Hotchkiss Dining Director Mr. Mike Webster shares his journey from culinary school to leading the school’s food services, offering his take on favorite cuisines, the art of making a great sandwich, and how the dining hall adapts to meet student needs. He also reflects on the shift from restaurant life to the more structured environment at Hotchkiss.
Hi, I’ m Teo, and I’ m Dwyer, and welcome to The HodgePot. This is our podcast to interview staff and faculty members about their lives and experiences working at Hodgkiss. Today, we’ re interviewing Mr. Webster, Head of Dining Services at Hodgkiss. Mr. Webster tells us all there is to know about food, the best sandwich recipe, and much more. You know him, you love him, and you’ re about to get to know him better. We hope you enjoy. I want to fold clothes for you. I want to make you feel good. Baby, I want to do the right thing. Hi, Mr. Webster. Thank you for joining us on The HodgePot. And to start us off, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your bio, and what you do at Hodgkiss?
Sure. So, Michael, Daniel Webster, and I’ m the Dining Director here at Hodgkiss. I’ ve been here for about 10 years. I think primarily, I just feed you guys. Did you grow up around the area? Yeah, I grew up in Avon, Connecticut, so just not too far from here. You said you’ ve been here for 10 years. What did you do before? What about that? So, I’ ve been in food since I was about 16. So, started out doing, you know, restaurant food service and cooking in actually a small Italian restaurant, which was really cool. And then went to undergrad for all the wrong reasons, and then transitioned to culinary school. So, went to CIA, which is not the one in Virginia, the Culinary Institute of America, over in Hyde Park, New York.
When did you know you wanted to get on that food path? So, back to the point of going. I went to undergrad for all the wrong reasons. You know, I think I went because you’ re supposed to go, and so I went, you know, both my parents were college-educated, and I played lacrosse, so that was way more important to me than most anything else except playing lacrosse. So, was able to go to undergrad and hang out there, and that was awesome to experience that, but really the pivotal moment was that I was working at a small restaurant there with a French chef, and he was really, really supportive of developing me and teaching me kind of these classic French ways.
And I think it was probably like spring break, and he kind of came to the point of like, you haven’ t gone home, you just work in this restaurant, and you go to school, like, you think about doing this as a career. And I was like, nah, you don’ t make any money, and he’ s like, oh, yeah, you do. He’ s like, you know, not everybody that does this is wealthy, but like, look, like, I have this restaurant, we have this place, like, I live pretty well. And so, that was where I kind of, it became like respectable, it became like a career, you know. My dad’ s a lawyer, my mom works for the state, they’ re both highly educated, so it basically said, ‘ like, I’ m not going to go to college anymore, I’ m just going to go to culinary school.’ At least there was a school to go to.
I think that really helped, but it was a pivotal moment in working with that chef from France and his experience, and you know, legitimizing it as a career path. What did you study in undergrad? I did it for a year, so I’ d say I majored in lacrosse. Oh, yeah. It doesn’ t help much with that. No, it wasn’t. You know, your freshman year of college is really a repeat of your senior year of high school. I think in so many ways, just on a different level. So, I definitely did not have a major. Culinary has really been the focus of my life for the last 20 some odd years, so. What would you say is your favorite cuisine? Is it French because of the French chef?
Favorite cuisine in terms of, like, ethnic origin or favorite, like, food item? I’ d say both. Yeah. Both. Fair. So, favorite food item is sandwiches. I love all the sandwiches and all the forms. All the different ethnicities. I love all the different forms of sandwiches, so I certainly appreciate that. In terms of a favorite ethnic origin, I don’ t know. You know, I think there’ s a real big contrast between kind of Eastern food history and Western food history, so. I mean, French is fun, but I don’ t think it’ s my favorite. I think it might be Chinese. It could be Chinese food. But I think that’ s kind of a cop-out because China’ s really big and there’ s so many different varieties of food. Yeah. Yeah.
