Joseph 1

Ina Joseph
Professor Anderson
COM Writing 201
5 May 2017
The Man Behind the Plate: A Day in the Life of a Bay State Chef
Eerily silent and totally still, the dining hall is barely illuminated by sunlight and stacks

of chairs still balance on tables at 9am. One or two students sit with their smoothies and bagels in

hand, books laid out in front of them on clean, white tables. A few cooks bustle about, filling up

glass dispensers with fruit water and taking down the remainder of the propped-up chairs. They

make small talk about their weekends and the weather as they pass each other behind the stoves

and serving counters- the calm before the storm.

Over one hundred cooks and employees arrive at 6am every day, prepping Marciano

Commons for a day of international meals and hundreds of hungry students. Another hundred

arrive throughout the day as the early-shift cooks finish their morning-to-midafternoon shifts to

go home to their families or second jobs. Among these cooks is Orlando Andrade, Marciano’s

executive chef. By the time Orlando arrives, the scene at Bay State (the colloquial name for

Marciano among BU students), has changed from an empty superstructure to a buzzing social

space, the sounds of sizzling frying pans and chattering students fill every inch of the building.

As I sit at a small two person table on the top floor, sipping my glass of watermelon water,

Orlando makes his way towards me. He has on a classic all-white chef ensemble, dressed down

with black sneakers and a big white pin: “Special Request? I can help!” the pin declares in bright

green letters. His light, olive skin and round face coupled with the enthused “Good morning, how

ya doin?” and handshake invite comfortable conversation.

Orlando Andrade has only been Bay State’s executive chef for the past two years, but his

impact on the dining hall atmosphere and service has been apparent. In fact, Marciano

Commons has been recently ranked by USA Today as the #1 college dining hall in the country.
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In the short time that Orlando’s been at Bay State, he’s placed a huge emphasis on getting to

know his team, gaining their trust, and teaching them everything he’s learned because “without

your employees, you’re not gonna get much done. If you’re a boss and your employees don’t like

you, don’t see eye-to-eye with you, or feel that you treat others unfairly, you’re not gonna get

100% support from your crew. I’m really hands on with my cooks… That’s how I build trust

with my employees”. Cooks can attest to Orlando’s hard work and initiative, having fairly

positive things to say about their experience working with him. Stacy Murray, a Bay State cook

for 23 years, says she can always find Orlando around to answer questions and guide cooks with

any recipe; “Ever since Orlando came here, everything has been very good. He’s a really good

person to talk to if you ever need help with something; he will give you advice on how to go

about things. He’s not gonna leave you in the dark.” His leadership qualities have clearly been an

effective and valued contribution to the Bay State staff, but his vision on fine dining got

Marciano the #1 ranking.

“Since I’ve been here, what I’ve tried to do is try to bring more of the hotel aspect of

cooking [as opposed to] just serving students. I’m in the food industry so food presentation is big

to me, you know, taste, quality of food, different sauces…” Orlando’s work ethic and humble

certitude give light to the years of experience behind him.

The Boston native started his journey to the cooking industry in 1979. Although his

expertise in the kitchen came from over 22 years of hotel industry experience, it first took a bold

move at 16 to get him where he is now. High school never gave Orlando inspiration for future

career goals; he turned to Roxbury’s Madison Park School, which offered an alternative avenue

from college with a trade school in which you could take classes from cooking to mechanics to

carpentry. During a trial week in which students took a broad variety of classes, Orlando fell in
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love with his cooking and baking class. He went on to take more specified culinary classes

within the program and ever since then, he knew he wanted to cook for a living.
At the young age of 16, he took his limited trade school experience and applied to

Anthony’s Pier 4, a popular Boston restaurant “right on the water” near South Station. It was his

first real job and his first real taste of the cooking industry. Instead of being intimidated by the

strict owner and older culinary school students, he dove in head first and started learning

everything there was to know about the food industry, “from bake shop [skills] to dish [washing]

From that point on, I knew…you know, since now I have a job, I’m in high school… it was my

direction was to become an executive chef. But at that time, I didn’t have the funds and means to

go to college, like Johnson & Wales and all that, so my alternative was to be the best that I could

be experience-wise. So I just enjoyed cooking, loved cooking, tried different techniques, played

around with different ways of cooking. I knew I didn’t go to school [like the culinary students],”

Orlando said, “but I would just learn right along with them.”
His hands gestured emphatically as he talked about his experiences, his eyes bright while

describing the determination he had as a high school boy with a big goal. Orlando attributed his

independent, tenacious attitude to his father who came to the US from the Cape Verde Islands,

barely able to sign his owO

“When I was growing up, I admired [my father]; how he came to America with a sixth-

grade education. He came to this country and he knew what he wanted to do, since back home

that’s what he did—own little grocery stores—so he came here and opened up his own grocery

store and he was very successful. I didn’t want to go in that direction, but, you know, [I saw that]

he had a nice car and a lot of nice things. And he would say to me ‘If you want something you

have to work for it. Nobody’s gonna give you anything’.”

