Dan has been with GRCC since Winter 2006. Prior to his role, he did some sustainability research and collaboration with the Culinary Education Department.
As a 1985 graduate of the GRCC Culinary program, Dan took advantage of the opportunity to give back by becoming a member of the GRCC employee family.
Dan represented GRCC as a culinary competition Olympian team member in Frankfurt, Germany, and a distinguished fellow of the hospitality department. I was then hired as adjunct, then program director, then tenure and associate professor in the Heritage lunch dining room class
Dan’s favorite GRCC stories include advising, helping students persist and graduate, and then dining out in the area in their establishments and watching them succeed.
“When the previous director told me that I should come to teach at GRCC, I didn’t think of myself as an instructor. He assured me that my ability to lead and train people at my restaurant, San Chez Bistro, did in fact give me the skills required. After being on my own in the industry for 21 years, once I came on board at GRCC, it felt like coming home among friends and mentors that I had always looked up to. It was an immense honor.”
Dan’s plans for retirement include some serious R and R as well as travel, cycling, skiing, gardening, and projects around the house that have been waiting patiently for years.
“GRCC has been an amazing experience and pushed me to reconnect with the program that I love and to “give back” to the organization that gave me my career successes. I was an aerospace engineering dropout until finding GRCC culinary, so as an instructor I was able to relate to many of our students who needed guidance, encouragement, and support to take the next steps in their careers.”
Congratulations and best wishes Dan!
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