GUNNAR HENCMANN

Director of Operations
Catering by Design, Denver, CO

www.cateringbd.com

BIO
Born and raised in Denver Colorado. First introduced to the world of food at the age of 15 when he picked up his first summer time job making ice cream for a small ice cream shop in downtown Denver. After about 3 months he stumbled across a restaurant called Paul’s Place Restaurants which was getting ready to open in the Cherry Creek Mall only minutes from his home. He was hired to dress burger buns due to being too young to use knives or cook. He quickly familiarized myself with the procedures and strived to learn as much as he could so when he turned 16 he was able to run the grill and learn to prep. After several years of working after school and during the busy seasons he took a break and switched jobs staying on with Paul’s Place Restaurants as a seasonal employee only. After four years of experimenting with various careers including trimming trees and sorting packages he was recruited back into Paul’s Place for a full time position managing 1 of their restaurants.  Shortly after he started full time, the company branched out and formed Paul’s Catering of which he was hired to run the delivery drop off department. This was his foot in the door to the world of catering. he has since grown with the company now known as Catering By Design of which he is Director of Operations. Thru the years he has gone from the guy that puts ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato on your hamburger bun to the guy that helps produce, design and create new concepts in our catering industry. Gunnar in a sense is the backbone of CBD and is responsible for all operations as well as design and construction and much much more.