How do you try to incorporate different ethnic foods at Hoshkus into the diet? You know, it s hard because, you know, ethnic food comes from, you know, families and communities that are connected to one another, and here we’ re feeding, you know, 800 to 1,000 people in a meal, so it can be really hard. But I think one of the ways that we try to connect with multicultural foods is by, you know, by representing them, at least somewhat. You know, I realize that bulgogi is not like it is in Korea. We acknowledge that, but I think we want to make, you know, some sort of a representation of food to you students as a whole. You know, when we do an African goat menu, right, like, you know, that’ s your opportunity to try a goat.
You don’ t need to love it. Some people really love it. You know, there’ s a segment of our population that thinks that’ S fantastic, and there were a lot of people that ordered mazes, but it’ s an opportunity to try new things, right? We have, you know, I think. We make a menu that’ s pretty, you know, kid-friendly for the most part, and then we throw a couple curveballs at you. But for me, it’ s about teaching the food system, and I really want you guys, when you leave Hotchkiss, to understand where your food comes from, and then how you impact that, and how you can change the world through what you choose to eat. What are the biggest differences, from my point of view, between working at a restaurant and working at a school like Hotchkiss?
Oh, goodness. They’ re completely different beasts. I mean, you know, restaurants. They’ re hard. They’ re hard and fast, and they’ re intense, and the hours are pretty terrible, and, you know, it’ s not a real healthy lifestyle. It’ s just hard. You know, the best restaurants I’ ve seen, you know, have figured out a way to maximize their, like, being open time. You know, operating seven days a week is just exhausting. So the best restaurants I’ ve seen are usually open, like, five, and the really cool ones can do it at four. But restaurants are hard, right? And they’ re intense, and there’ s a lot that goes on there. You know, that is not great. It’ s not great to a stable lifestyle. So, working at Hotchkiss is stable, right?
I know the entire academic calendar. I know when we’ ll be open, when we’ ll be busy, when we’ ll be slow, when we’ ll be closed. You know, we certainly have some early mornings and late nights, but they’ re the exception, not the rule. You know, we also have stability. Restaurants don’ t really have stability. They open. They close. You know, it’ s not – they usually don’ t have benefits or retirement planning or paid time off. You know, so it’ s a very different working experience. It’ s great to do in your teens and 20s, but I think it would be really hard to have a family that way. Is that predictability what made you want to switch industries?
So I have twin daughters, and basically when my wife and I found out that we had twins, we also found out we really needed health insurance. So I immediately made a switch and ended up working in healthcare. That was actually what I was doing right before this was working in senior living and healthcare and really implementing a whole food diet into senior care. And working with nursing and food to be able to give people a good quality of life as they basically age in place. And then that company got sold to another one, and, you know, started looking at other opportunities. So I came here and I totally fell in love with Hotchkiss Farm and basically said, you know, if they offer me this job, I’ m going to take it.
We lived in Granby at the time, so it wasn’ t a huge move. It was only like an hour or so. And so my wife and I and my almost two-year-old twins moved out here at that point. And we’ ve been here ever since. And we’ re not looking to leave. We love it here. How far do you guys live from this? I live literally like a mile and a half from the main building. I live right across the street from Salisbury Central Schools. So really close by. It’ s made my life so much easier working at Hotchkiss because for me, for me working at Hotchkiss is a lifestyle. It’ s not like punching in and punching out. It’ s you know, you come and you go and you have your busy times and your slow times.
And to be able to pop home and let out the dog when you know you have to work late or check in with the kids or do those things has allowed me to have, you know, decent balance. So it’ s really convenient. On the other hand, any time something goes wrong, I am the closest. So you know, if you get a call from security about some thing that happened overnight, you know you re going to be there in five minutes. Blessings and graces. I mean, speaking of stability, I guess the biggest piece of instability was the change from the Donning Hall to Gatlov City, right? No, I wouldn’ t say that at all. I wouldn’ t say that at all. The biggest piece of instability here was COVID.
