Karel Leemkuil
Executive Chef
Corporate Account Manager

Karel Leemkuil covers cruise line and export accounts at Albert Uster Imports. For eight years, he worked in Aruba and Seattle-based Holland America as an Executive Chef. One of his first assignments was a 35-day South Pacific cruise on the MS. Nieuw Amsterdam. He did extremely well. His passengers rated his food 8.8 on a scale from one to nine. Subsequently, Mr. Leemkuil was put in charge of two world cruises on the MS. Rotterdam and MS. Statendam. Afterwards, he started sailing in Europe-the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Black Sea. In between, Holland America sent him to Tahiti for three months to set up new menus and coordinate procurement of food for the Wind Song, which sails the South Pacific for seven days at a time.

Mr. Leemkuil grew up on his grandparents' farm in Zutphen in eastern Holland. He watched his grandmother cook. She had a beautiful organic garden. The food was fresh and clean, no chemicals. "When we needed vegetables, we would go out into the garden," he recalls. He trained as a professional chef in Holland at a Michelin star restaurant. After his training was completed, he set out to get the widest possible experience, working at nine different hotels and restaurants. He worked for seven years at the Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel in Scheveningen. In 1986, he left Holland to take on a position as executive sous-chef at the Golden Tulip Aruba Caribbean Hotel, a resort with five restaurants, 600 rooms, and a lot of American tourists.

In 1988, he joined Holland America. He met his wife, Julie, on board ship in Europe. They decided to settle down and buy a house in Boynton Beach, FL. In 1997, he found a job in airline catering at LSG/Sky Chefs in Miami. A year and a half later, Mr. Leemkuil was transferred to Los Angeles. Then, one day, as he was browsing through the Internet, he happened to come across an ad for a culinarian with cruise line and airline experience. "It had my name written all over it," he chuckles. Chairman Albert Uster convinced him that he indeed had the right stuff and persuaded him to take the job. He now lives in Urbana, Maryland.

Mr. Leemkuil started at Albert Uster Imports in December 1999. It is yet another challenge for him. "As a chef on a ship," he says, "I managed 80 people where I instructed them and delegated work. Here I am alone. When I don't push myself, the job doesn't get done." He is determined to make a success of it. "I am not a salesman," he observes. "My customers don't have to explain to me how it works. They know that I know how it works, how complex things are, what problems they encounter, what kind of stress they experience. I want to be a partner for their creative needs, someone who can help them make their ideas become reality." Mr. Leemkuil is very excited to be able to integrate the Savoir Fare savory line into the product mix.