Edward Leonard, CMC

Master Chef Edward Leonard earned the Certified Master Chef title in 1996.

Career highlights:

  • Director of culinary operations and executive chef of culinary operations at The Polo Club in Boca Raton.
  • Former director of culinary operations and executive chef of culinary operations at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro Georgia.
  • He was the Vice president & Corporate Chef of culinary education, restaurants and hospitality for the Le Cordon Bleu Schools in North America.
  • One of the highlights of his career was when he was the Executive Chef/Director of Food & Beverage of The Westchester Country Club for 8 years where he took the club from 14th to the 12th top ranked platinum club in the United States and received accolades for his culinary programs in 10 different venues.
  • He is a member of the World Master Chef Society along with being a certified WACS master chef.
  • He received a full doctorate in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University.
  • In 2010 he was the first ever American chef to serve as that keynote speaker at Nanning, China’s festival of chefs with over 1300 chefs from all over Asia.
  • In 2013 he visited China twice as an honored guest and chef to receive initiation into the Chinese International chefs association, the first American chef to receive such an honor while also being a guest lecturer on Western cuisine.
  • He then went to Beijing and took a gold medal in the first ever Beijing international cookery cup with chefs from Le Cordon Bleu.
  • In 2013 he was invited by the Galaxy group in Macau as celebrity guest chef hosting an American BBQ for the Hong Kong and American Embassy along with a private wine dinner and up close and personal cooking class.
  • November of 2013 he bought a team of chefs to Dubai for the world hospitality cup and took second places with a gold medal out of 15 global national teams.
  • Accomplished author of seven culinary books.
  • He was the team chef and leader of the ACF Culinary Team USA from 1998 to 2008.
  • He has won over 50 gold medals in competitions.