Working behind the scenes, Chef Scott Isaac Coles makes sure we have good food every day. But how does a typical day for the kitchen staff look like? What is Chef Isaac’s favorite food? What former prime minister, and former president’s wife did he cook for? And, importantly, what do you have to do if you want to see more chicken nuggets (or less chicken pot pie) on the menu? All that and more to come in this interview.
You have probably all seen him, in his signature baseball hat, with his gentle smile under his beard. On the other hand, I imagine I might not have been the only one who only realized months into the year that Chef Isaac is actually the one leading the kitchen in its day-to-day operations. In general, it’s about time some more light was shed on what’s going on there in the back of the dining hall – all the more so, since we are all exposed to the cafeteria at least once every day, the boarders up to three times.
“Our typical day starts around 6-6:30 in the morning, at least two from the team show up around then, turn all the equipment and lights on,” starts Chef Isaac, and then recounts the entire daily schedule with admirable precision and routine in his voice. This is no wonder – he has some 20 years under his belt in the hospitality industry, including four years of working in schools, alongside having grown up on a farm, and currently owning one.
“Hopefully, the day before, we’ve gotten some vegetables, marinated meats, whatever we need,” he continues. “And then between 6:30 and 7 we are frying the breakfast; home fries, scrambled eggs, etc., and we are basically in production until 7:30. After breakfast, we clean up and get ready for lunch. Typically, we have a break between 9 and 9:30 but from 11, we are in production for lunch, our biggest, busiest meal. At this time, one person is inside the dining hall and makes sure the salad and sandwich bars are restocked, while the other oversees most of the hot items you see on the menu. After lunch, 12:30-1 is time for cleaning up and putting away food, plus making sure we are stocked up for dinner. From about 1-1:15, we have a team meeting where we talk about the upcoming day, and what we need to get done for it. Then it’s lunch break between 1:15 and 1:45, and 1:45-5 is getting stuff prepared for dinner and the next day. The shift changes around this time, with the two people coming in at 6-6:30 signing out at around 2-2:30. The two people who come at 11:30 usually stay until 7:45, after the preparation for dinner and the clean-up afterward is done. Then, 10 hours later, everything starts again.”
All in all, a busy but well-organized schedule! As can be inferred from the paragraph above, there are always at least two people in the kitchen, with at least four during lunch. Chef Isaac himself, when he is here, usually comes sometime between 6 and 8:30, and stays until 3 or 4, unless something goes wrong (fortunately, we have only had one toaster catch fire so far).
Although alongside Chef Isaac, we have some beloved and stable fixtures in the "SLY" kitchen (think John), if one pays some attention as to who we see in the staff each day, the turnover – meaning how long an average employee stays in one job – during the year appears significant. “In the food/hospitality industry, the average turnover is about 6 months, and as the school year is 9 months long, it’s not unusual to observe this,” explains the Chef. “I would say this year is a lot better than last year, but people have their lives. There was a gentleman here who helped us but then got a promotion at his previous job. That’s one of the better scenarios; other times, things just don’t work out and then we must look for other options.”
Enough of the hardships, though, and let’s talk more about the fun part! Indeed, during the interview, I could just feel Chef Isaac’s natural love of all things related to food. When I ask him what he likes most about his job, he lights up as he says, “Just cooking food! When I was a young adult, I had a discussion with my mentor about what I wanted to do with life, where is my passion driving me. And his advice was to find what you love to do and try to make money from it. That was what got me into this.” He has a varied career behind himself, too. “There were a lot of independent restaurants, hotels, casinos,” he begins, and while he hasn’t been outside of North America, he has checked a lot of things off the list here. “I went to culinary school in Vermont, so I did the New England area. I did internships in: New Orleans & Las Vegas. Then I spent some time Oklahoma & Charleston, S.C., and moved as far as California, the San Francisco Bay area.”