But you know, the transition from, you know, the main dining hall that we had here in main building to the FCC is certainly, you know, a shift. And that’ s something that I think we’ ve done with as much grace as possible with what we were being allowed. So the first, you know, obviously a couple of weeks were the biggest challenge. And now that we’ ve got the systems up and running, and for the most part, operations are functioning as they need to, it’ s a lot of the same, rinse and repeat. And feeding a tremendous amount of food to teenagers. What was your role in that transition to the FFC? And what’ s something about that transition that us students wouldn’ t expect?
So you know, I’ m a department head here, so I work with kind of senior administration in certain aspects of the operations here. So the school’ s been great, I’ ve been really involved in the new design plan and the temp dining plan. And I, you know, been able to work directly with folks to get these projects going. It came down to it being a construction project and then it turning into a kitchen when we had to feed y’ all. So really, to say, you know, we had to work with facilities who did an unbelievable job, you know, building that in like three months is truly a Herculean task. So facilities really are, they had to do the hardest work.
We had to move in and we had to settle in and, you know, figure out the logistics and whatnot of a new space. But ultimately facilities were the ones that pulled a miracle. Yeah. What do you think about the new dining hall? I mean, what role have you played in designing the new dining hall and how do you think it will be different with the old one? Well, you know, one of the things that we really looked at as a design committee was honoring what it is now, right? We’ ve had, you know, three full generations of Hotchkiss kids, right? You, your parents and your grandparents have essentially all been able to eat here because it opened up in, you know, the late forties. So there’ s a tremendous amount of nostalgia.
And in that space, and so being able to identify the dining room as that primarily nostalgic place, I don’ I think anybody is nostalgic for 1940s elegance, but you know, the new design is, is really trying to honor that space, right? That Luke Foyer that’ s out there is going to get a refacing so that, you know, students might actually spend time there and hang out there, you know, downstairs on that Eastern wing over by the science building, you know, there’ s, there’ s a lot more openness and connectivity, I think. I think to main building in so many ways were a huge wing of main building that was just kind of like a dining room and then y’ all didn’ t know what happened down there.
So having people involved in that space is really probably the coolest thing, but honoring what it, what it looked like, I believe we’ Rehabbing the light sent out to be refurnished so that there’ ll be, you know, the same light fixtures as what we had before. So I think there was a lot of care and attention in modernizing it and bringing it up to speed and saying like, you know, we have dimmable lights and we can like play a football game or something, you know, that we have some decent, you know, infrastructure there, but to, to still make it kind of have that classic feel. You mentioned COVID. Can you talk about COVID’ s effect on the dining hall and how you guys had to adapt? Yeah.
We had to pivot so many times, you know, when it, when it first happened, it was, you know, we all went on spring break and then, you know, we were going to delay that for a little bit. And then we just canceled that. Um. And then in the beginning, you know, it was really just figuring out what the needs were. And I think that was the biggest task. Um, you know, school did a tremendous job and Mr. Bradley is incredibly commendable for the work that he’ s done to connect the school and each other while still keeping us all safe. Um, we turned into basically a grocery store. So we started, um, basically packing food for the faculty and families here on campus. So faculty and staff were included in our Hotchkiss bubble of people.
Um, you know, we instituted masking and, you know, we basically kind of rode out the semester while we were. We were, you know, teaching abroad, like we were afar essentially. Um, you know, that following year we had a much more detailed and organized plan in terms of when students would and wouldn’ t be on campus. I think we looked to mitigate, um, you know, risk as much as possible. Mr. Bradley was very conservative and, and that was what kept us safe. And so that I think was an unbelievable resource and having that guidance, um, but it was a lot of packaging. It was a tremendous amount of packaging. Everything had to be packaged. And that’ s not what we’ re designed for.
We’ re not designed to make a thousand portions of something in a cup and hand it out. Um, it is a terrible way to produce food. It is a terrible way to eat food. It really challenged us, um, and I think all the students here on campus to, to think about how communal eating together is. The idea that we have to be six feet apart or we have to be masked or we can’ t share a meal. You know, it really changed, um, the, the, the vibe of what’ s going on on campus. So I’ m just so happy to be back and feeding y’ all like we used to. It’ s, it’ s really nice. Dinners are the favorite part of my day, on most days. That’ s awesome.
