He has staff for that. But the 42-year-old chef will be keeping a close eye on everything they do. Scholly started work recently as top chef at TCC, a little-known post that puts him in charge of cooking and serving around 40,000 meals a year. Any convention center gathering with food will bear Scholly's stamp. "I've done nothing else but cook all my life," Scholly says. "It's what I love doing. It's my life. It's my passion." Born in South Africa, raised in Germany and trained by one of France's most renowned chefs, Scholly is expected to propel TCC dining to dramatic new heights.

"I would love to tell you but I can't," says Scholly, who landed that assignment through his affiliation with the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

Scholly admits he didn't know what he was getting into in 1989, when he began a yearlong stint as the executive chef on the Ivana, Trump's yacht named for his now-ex-wife. "It was stressful and it was fun," he says of the experience. "I traveled all over the world on that boat - to Bahrain, the Caribbean, the Atlantic, you name it." And what's the dish on the Trumps favorite dish? That Scholly can talk about. "A lot of foie gras, a lot of champagne, a lot of caviar," he says. "Duck was also one of the favorites." As for the Trumps themselves, Scholly gives the power couple mixed reviews. "She wasn't a very pleasant person," Scholly says of Ivana.

Chef Edwin Scholly says he and the singer enjoyed a pleasant chat during the two hours they were together before her nearly sold-out performance in Phoenix on June 8. "It was just me and Madonna," he says with a laugh. Not long after he started cooking, Madonna seemed to have Scholly figured out. " 'Chef, you're not American,' she said to me. I was amazed. "Then she said, 'Tell me where you're from?' and I told her, 'Ma'am, I'm German.' " " 'You know what?' she said, 'I know the meal is going to be great.' " It must have been because Madonna invited Scholly to watch the show from a coveted spot backstage. "I enjoyed it," he says. "It was fun." Scholly trained in classical French cooking; teaches at PCC, culinary institute Colorful doesn't even come close to capturing Edwin Scholly's past. His father was a veterinarian, his mother a winemaker. Scholly was born in South Africa, because that's where is father was working at time. "He was one of the first doctors to breed cheetahs in captivity," Scholly says. Moving back to Germany as a boy, Scholly worked in his mother's restaurant and soon realized he had what it takes to become a chef. "You need dedication; you need commitment; and, most of all, you need a love for what you do," he says. Scholly was trained in classical French cooking in Lyon as an apprentice for Paul Bocuse, a founder of nouvelle cuisine.

For most of the 1990s, Scholly lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, working as the corporate chef for The Ritz-Carlton, overseeing their hotel restaurants in Asia, Africa and the South Pacific. In 2004, Scholly competed against 1,200 chefs in the 21st International Kochkunst Ausstellung, known as the Culinary Olympics. He won a bronze medal by preparing a cold buffet platter that included a rack of venison with Asian pears, cherries and kumquats. Sharing what he's learned is also important for Scholly. He teaches at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and Pima Community College. "What I teach, I teach from the heart," he says. TCC FOOD EVENTS Here are some of the Tucson Convention Center events requiring food preparation that chef Edwin Scholly oversees.