Our History
Cook Process Solutions, LLC was formed out of Steve Cook’s desire to work personally with owners and managers to optimize their food plant production. After 30+ years in food process design, Steve consults throughout the food manufacturing industry.
Learning the business from the ground up is part of Steve’s heritage as he watched his father, Jim Cook, start Central States Industrial in his garage with just a Lincoln welder and some hand tools. Steve’s experience with food process systems began while working part-time for his dad as a pipe fitter and polisher.
After serving as an air crewman in the United States Marine Corps, Steve completed his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. His engineering experience began at Paul Mueller Company as a design engineer in their pure water division.
In 1990, Steve joined Central States Industrial full-time as a salesman and project engineer promoting specialty equipment and process piping projects in the food and dairy industry. Throughout the next eighteen years, his responsibilities grew as the company’s sales expanded from $1 million to $30 million. Steve was involved in company management and was chiefly responsible for food process piping projects. These projects were managed and designed under Steve’s leadership, design and engineering. Over the years, his expertise grew and he moved into consulting and training.
In 2008, Steve began Cook Process Solutions, LLC, a consulting and design firm focusing on the food industry. In 2022, after 14 years of design and engineering, the business was switched to solely consulting services. Applying his experience and knowledge, Steve serves some of the leading food companies in the world.
Steve lives on Bull Shoals Lake in Northwest Arkansas with his wife Patricia and chocolate Lab Sunshine. He flies a 1947 Champion 7AC airplane from a grass strip, enjoys gardening, hiking and the lake.