We try, you know; I think part of it is, I’ m obviously biased. I think we have a really cool program, but I’ ve created it, so of course I would, um, but you know, the, the work that our staff do every day, right? We have 40 some odd staff that are working hard day in and day out, you know, from six o’ clock in the morning till 11 or 12 at night every day. Yeah. To just pump out food, you know, that is, is tasty and is appealing and, you know, checks the boxes for dieters and preferences and things. So, you know, we’ ve really tried to focus on high- quality items, right? We’ve, we’ ve purchased so much locally and, you know, really high quality dairies and vegetables and meats, you know, so that the whole foods that we’ re consuming are the highest quality that we can get.
And then we’ re still going to have Tyson chicken tenders and Heinz ketchup because, you know, we have to. Um, but the, the. The amount of work that goes into just keeping everybody on campus fed is, is tremendous. So I think that’ s something that, you know, is a challenge because it never really ends. So you can have a great day, um, and knock it out the park and like no one notices, but you have a bad day and like everybody notices. So it’s, it’ As an ongoing struggle. Um, and we’ re never going to please everybody all the time. We want to keep most of the people happy most of the time. And, and that’ s generally our goal. Um, but student engagement is always the best thing.
Like when, when students reach out to me or to the, the other, you know, chefs or managers and say like, Hey, can we have, or like, you know, can we do this or can we do that? Like we love that you tell us what you want and then we’ ll try to figure out how to do it. Um, you know, student just said like, Oh, we love chocolate cream pie. And it was like, okay, well that’ s an easy one. Like, bye. Like we can’t. re going to feed you dessert anyway. So we prefer to know the one that you want. Right. So I think student engagement is always the best part. You know, especially if you’ re a student.
Especially for me and I think so many of our staff members, like we’ re all here because of you. Like you’ re, you’ re the cool people here, you know? Um, and so, you know, for me, I’ ve always really loved getting to know students through food, right? Where are they from? What kind of food cultures or histories do they have? What do they like to eat? What do they not like to eat? Um, particularly any students with dietary needs, like the more we know, the better we can do. Um, you know, again, we want students to advocate for them for themselves and their own diets, but we really are here to like make this a fun experience. So truly like help us to help you.
Well, I think you’ ve definitely succeeded in keeping most of us happy most of the time. All right. Um, can you talk a little bit about the process of actually cooking the food and getting the food out there? For example, what happens to food that isn’ t eaten? So you know, essentially just say the whole thing starts in food buying, right? So where we source our food, how we source our food, what type of system that’s on. We buy whole animals. So, like all of the beef here comes off the Hotchkiss farm. Um, so I basically buy three cows a month from that farmer and then we work with the slaughterhouse to harvest them, cut them and process, deliver them.
Um, but we also, you know, place an order for a three-time-a-week dairy delivery and you know, we can say, okay, we need six gallons of milk or 60 gallons of milk. So the food procurement process, food all shows up basically. Um, you know, then it gets stored. The menu coming up, we’ re always working at least two days in advance. Um, because some things go wrong and other times it just takes a long time to make enough chicken parm for a meal. So like that is one person’ s entire day is just making chicken parm. Um, and basically we have a prep cook for the lunch and dinner and then we have two, two cooks on for each, you know, breakfast, lunch and dinner shift.
And so, you know, chefs come in and they, they get their menu items and their food and they’ re prepped and they start making all the things. Um, we do our best to keep that line as full as possible for as long as possible. Knowing the rushes that come in, right. We know the lunch rush, we kind of know the dinner, but it fluctuates more. Um, and so, you know, the salad bar and the deli bar and the stir fry station, you know, we kind of know how much we’ re going through in those places. So it’ s easier to plan. Um, it’ s also a great way for like food waste mitigation, right? So you asked like, where does the food go?
