Apex Restaurant & Market Solutions announced it has added Blake Hammond as executive chef for its Elite Cuisine corporate dining and catering services. His responsibilities include overseeing the company’s food preparation processes, as well as creating diverse menus focused on variety and quality. Hammond will manage a kitchen staff who will provide nutritional meals for their customers.
Hammond brings more than 20 years of culinary experience to Apex Restaurant & Market Solutions, the largest independently owned corporate foodservice company based in Missouri with offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, Colorado, and Iowa.
Prior to joining Apex, Hammond was the director of operations for MG Foods, which was known as Company Kitchen before being acquired by Compass Group USA. He previously served as the chef/director for the company’s commissary in Kansas City. Hammond worked for nearly 15 years in various capacities including as executive chef at Rock Island Arsenal, an Army base in Illinois with three different cafes where he helped feed 3,000 customers per day. Earlier in his career, Hammond served as the PGA Tour’s executive chef for eight years.
“Blake is a strategic operations innovator who builds effective teams to carry out his culinary vision,” Apex Restaurant & Market Solutions founding partner, Jim Schweppe, said in the announcement. “We welcome Blake as both a team leader and talented addition to our organization, and we look forward to all he will accomplish in the upcoming years.”
Apex is a full-service provider that supplies catering, in-office cafes and coffee, and vending services for its corporate clients. Apex has more than 270 micro markets located in office and manufacturing facilities across Missouri, Colorado, and Iowa. Approximately 10% of Apex’s micro markets are hybrid facilities, which feature a chef-prepared hot food component available for purchase. Apex also offers Elite Cuisine, its flagship culinary experience that handles all corporate dining and catering services.
