Elizabeth Schwarz started as Head Chef this spring semester. Chef Schwarz worked with the previous Head Chef at CCC, Nader Sharkes, for 13 years. Chef Schwarz is a DVC alumni and former student of Chef Sharkes and is now leading the CCC culinary department following Sharkes’ legacy. 

How long have you known Chef Nader?

I’ve known him for several decades, I was a student of his then I went on to work in the industry. Then I happened to find the opportunity to join as an intern through Dr. Benjamin’s teaching excellence program so that’s what brought me here. I’ve always loved teaching when you work in a restaurant kitchen, you teach and here is the opportunity to teach full time. 

What initially got you into culinary?

There was a time where I wanted to be a pastry chef and so I went to culinary school with that goal in mind. I actually ended up getting jobs on the savory side right from the start so i just never got back to pastry so much. I’ve been very happy working on the savory food and on that side of the kitchen. I love food, I love learning about food and working with people and all of that has kept me satisfied and interested in working in the culinary field.

Where have you worked?

The majority of my time I have worked at a winery in livermore, i’ve worked catering and a consultant to a research and development for a new restaurant group. I’ve also worked to open and operate a corporate cafe for a capital one subsidiary, I’ve also done small operations, like a yacht club that I forget the name of, which was one of my first jobs.

Now that you’re the head chef, are there any changes you have made?

I think every person, every manager, every teacher has their own personality and way of interacting with others. In this case with students, with colleagues, with guests, we see a lot of guests coming through our restaurant each and every day. So I would say my way of doing that is probably a little different from Chef Nader’s from anyone else really. We are all different, but since i’ve worked here for so long with Chef Nader, he certainly has trained me on the way we operate the dining room where I spent most of my time here so far. But of course, I also want to add my personal note too, I would say one thing that we’ve done is we’ve added a lot more vegetables to the menu but that’s not to say that that was a problem in the past. We just have a lot of vegetables available and this was a good opportunity to have broaden that offering

What is your vision for the students in the culinary program?

My vision is to support each student towards success. I want students to discover their full potential and recognize their full potential, it gives me great pleasure when I see people succeed. I think that it’s a very happy moment to recognize that someone is doing something well. Also of course when we fail that is a great learning opportunity as well. My vision is to help people toward their vision of what they want to do permanently or at least for their time in the culinary industry. Maybe support them the way I was supported, I had some very kind and helpful mentors throughout my career and I think that certainly helped me to move forward with what I wanted to do.