Like leftover, um, anything that’ s like out on the line that’ s already been touched or handled by the community. Unfortunately, that has to go. Okay. That’ s still in backup or that hasn’ t been, you know, completely finished that can all be repurposed. So, you know, that’ s why you’ ll start to see, you know, if we had roasted squash for dinner one night, you might see roasted squash on the salad bar the next day, because like we have it, um, we do run outs a lot. You’ ll see that sometimes too. We have like two or three pans of something from another meal and we’ ll just put that out for, for people to enjoy, you know, you can serve everything basically twice, like first time, you know, when you make it and then provided that you cool it and reheat it properly.
And then you can serve it again. So we really try to mitigate our food waste by making it available to you guys. Um, and also not menuing things that you don’ t like too often. Do you have a personal favorite food from the hottest time? I mean, Hamburger Day is just, I love Hamburger Day. It’ s like the perfect sandwich. How about you? What is yours? Chicken farm. I do. I really like the chicken farm. So I’ ve decided that you guys basically just love fried chicken here. Cause whether it’ s like chicken piccata, chicken parm, those, uh, hot honey sandwiches or chicken tender, it’ s really just various forms of fried chicken. Oh, the sandwiches are really good. The ones with the pickles and the cheese. Yeah. Yeah.
Those are really good. We make, when we make those, it So, between 15 and 18,000 sandwiches, it takes basically like three to four people, several hours to like make and assemble them and put them out. Um, it’ s a, it’ s a labor of love. That’ s why they’ re right. I feel the love with them today. They’ re definitely, they’ re really good. Yeah. Can you, um, as a food expert, can you tell us what is your favorite restaurant and who makes the best food in the area? New York City. Um, you know, I don’ t eat out a ton. So, you know, I mentioned earlier, I have twin daughters. Um, so, you know, they’ re 11, they eat a fair amount.
Um, going out to eat, the value proposition to me just doesn’ t matter. I mean, I don’ t really eat out a ton. Um, so most of the restaurants we have here are, are like overpriced and underserved and that doesn’ t really jive with me. Um, so it’ s not to say we don’ t go to like Mise’ s for pizza or, you know, Woodland for an appetizer. Um, but I don’ t really eat out a ton. When I do get out of Lakeville, that’ s where I’ m going to spend my eating out money. Um, I love ethnic food of all forms and functions. Um, going to, you know, little parts of Waterbury or Poughkeepsie or Hartford and finding amazing ethnic population centers.
Um, you can get great food and it’ s not super expensive and it is really authentic. And so anytime I have that opportunity, that’ s where I’ m going to jam out. Um, my mom lives in West Hartford, so that really helps because I can get to Hartford pretty conveniently and go get like, I have my whole little dumpling tour and there’ s like a Middle Eastern market and there’ s an Indian market. There’ s a little hot pot, you know, there’ s all these little tiny, um, restaurants in these cities that, you know, if you, if you get out of like Blueback Square and you go into where people really live, you can get awesome food. Um, so that’ s usually where I end up eating out.
Do you want to move on to the audience questions? Yeah. You’ ll ask them too. Okay, great. So I’ ll ask one and then you can ask the other. So this is our first time doing audience questions. We asked people to submit some questions for you. We got a few, we chose two that we’ re going to ask you. So our first one was what is your favorite self-serve recipe? So at the stir- fry station or at the salad. So back to the I love sandwiches thing. Um, I like to make a Philly cheesesteak. And so I’ ll usually take the the roast beef from the deli bar and then I’ ll take some bread and I’ ll butter it and I’ ll grill the bread on the panini press while I sauté the onions and then put in the um the the beef.
And then when those are all nice and like, so you cook the onions like two or three minutes till they get nice and soft and brown. Then you add in your beef, and then I throw in cheddar or provolone. And by then my bread is usually toasty, and then I can put that on my bread, and then I put a little scallion on top because I like fresh scallion, and it’ s a little bit crunchy. And that is my bread. That is my absolute favorite fat kid sandwich of the dining hall. That sounds great. My go-to is tortilla, cheese, and turkey. I think that’ s why I’ m not the food expert. Yeah. You know, one of the things I kind of want to say that maybe we haven’ t touched yet is been, uh, so I m a total food nerd and being able to work at a school like Hotchkiss when you’ re nerdy in any way, shape or form, like it doesn’ t matter what you like around here.
