Corporate Executive Chef
Sonny Sung
"In life, I believe that one can’t be successful if one doesn’t work with passion."
This passion toward cuisine is the key to my success as Corporate Executive Chef. Just like a composer needs to create and play the music with feeling, every dish I create and serve has to come from the heart. Only once the customer can feel my food do I feel I am successful at what I do. Staffing is also an important key in my formula. I want to inspire my staff to adopt the same vision in cooking; serving every dish to perfection and with passion and pride. I hire people who are eager to learn, who have good attitudes toward teamwork, and of course, who have great creativity, because creativity is very important in cooking.
Credentials
• Worked as an Executive Chef at Claude's for 10 years.
• Worked at LaRonde-Crowne Plaza for 1 year.
• Presently working as Corporate Executive Chef for Sorrentino’s.
My goal at the present is to promote Italian cuisine to Albertans, and, most importantly, to make Sorrentino’s the number one Italian restaurant chain in Alberta in high-end categories.
Assistant Corporate Chef
Chris Hrynyk
Chris Hrynyk credits his mother and Grandmother for becoming a Chef. His cooking abilities were noticed in his early childhood and encouraged by both. His Grandmother insisted he would one day be a chef. Hrynyk, unconvinced, considered studying to become a lawyer but after a year off from school and a trip to Europe, concluded that it was a career worth exploring.
Hrynyk’s long career on the Edmonton food scene started at Café Select where he was hired as a line cook. This position led him to work at many of Edmonton’s fine dining restaurants including The Red Ox Inn, Le Petite Marche, Nina’s Restaurant, Murrieta’s and upscale caterers such as Bridges and The Butler Did It! Eventually, Hrynyk was coaxed by Carmelo Rago, President of Sorrentino’s Restaurant Group, to become the company's Assistant Corporate Chef.
Upgrading his culinary skills and knowledge is critical to Hrynyk. He is a graduate of the Culinary Arts Program at NAIT and regularly takes classes at The Culinary Institute of America’s continuing education centre in St Helena California.
While not creating in Sorrentino’s Catering Kitchen, Hrynyk makes guest TV appearances on CTV, Global, OMNI TV and others. His recipes have been published in several cookbooks put together by the Edmonton Journal. In his spare time, Hrynyk paints bold and colorful artwork with urban feel resembling his unique cooking style.
Chef Hrynyk lives to impress. He perceives food as art or theatre: “The show always has to go on” he says. “Don’t be afraid to improvise if you have to.”
Sorrentino Catering Chef
Bruce Semak
Bruce Semak considered being either a priest or a Chef. However, it didn’t take him long to realize that he would make a better Chef than a priest and enrolled in Calgary’s Culinary Program at SAIT.
After graduating, Semak worked for premiere restaurants in Calgary like La Chaumiere and La Dolce Vita. He joined Sorrentino’s Restaurant Group in 1990 and never looked back. Semak spent six months at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners, apprenticing at restaurants in Piedmonte and Tuscany. His unbridled enthusiasm, passion for food and perfectly flavored dishes have translated into huge success at Sorrentino’s West, Oliveto, That’s Aroma Hy Centre and now at Caffè Sorrentino on 109th Street.
Chef Semak doesn’t think long when you ask him what makes a great chef: “It is salt, pepper and love, lots of love! You need to have passion, care for the customer and respect the food.”