Introducing Teaching Chef Cary Jacquette

Imagine approaching 40, being married with two kids and having all of the financial and other responsibilities associated with that, and then deciding that you were basically going to start from scratch, go back to school, and pursue a totally different career path. Sounds a little daunting, right?

Well, it’s exactly what Project Host’s new Teaching Chef Cary Jacquette decided to do roughly 10 years ago, when he enrolled in the Greenville Technical College’s Culinary Institute of the Carolinas.

“I was working sales and customer service jobs, and nothing I’d tried really worked. My wife sat me down one day and asked how come I’d never gone to culinary school. Right around that time I had also read a book called 48 Days to the Work You Love, and one of the main questions was, ‘What makes you smile?’ The thing that made me smile was cooking food. Not just cooking food in a vacuum, but cooking food for people. I knew that I made food that I liked and my family liked, but the real question was: Can I make food that other people like enough to buy it? Can I make a living at it?”

With the encouragement of his wife, Chef Cary decided to take a leap of faith. Getting through the program wasn’t easy. At any given time during his studies, Cary was working two or more jobs and attending culinary school on his days off. But Cary was energized by his studies, and soon he found ways to achieve near total immersion in the culinary field.

“When I started at Greenville Tech, one of my instructors who taught the ServSafe class, Ed Schopf, was also the food and beverage director at the Woodlands at Furman. So I started working with him at the Woodlands, and it was like getting a Master’s degree in culinary arts. What I appreciated about Ed was that he set the expectation for how a kitchen ought to run very high.”

Mr. Schopf was more than just a boss to Cary. He was a true mentor.

“There’s a Bible verse that says, ‘Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ If someone told me I was just like Ed, that to me would be the highest compliment. I hope I think about food the way he did. His best day would be how to use a leftover. He would say things like, ‘Any chef can take fresh ingredients and make them delicious. It requires skill and training to take something that is less than good and make it great.’ Those lessons are so important to me now that I’m working at Project Host, doing what we do in trying to make sure that we serve great food and nothing goes to waste.”

After completing his degree, Chef Cary was encouraged by Mr. Schopf to pursue other jobs in the culinary field. Cary taught for a year in the Bob Jones culinary program, worked a few stints in catering sales and as a food service director at other assisted living facilities in the area, and then landed at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where he got a taste of what it was like to work in a corporate restaurant setting.

“Ruth’s Chris had this big catering operation, including breakfast because they are located in a hotel. I’m a breakfast cook at heart, so it was a good fit. During my time there, I did pretty much everything in the restaurant. I was basically a sous chef without the title. I did prep cooking, baking, and catering ranging from high-end gigs to more run-of-the-mill business lunches.”

But then COVID happened, and in March 2020, Chef Cary found himself out of a job. He pivoted to Harris Teeter, which was opening its new location on Stone Avenue and worked in the prepared foods department there for a year. The experience was a far cry from working in a restaurant setting, but Chef Cary was grateful to be employed when so many others weren’t. And then the job opening at Project Host crossed his radar.

“I had done some volunteering with Project Host, and the amazing thing to me was the quality of the food that we were giving away for free; the day captains—Ron and Bob and Ken—who are these kitchen veterans commanding the troops and making really good food with other volunteers. They were all super happy to be there and wanted to brighten people’s days. They prayed over the meals. It was a different experience than anything I’d ever experienced before.”

Chef Cary was excited by the prospect of being a part of something like that, and now that he’s here, he’s ready to take on teaching and hopes to take the culinary program to the next level.

“The potential for partnerships excites me. What I think I’m looking forward to most is making the most of the partnerships we already have and finding new ways to use food to nourish the community and educate people. I’m also excited about educating students coming through here to cook and eat in a healthier way. I’ve really appreciated what I’ve seen so far in the Cooking for Kids program because of the quality of the food and the fact that we are introducing kids to healthy, nutritious alternatives to things that they have been eating. I’m looking forward to being a part of all of it.”

There are, of course, some nerves associated with the new job and the prospect of having a live audience of students.

“When I was in culinary school, I was the super student who loved getting into the more academic and technical side of producing food, but I realize that meeting students where they are is what I need to do here. I’m anxious about that aspect of it—adapting my methods and interests in order to meet someone where they are to get them to a new place.”

But if there’s one thing Chef Cary has learned from his new path in life, it’s to embrace the chaos and learn to roll with things and adapt.

“It’s hard to communicate how exciting it is to be in such a fast-paced environment where you never know exactly what’s going to happen every day, but to then be able to process all that chaos and accomplish a goal. We all have parts of our lives that are chaotic. Kitchen work for me has helped me learn to manage the chaos. You can’t avoid it, but you can accomplish the goal in spite of it. That’s a life lesson that I’m eager to impart to students.”

By Claudia Winkler