Kimberly Brock Brown
Kimberly Brock Brown has a journey that has taken her to places – near and far – that would prove important to her career as a culinarian and culinary leader. Raised in the western Chicago suburb, Maywood, Chef Brown attributes her love for cooking to her heritage. Mom is Missouri-born and Dad was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and the convergence created an appreciation for America’s foodways and food people. When it came time to choose geographical paths to pursue career options, the chef left for the Southwest (Dallas) and parts in-between, before settling in Charleston, South Carolina.
Cooking has always been a part of her story.
As the immediate past national president and continuing board member of the American Culinary Federation (ACF), Kimberly Brock Brown has traveled extensively as a representative of the 14,000-member organization. She has been affiliated with ACF since the mid-1980s, rising through the ranks of leadership. Since 2017, she has spoken to culinary students in the United States, the Caribbean and overseas. Chef Brown has spoken to women’s groups, mainstream groups, small and large audiences about leadership and culinary professionalism. In 2022, she represented ACF at the World Association Of Chefs Society(WACS) in Abu Dhabi.
Among her awards and honors, Chef Brown was inducted into the Honor Society at the National Canadian Culinary Federation in Saskatchewan in 2022. In 2018, she was inducted in the international association of gastronomy, Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, Charleston chapter. And she most recently was selected to serve on the “Kitchen Cabinet” as a chef-leader and advisor, with the likes of José Andrés and other culinarians, for the United States of America’s Department of State’s American Culinary Corps.
Chef Brown, the citizen, supports the causes of women in leadership, aging and hunger, and culinary entrepreneurship. But in all that she does, she honors the fact that she has been blessed to achieve and receive, and counts it as her duty to pay it forward.
You can read a chronological list of Chef Brown’s achievements HERE.
Kimberly Brock Brown 