At that point, my journalistic instincts tell me to push on – and Chef Isaac delivers one heck of a story. “I was all over the place, cooking for whoever I wanted to, met tons of celebrities and politicians,” he continues, while I listen enthralled to him listing the names, without even changing his tone. “Most people care about the fact that I cooked for the Kardashians. I also met Britney Spears, Maynard from Tool, Vincent Neil from Mötley Crüe.” As I stare at him in amazement, the list goes on and on, with the same matter-of-fact voice. “In California, there was Tony Blair, the former PM of the UK, Ryan Reynolds, and many others. There were just a ton of famous people you got to brush shoulders with or cook meals for. Sometimes they even came to the kitchen! For me, a farm boy from Virginia, getting to be in these situations where you meet people like Laura Bush, the former first lady, it was always fun and exciting,” he adds, using rather modest words for situations most of us could only dream of.
Of course, coming from this environment to Staunton, the question arises: does he miss this kind of vibe? If he could go back somewhere, what place would he choose? His unequivocal answer is New Orleans. “Love it. Everything about it. It’s my favorite city in the United States. Don’t go during the summertime, it’s too hot, don’t go during the big festivals. But there’s always live music, it’s open 24 hours a day.” The city has a varied culture, too. “A lot of Spanish culture, lot of Italian culture, lot of Native culture. However, I moved to New Orleans originally because it was a significant French influence in America. So, I basically finished all my French techniques, and thought New Orleans would be the perfect place to practice that. It was. And then you also have a lot of African culture there… It’s just a lot of cultures shoved together all into food, and that’s great for me,” he explains.
As we were talking about food, we realized another interesting connection – turns out Chef Isaac has some Lithuanian ancestry! Although he says Eastern European cuisine doesn’t have a lot of “pizzazz” that he would prefer, we can agree on one basic fact: the grandmothers’ cabbage rolls are always the best! When I ask him what kind of cuisine Staunton would need more of, he has a hard time choosing with such versatile tastes. After some time, he settles on dim sum. “It would also be kind of fun to have a Brazilian steakhouse in town,” he adds. As for his favorite place here, he names Byers Street Bistro (“I used to run Byers Street Bistro, that restaurant group got me back to Virginia”) while also praising other places such as Gloria’s Pupuseria or Zynodoa.
Speaking of favorites, some of the things students are most enthusiastic about when it comes to dining at STU is what we eat, and how we can influence the menu. With an ingrained culture of collectively disparaging school food occasionally rearing its ugly head at STU as well, Chef Isaac has a hard job, but says he is open to suggestions. “I have an email like everyone else at the school. I cannot jump up and down asking for suggestions – but if the students decide to congregate, we can of course facilitate a food committee of sorts this year too, but this should be a student-led thing. Also, I have a year here under my belt now, so I hope the food is more pleasurable than last year.” As for the relationship between the kitchen staff and students at STU, and what he wishes students did differently: “Because I’m a farmer and a chef, I’d say it’s wasting food. For me, it’s ‘take what you want, eat what you take.’ Then again, I can’t force my preferences on you,” he admits. “The staff members here aren’t faculty, we are just here to offer a service. Instead of being the authoritative father, we are more like the fun uncle.”
We finish our talk with some general remarks on his profession, how others and he himself perceive it. As the owner of a catering business, he notes with dissatisfaction how people always want to spend less on food at events. “Let’s say someone wants me to make food for a wedding and they only want to spend fifteen dollars per person. If you want that, go to McDonald’s,” he asserts with pride. Overall, though, Chef Isaac says he is content with what he is doing. “When I was in my twenties, I liked to travel; I could do this wherever I wanted to, and I could find a job relatively quickly. It also got me into fun things: instead of paying to go to concerts or festivals, I got paid to go there. It's all about how you navigate your life, really. I could have stayed in California and kept chasing Michelin stars and probably not have a personal life very much, but I navigated my career to have all my goals in my life.” For one, I am certainly glad to have Chef Scott Isaac Coles here and hope he will cook for STU for a long time to come!
The interview was edited and condensed for clarity by the interviewer, Simon Rozsa
Cover picture provided by Chef Isaac