Pilgrim's Featured Chef December 2011 - Clare Bailey

Chef Clare Bailey

Director of Culinary Development
Southeastern Mills, Rome, GA

Chef Clare Bailey is a Certified Executive Chef with over 25 years of experience in food manufacturing and food establishments. Growing up in Maine, Chef Clare has many fond memories of the mouth-watering aromas coming from the family kitchen; from fiddleheads to Lobsters and everything in between, the food made a lasting impression.

Travel is a favorite passion of his, and he has had the opportunity to visit several places around the world that offer a wide array of food: from Indonesia and its street food vendors to Taipei with some of the most elegant food in the world, and from Aruba with its fresh seafood to Mexico, with its fresh and flavorful cuisines.

Most recently Chef Clare enjoyed an 1,800 mile motorcycle trip throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine, sampling some of the freshest seafood and locally grown produce available along the way.

For the last four years Chef Clare has lead the corporate culinary development efforts for Southeastern Mills with a product line that includes food bases, broths, seasonings, coating systems, soups, sauces, gravies and baking mixes. Here he is able to take creative ideation to new levels, offering a variety of product application ideas to customers.

Prior to his employment at Southeastern Mills, Chef Clare held a variety of culinary product development and management positions for over a dozen years in the value-added seafood processing arena in Florida. He has also held positions as a chef at the Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney MGM, where he learned what "PX" (priority party) really meant—from Michael Eisner to Princess Diana, and he also worked at The Grand Floridian Resort.

Chef Clare also owned and operated a successful local restaurant in Maine for over a decade where Stephen King was a regular, and prior to that worked at a wide variety of quick service restaurant chains.

"For me, food is truly my passion. I love to experience new flavors and new foods, and discover new ways to make them come alive in the kitchen. Creating flavorful and memorable foods that people love is always rewarding."

Chef Clare is an active member of the American Culinary Federation and chef participant in the Chefpertise program, also affiliated with the Research Chefs Association and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Recipes