Editor’s Note: This special feature focuses on professional chefs from various facets of the foodservice industry. Culinarians answer questions delving into their views of current foodservice developments and how culinary students can obtain positions within different industries. Introduce your students to a plethora of foodservice career options. Click here to view the previous profiles.

In what foodservice area do you work? 
I work in student nutrition for a public school district in Central California.

Briefly describe your position. 
In my current role as operations supervisor and executive chef, I oversee the Central kitchen and our culinary innovation pathway. I work with vendors and local farmers to secure local products to enhance our hyper-local farm-to-school program. I also head up our culinary research team to develop scratch and semi-scratch menu items that the kids will enjoy.

Where do you see your foodservice area in five years?
I see my area of foodservice continuing to grow and expanding our farm-to-school program for our school restaurants. 

Describe two current foodservice trends you are seeing right now.
Scratch cooking is on the rise in schools. We provide less-processed and freshly prepared meals that customers and their families have requested. Employing chefs in schools has also been a growing trend over the past 15 years, empowering districts to improve their programs and assist with staff training.

Please describe one surprising event in your professional life that made a valuable impact on your career today.
The change in my quality of life when I transitioned from commercial foodservice to school foodservice after nearly 20 years in restaurants. But more than that, it has been a great pleasure to give back to the community by nourishing the bodies of our future.

About David Edgar, CEC
I started my foodservice career working for a catering company in 1985. After graduating from high school, I spent the next 10 years working in restaurants before going to culinary school.  After graduating from culinary school, I spent five more years working in restaurants before transitioning to non-commercial/corporate dining for a large school district. It was here that I was introduced to the world of child nutrition and I have moved in that realm ever since. There have been many changes in child nutrition over the years. I watched trends go from mostly scratch cooking to almost no cooking and now we are seeing the rise of scratch cooking return to schools.