You can find other people that like it. Um, being a food nerd of Hotchkiss has been amazing. So amazing and rewarding because I get to work with you guys in classes or in workshops or in events or, you know, whether it’ s prep for the planet and you’ re out there digging potatoes or whether it’ s senior prom, um, you know, being able to work with you guys and educate on the food system has been super fun for me. So like I think about the physics classes that we’ Ve done together and you know, the economics classes and the biology classes when you’ re making food, the center of an activity that you’ re learning. You’ re in class already and you take the curriculum that exists and you throw in a food activity and you all of a sudden it’ s like, oh wait, I get it.
There’ s actually yeast in the air and we can capture it and make bread and that’ s sourdough and like, oh my God, it makes sense. So I think that’ s where it’ s really fun for me as a kid. I loved history and bio and all those things anyway. So it’ s really cool as an adult who Not an educator to be able to, you know, work with you guys and, and share that again, the whole idea is that when you graduate, you know where your food comes from and you understand the food system and how you participate in it. So I really enjoy working with you guys being like the food nerd and just talking about it from economics to history to English.
There’ s just so many overlaps in every little way that you can talk about food. One of my favorite classes was, I don’ t know if you remember, but we had an English class where we talked about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams and you cooked us sweet potatoes. But what did that do? That connected with the book? Yeah. It was, it was a poem that we were reading about a person who I think was brought on a slave ship and was talking about yams and sweet potatoes and the difference. So it was, there’ s definitely a historical connection, which was bolstered by the very good sweet potatoes. I do. I have a food system question for the local food nerd. Sure.
I understand some of the ideas behind like eating, buying food from local and smaller farms. It’ s going to be better for the environment. Maybe, maybe it’ s better food as you know where it’ s come from. Yeah. But what are the biggest advantages to buying from local smaller farms instead of mass produced food from farther away? Well, that s a complicated question. So, you know, essentially the biggest value proposition we have in buying direct from our farmer is we have a very short supply chain, which means it’ s really resilient. So throughout all of the COVID-19 supply chain issues, like, yeah, maybe I couldn’ t get ketchup or mayonnaise or something this week, but I could always get local milk, local vegetables, local meats, right?
I could always get the core, like real foods that we need as a community. When you buy local, your dollars stay within that community. So basically every dollar we spend with a farmer multiplies within the community, right? They buy a tractor or they lease land or they build fencing or they go out to dinner, right? Those dollars just, they circulate. The other key piece here is that we’ ve switched to local foods from a commodity thing and it hasn’ t cost us more money. Just. We’ ve switched the way that we spend the dollars, but the dollars are the same. So our purchasing power in 2024 is the same as it was in 2014 because we’ re buying direct from the farmer. And so there’ s no like markup multiple times.
It’ s just, they grow it, we buy it, y’ all eat it. And so what that’ s really done is been to support the environmental mission of those farmers. The fact we have grass- fed beef means that we actually have carbon. It’ s an alternative carbon credit. You absorb 14 tons of carbon per acre per animal per year. So to say when you’ re eating a grass- fed hamburger, you’ re actually helping to sequester carbon and change what climate impacts we’ re having. Then you look at the mileage, right? The mileage piece of it is real, it’ s about 250 miles in total from here to the slaughterhouse and back for an animal versus if it Being born in Colorado, raised in Texas, slaughtered in St.
Louis, shipped to Boston to be distributed here through a Hartford distributor, you know, that animal has thousands of miles on it and they get into the quality of life. We harvest sustainably and we do it with humanity. And so we have, you know, small producers creating really great, you know, animals that are having a really high quality of life and good food. The commercial commodity food system does not do that, right? It’ s exploited workers. It’ s exploited animals. It’ s terrible. Big Ag, right? It’ s GMO corn and soy and wheat that are going to feed these animals to make them fat. It Subtopical doses of chemicals that are being given to them for, you know, disease mitigation and for, you know, growth and for all these things.
