Resident Chef

A personal chef and restaurant consultant for more than seven years, Amy Ahrensdorf is the resident Chef for SunWest Appliance Distributing, the exclusive local Viking distributor.  Chef Amy cooks and instructs at a variety of showroom events and field demonstrations for SunWest. 

At SunWest, Amy has created and implemented Cooking with Viking: Ignite Your Culinary Passion, a culinary school located right in the spacious, state-of-the-art showroom.  The school offers a variety of on-going cooking classes from Asian Fusion to How to Host a Cooking Party. 

Chef Amy’s passion for food and the culinary arts was nurtured by her mother, who studied under the world-renowned chef and author, James Beard.  Amy pursued her formal secondary education at Ithaca College in New York and studied internationally in London.  She graduated with honors from the Culinary Arts Program at the Art Institute of Phoenix.

Notably, Chef Amy is also co-creator of The Chef and the Shrink – a team building series offered through SunWest.  Chef Amy partners with David Wayne, Ph.D., author and expert in the area of team-building.  Together, they lead participants through a personality profile which helps to establish working groups for the cooking class.  As each groups cook, they are observed and given feedback on how their behavior in this environment relates to their day-to-day work setting.

In her spare time, Chef Amy enjoys being a “soccer mom” and downhill skiing.  She serves as Vice President of Philanthropy for the East Valley Boys Service Club, which is a community service volunteer organization for boys grades six through 12.  She currently resides in Tempe with her husband and their two children.