped by Reinvention and Resort Leadership

Duane’s path to Giants Ridge spans multiple industries and leadership roles, each chapter shaping how he approaches resort management today. “I started my career actually in a development business,” he explained. “I founded a development company where I did land development and grew the company to cover a three-state region… Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.”

That experience eventually evolved into high-end homebuilding before a pivotal shift. “I was one of the lucky ones who sold the company during the real estate crash in 2008,” Duane said. “I decided to reinvent myself and became a ski instructor.”

Duane went on to hold leadership roles across major mountain destinations, including positions with Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. “I worked my way through supervisor, manager, area director, and general manager roles,” he said. “Each stop taught me something different about people, operations, and leadership.”

That experience now informs his approach at Giants Ridge. “What matters most to me is building strong teams,” Duane shared. “If you take care of your people, they take care of the guest experience.”

Looking Ahead with Purpose and Stewardship

As Giants Ridge continues to move forward, Duane’s focus is on strengthening core operations while expanding offerings that resonate with guests. “We need to grow our summer operations to match what other resorts are doing in the industry… mountain biking needs to have a bigger focus moving ahead,” he said.

Programming and events are also an area of opportunity at Giants Ridge. Duane highlighted the resort’s established Live Music Series, which brings local and regional musicians to perform on Saturdays throughout the winter season in The Burnt Onion Kitchen & Brews, pairing live music with food and beverages for guests.

The live music calendar for early 2026 includes a variety of acts, from eclectic string-driven sets to soulful acoustic performances, that offer guests recurring reasons to gather off the slopes.

Duane noted that expanding these kinds of experiences is part of their thinking for future programming. He spoke to broadening the resort’s entertainment footprint and noted interest in enhancing the kinds of community-oriented events that bring people together throughout the year.

Across all areas of the resort, Duane emphasized the importance of refining the guest experience through consistent attention to detail. “We’ve had meetings about how we want to have an increased focus on the guest experience,” he said. “Just little small detail things to focus on.”

With that approach, Giants Ridge continues to evolve with an eye toward thoughtful growth, operational consistency, and experiences that keep guests coming back.