And so the pharmaceutical industry is so closely tied to what the big ag food system is and it’ s oppressive. So we have this expectation of cheap meat and cheap food in this country and yet dairy farmers are going bankrupt. Produce farmers are completely reliant on, you know, undocumented labor. There’ s a tremendous amount of the food system that is leveraging people in a way that is inhumane and it’ s destroying lives and it’ s destroying the planet and I don’ t want to support it and I don’ t have to because I work here and we have an awesome food system where, you know, we Re able to get these things locally and support our farmers and support our community and that makes me feel really good about the food system.
So that’ s the biggest, probably shortest way I can explain that. Given all those reasons, why did Hotchkiss before 2014 and other eaters of food throughout the world, why did they buy food from mass-produced farms? We didn’ t flip the switch in 2014. I think the school really made a solid commitment to better quality food in 2010. I think that was why. So Mr. Hahn came here in, I think, 2009. The farm program really started to grow. It started to grow in 2008 and 2009 under Mr. Noyes. And so that was when the farm had a real critical mission for the school. And so part of having a farm is having food and part of food is a dining hall.
And so the school made just a really clear intention, you know, like we want food from our farm, we want food from other farms, and this is what we care about. And so my predecessor did a great job of integrating the farm and the feed and the program and the food. And so they’ ve just gone in tandem. You know, what my team and I did. What was revolutionary was the direct-to-producer purchasing model. That had never been done in a, well, it had never been done. But the idea that we just called farmers and said, we want you to grow X for us. We need, you know, a hundred pounds of apples every week or a hundred pounds of carrots every week, or we need, you know, this milk or this yogurt, you know, it’ s contract farming basically.
But you tell a farmer, like, if you grow it, I’ ll buy it. And they’ re like, oh, awesome. Like, I’ m guaranteed money. You know? Every month that I drop this off, I get paid or, you know, it changes it because they’ re not growing carrots to bring to a market to hope somebody buys to then be, you know, kind of nickel and dimed on. It’ s, you know, I’ m not paying $2. 25 a pound for carrots like they are on the farmer’ s market, but I’ ll give you $1. 50 a pound and you can grow them every week for me. You know, it’ s these volume commitments that support farmers in their economic stability and allow us to have affordable and high-quality food.
I kind of want to tie back to what you were saying. So, what you said early on about your decision not to finish undergraduate college, did your parents support that? You were talking about how… So, my parents are divorced, so they agree on nothing. My mom has always been really supportive and was absolutely supportive, I think, I don’ t think it was a huge surprise to my mother because I’ ve been working in food and really enjoying food, and she’ d been hearing me nerd out about food for a few years, and I think my dad was really holding out. Hope that I would get, like, follow in his footsteps and get, like, a traditional education and, you know, do that.
So, no, I mean, I told my mom; she thought it was awesome and, you know, was really supportive about it and, you know, just helped facilitate that process the way so many parents do. When I told my dad, he basically said, well, I think word for word, ‘ You’ re going to make $10 an hour flipping hamburgers your whole life.’ And that was the end of our conversation. It took him a little while to come around to it. But again, going to… To the Culinary Institute, which is a very well-regarded school, gives it the legitimacy that it deserves. So, you know, within a few months, he got over it. And now he calls exclusively and only to figure out what’ s wrong with his food when it’ s two steps too late.
Now, you know, it’ s a fine relationship; he understands it. I’ ve obviously done better than, you know, flipping hamburgers, but I’ m still very, very happy to make a hamburger. Do you have any advice for someone entering the culinary industry? I mean, I think it’ s general life advice, right? It s show up early, work hard, ask questions, and don’ t give your opinion. I think especially early on in a job, you’ re going to have opinions because you know only what you know, but that’ s limiting. And so when you’ re working at a new place or a new environment, it’ s really best to just kind of take it all in and take your notes and write down your questions and think about it.
