By Isabella Dang, Dietetic Intern On a rainy Monday morning, I got to sit down with UMD’s very own Senior Executive Chef, John Gray. Chef John sat in front of a bulletin board, decorated with some “punny” food one-liners like “turnip the beet” and many others. Chef John has helped UMD dining services take large steps forward, through harnessing culinary creativity to deliver quality food. But how did Chef John get started in the world of food? Read my interview with him here. Q: When you were growing up, did you have dreams of becoming a chef?
Chef John: I’m an odd character wanted to be a chef ever since I could remember Me: Really? Chef: Yup… I grew up telling my parents and grandparents I wanted to be a chef. So, I started cooking when I was-- probably around 10 or 11? Me: Wow! And do you remember that dish you cooked when you were around 10 or 11? Chef: Not really… But I lived on a summer camp. And my mom worked an hour away. So she would leave a note saying “pop this in the oven” and do this and do that. And also living on a summer camp… when I turned about 11 or 12, we would have overnight summer camps. So I would go down and be a kitchen helper and help feed 200 campers breakfast, lunch, and dinner over the summer. So, I was always prepping. Me: Wow… what a rich experience! Chef: Haha yup Q: Can you walk us through your professional journey to your current position? Chef: A long journey… So after the summer camp, I moved back to the city. I got accepted to a vocational-technical high school in Rhode Island, where I grew up. And it was the first of its kind. Where you had [cooking] shop for an entire week and classes the next week. So I got accepted to a culinary program there—graduated after 2 years out of the 3 expected years and graduated from there “top honors” in the culinary division. While I was there I worked a full-time 40-hour job at a hotel restaurant. When the staff found out I was in culinary school, they started me on the lines and started learning how to cook. And within around a year, I became a full-time cook. While I was there I applied to a couple of culinary schools and got accepted to my school of chose in New York. I graduated from there and got my Associates Degree. From there I started traveling, I worked in 7 different states— all being job transfers. I worked for a high-class hotel for about 10 years and transferred to multiple hotels after. Then I went to work for casinos after working in hotels. I was working at a casino that was the largest casino in between Atlantic City and Vegas, at the time. I got a lot of great experiences there. I worked my way up and I realized it was time to come back to the East Coast to be closer to my family. So, I applied for a job here (UMD). And I got an interview at the end of December and I’ve been here for about 10 years. Q: What was the most challenging thing you ever had to cook? Chef: hmmm… I’ve haven’t had a lot of challenged cooking, but I think the most interesting challenges was when I was working a sous chef position at a hotel. This hotel decided to open a wild game restaurant and opened the menu to full wild game. So they were serving ostrich and buffalo—just about anything we could find from wild game. This was back in the early 80’s, so I’ve cooked alligator, ostrich burgers, venison… deer, you name it. I learned a lot there especially learning how to work with tougher meats. I learned how to marinate them and cook them properly, so they were still palatable and take some of the gamey flavors off of the foods as well. And I also had to pair the meats with things like starches and vegetables to compliment the flavors well. But the most difficult things happened when working at the casinos because of the high volume and high expectations of guests. I had fine-dining experience, so I had the emphasis on fine dining expectations and freshness in my head, which definitely helped. And everything we made was “top-notch.” That was the most difficult place I’ve ever worked. But if I didn’t work there, I probably wouldn’t be in this [current] position. Q: Can you tell us a story of any kitchen fails you’ve had? Chef: Oh! If a chef doesn’t fail, he’s never going to learn anything. Haha! The biggest one that sticks in my head-- well European chefs in the 70’s and 80’s were everywhere. And some of them have tempers… So, I worked with this one chef… he was shorter than me, so I would call him the “little chef” and he would get mad a turn bright red-faced. So, one day, this was the first large banquet I’d ever done, we had this large function for roasted half chickens. And we had this big roll-in oven so I had these carts where you roll into the oven where you bake them. And chefs are trained to test if meats are done by checking the middle pan. Well, the bottom of the oven cooked colder than the top, for some reason. And I didn’t know that. And during this function for 500-600 people, I sent out 20 or 30 chickens that were not fully cooked. So, I had the little chef standing in my face turning bright red, jumping up and down—hollering at me. Hahaha! –Saying “how dare you send out raw chicken!” But we fixed it. We caught the plates and fixed it. And if there is a chef who says they have never served raw chicken, they are lying to you! Haha! We have all had that experience. But that’s how you learn. You have to learn your equipment. And at that time, I hadn’t learned my piece of equipment yet. Q: Lastly, of the many dishes UMD dining has to offer, is there one you are most proud of? Chef: I don’t know about one single item, but when I started here 10 years ago, everything was frozen and came out of the freezer. So about everything we do right now, is fresh. So whether it be fresh lasagna…. You know I have a story that I tell most people when they talk about how I progressed from frozen products and canned product. When I got here we were using this horrible canned marinara sauce. And I looked at my cooks and said: “you’re going to start making fresh marinara sauce.” And they looked at me and said: “no we can’t do that chef, we’re too busy.” Well, I had them start making fresh marinara sauce for 8 months just to show them how much time they had in the kitchen and to show them they had the talent to do this. So, it kinda progressed and The Diner was making 120 gallons of fresh marinara sauce a day, 5 to 6 days a week. And then finally we outsourced it. So, no single item I am proud of, but I am proud I was able to take dining services from frozen products to all fresh entrees. We got a good 5000 lbs. of tomatoes from the Terp Farm this year and sometimes they are vine ripe tomatoes that are difficult to slice so that’s what we make our fresh marinara sauce from. The same recipe I had the cooks use when I first started is the same recipe we are using now. Me: Great! Thank you so much, chef. Chef: You’re welcome!
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