Vulcan, a leading provider of commercial cooking equipment, is welcoming two new chefs to its staff who will support Vulcan’s ongoing evolution and establish Vulcan’s new Center of Excellence as a full resource for its rep groups, dealers and end users.

Chef Pete Schellenbach recently joined Vulcan as a Culinary Specialist. He is located in Baltimore and prior to joining Vulcan, Schellenbach was a Corporate Chef for Welbilt and a Regional Sales Manager for Rational USA. In both roles, Schellenbach provided education on combi oven technology and customer assistance for both applications and operations. In his Culinary Specialist role, Schellenbach will deliver culinary support for product development, training and live and virtual cooking events.

Chef Hank Sawtelle also joins Vulcan as a Culinary Specialist to support product development efforts and customer opportunities nationwide. Sawtelle has a passion for innovation and a unique aptitude for processing technical information. Sawtelle has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from MIT and spent 11 years as a patent attorney before pursuing his dream to become a chef. He has worked as a chef for different corporate groups and served as a Chef Instructor at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland. He will establish a demonstration and test kitchen to grow Vulcan’s brand presence and customer responsiveness on the West Coast.

“We have always had great working relationships with culinary experts who help us to truly understand our customers’ needs,” says Vulcan VP/GM Chris Stern. “Having two incredible and innovative chefs on staff at the new Center of Excellence will refine our culinary expertise even more and support both our combi oven line expansion and overall company growth.”

Both chefs will work together as a culinary team across the division to drive product sales while supporting new product development and launch efforts through product testing and evaluation, customer support, recipe creation and cooking/product demonstrations. The chefs will also work with the sales and marketing teams to create new and updated promotional materials including website content, testimonials, social media posts, advertisements and brochures.

Vulcan’s Center of Excellence will host training, end user testing and other culinary experiences when the first phase of the center opens in 2022. Vulcan is building its support teams at the center to include culinary, technical, sales and marketing personnel and will be investing in upgrading its facility, engineering lab and test kitchen to best prepare the organization for long-term success.