But, you know, if you ask a question, you’ re told to do it that way. Like, you know, it’ s not going to be easy. Like, just do it that way. There’ s a lot that can be learned through kind of the discipline of showing up early and working hard, because I think that’ s something that is increasingly challenging for folks. Do you have general advice for Hotchkiss students about deciding whether to go down the classic undergraduate route or make some other path? So I think generically, I’ m a huge fan of gap years, like go take a gap year. Everybody should take gap years. I’ m sorry, college office, but please go take a gap year. It’ s such a pivotal time in your life to be 18, 19 years old.
You’ re getting a phenomenal education here. You have an unbelievable experience here at Hotchkiss, but we know that we’ ve been pushing you really hard for a while. So I think you’ Ve almost got to take like a deep breath. And so I’ m always going to say, like, do what you love. Yeah. And there’ s a lot of value in higher education, but there’ s a lot of value in just experiencing things. And you know, you think about academics, you go to a library to read a book, and you study that book and you learn that book, but somebody wrote that book, they did that thing. So are you the reader and the studier? Or are you the doer? Are you going to read the book? Are you going to write the book?
And thankfully, Hotchkiss is full of both types of people. But I think if you can take a year and plan it out. Go do a gap year. Go do AmeriCorps, go do Food Corps, go do Peace Corps, go stage or intern, go do an apprenticeship somewhere, go travel if you can afford to, you know, there’ s grant opportunities, certainly many of the civil services is comped. But go travel the world and see what it all is. Because then when you go back to college, you have a much better understanding of really who you are and what you value. So much of your opinions and ideas are going to be based in this place, not the real world. And when you go to college, it’ s the real world.
So I feel like everybody should take a gap year and then go to college. And I’ m very sorry, college offense. Where do you recommend one should travel? Anywhere and everywhere. I think you go and you meet people that are totally different than you, and it’ s just a phenomenal experience. And you can do that in West Virginia, or you can do that in LA, or you can do that in Guam. You can, you know, you go anywhere on the planet, you’ re going to have some fun. But always try to eat the indigenous food. What’ s the favorite place to go? Place you’ ve been to? Maybe the best food too. So most of my travel experience has been domestically. So I would say some like highlights, a smoked bologna sandwich in Knoxville, Kentucky was definitely life changing.
But almost as good as, you know, some of the caviar and the foie gras and, you know, luxurious items I’ ve sampled at restaurants on the employee side. You know, I think food, food comes from a place of love and history and culture. So some of the best food I’ ve had has just been authentic. And finally, one more audience question for you, will the FFC be changed at all for next year? And if so, can you share how? So I don’ t know how yet, but I’ m sure we will. You know, the, the administrative teams and your deans have been working hard to kind of watch and learn and figure out how the space is functioning.
So I think summer is really the time when we’ ll be, you know, trying to figure out how to take the time to think together what works, what doesn’ t, what we want to change. So I would say at this point, like, yes, I’ m sure things will change. We don’ t have details because we’ re still figuring it all out, you know, in the same way that our first month was, you know, much harder than our current space. We’ re still just kind of learning through this process so that we can figure out what it can be. I would follow that to say, like, what do you want it to be like, what do you want to change? Like student voices are very loud.
So, you know, when you again, tell us what you’ re looking for. It makes it easier for us to try to make it happen. I guess one thing that everyone should take away from this podcast is to talk to Mr. Webster and tell him what you like to eat. We have international candies up in the office if you all want to try something. We’ ve got some cool Japanese gummies and some fun milk candies. But yeah, come up to the office. Just come to the office. Come say, ‘ hey’, it’ s, you know, there’ s a couple of us up there and we’ re all pretty friendly. So come up and say, ‘ hey’, let us know what you like, what you don’ t like, what you want. It just, it makes it easier. It makes everything a lot easier. Thank you so much, Mr. Webster. I feel inspired right now. Cool. Well, thanks, guys. Appreciate the time. Yeah. Thank you so much. You’re welcome.