Chef Paul Sorgule (Provided photo)

Saranac Village at Will Rogers presents a Road to Retirement talk on Thursday, July 10th at 2 pm by Chef Paul Sorgule. Paul will be talking about his experiences working as a chef and introducing his new book “A Cook on the Run.” Chef Paul has worked in professional kitchens since starting out when he was 15 years old washing dishes in a Buffalo, New York diner. His 60-year career included a formal apprenticeship in the 1,200 room Statler Hilton Hotel, a number of line cook positions in restaurants throughout the Buffalo area, various roles as sous chef, chef, restaurant manager and director of food service, eventually leading to a 30-year span in culinary education when he founded the first culinary program at Paul Smith’s College and served 26 years as its dean. He returned to the industry in 2005 as the Executive Chef for Lake Placid’s Mirror Lake Inn, where he led a kitchen team to earn a 4th AAA diamond award for their restaurant and was honored to represent the inn at the renowned James Beard House in NYC. In between, Sorgule was a member of the 1988 New England Culinary Olympic Team that competed in this prestigious event in Frankfurt, Germany where the team won 19 gold medals — one of which was for Sorgule. In 2001, the American Culinary Federation recognized Chef Paul as the National Culinary Educator of the Year. In 2008, he returned to education as the vice president for Vermont’s New England Culinary Institute. In 2012, Sorgule founded Harvest America Ventures Consulting for restaurants and culinary schools and Harvest America Cues Blog that has received over two million views to date with 975 articles on every topic imaginable in the business of food.

Paul Sorgule earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management through SUNY Plattsburgh and a master’s degree in hospitality and service management from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has written three novels: In the Shadow of Cooks (2007), The Event That Changed Everything (2017) and most recently, A Cook on the Run (2025). He lives in Saranac Lake and has done so since 1976 with his wife, Sharon. They raised three talented children and are constantly thrilled by their six grandchildren.

Following his presentation about life lessons he learned as a chef and reading a short excerpt from A Cook on the Run, autographed copies of his book will be available for purchase. Refreshments will be served. For more information please call 518-891-7117.