Orlando’s father supported whatever he wanted to do, as long as he worked hard for it.

Out of his two sisters, two brothers, mother, and father, only Orlando had a passion or cooking.
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Aside from the homemade meals his mother prepared for the family every night, Orlando’s

exposure to diverse cuisine primarily came from his first job at Anthony’s Pier 4 and the staff

there, who “believe it or not, had people from all over the world.” Five years later, at 21 years

old, Orlando embarked on his first hotel gig at Western Copley where his skills continued to

expand.
“In the hotel industry they have a lot of courses [and] competitions…like cooking

competitions. The GM [General Manager] would come down with the sales team, and as cooks

we would create our own meals, cook it, and present it. It was sort of like Chef Ramsay-type, but

in a hotel. You would cook, you would present your three-course meal—you would do a salad,

an entrée, and a desert—and you would have to be very creative. Then you’d have to go in front

of the judges and explain what you made, then they’d judge it according to the taste of the food.

Whoever won would get a plaque or a trophy or something.” Despite the high level of training

and education of most of Orlando’s colleagues at the Western Copley, Orlando was more than apt

to handle the pressure. His experience at Anthony’s Pier 4 gave him something that not all

Johnson & Wales students or hotel buffs had - hands on experience.

“I was way advanced,” Orlando said assuredly, “in a restaurant chain, the job there is

more aggressive, it’s a lot hotter, you’re more on your own—there’s nobody to show you how to

do it, you’ve kind of got to figure it out on your own after you get the week or two [of] training.

You’re either gonna make it, you’re gonna be so-so, or you’re going to advance.” While many of

the Western Copley employees were knowledgeable college students with a background of

formal culinary education, they lacked the natural know-how Orlando had acquired at 16. “By

the time I got out of Anthony’s Pier 4 I was ready to become sous-chef because the way they

train you there… we put out functions, we put out parties, we make sauces, we used to cut fish

…we had a lot of experience. That’s how I learned a lot.”

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From portioning out foods and delegating lines at functions to preparing seafood,

Orlando had a range of skills that surpassed most rising young chefs, allowing him to thrive at an

establishment as busy and prominent as the Western Copley. He remembers upwards of 3,000

people sitting at tables on Thanksgiving Day alone, all waiting to taste the food Orlando and his

colleagues meticulously prepared. The missed holidays with his family were worth it if it meant

becoming the best chef he could be.

Orlando worked as a banquet chef at Sheraton Boston, an executive sous-chef at the

Western Hotel in Waltham, and an executive chef at Sheraton Braintree before landing the

executive chef job at Marciano Commons. Although he never went back to school to attain a

formal degree, he takes classes and attends competitions to continue learning and growing in his

culinary skills “every chance [he] gets.” He has proven throughout his career that the necessity of

a culinary degree to achieve big things in the cooking industry is “a bunch of baloney.”

“The college degree is a big factor in a lot of companies hiring you because they say,

‘you don’t know anything about business, you don’t know how to run a business because you

don’t have the college degree,’ and all that. My goal was this: I don’t have that, but what I do

have is my experience that speaks for itself. I could put out functions, and these 500 people will

leave here happy, and they will come back.” Even when his own family doubted his ability to go

far without a formal education, he told himself: “nothing was gonna stop me from becoming an

executive chef because that was my goal.” His perseverance, coupled with a healthy dose of

confidence, makes Orlando perfectly aware of what sets him apart from other chefs in the

industry.
“In the business that I’m in I’ve seen a lot of chefs come and go [and] come and go. I

know how to run a function… I know how to multitask, I know how to get people to work with

me, I’m really good with people, hands on with people who want to learn—I teach them what
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I’ve learned—and it pays off.” Even after years of hands-on, professional chef work, his

interview at Bay State two years ago consisted of questions second-guessing his qualification for

the job and his ability to “fit in” without a degree in his background. But he taught himself

everything he needed to know, networked with other executive chefs and general managers, and

proved himself worthy of the position. Now, the fruits of his labor are evident every day through

the BU students who leave Marciano feeling full and satisfied.

Orlando has already passed on his tenacity to his kids, with his son attending Bridgewater

State University to earn his Master’s degree in social work and his daughter a feisty

kindergartener with a mind of her own. “I don’t know if it’s in the genes or what, but she’s very

aggressive. She won’t let you help her do anything: ‘No, no, no I got this! I got this!’” he says,

laughing as he imitates his six-year-old’s spunk, “She doesn’t want any help. So I see that she

already wants to do things on her own.” Whatever his daughter decides she wants to do in the

future, “as long as she works hard in pursuit of her goals, I’ll be supportive,” he says. With his

management and culinary expertise admired and appreciated by staffs and students alike (“The

food is excellent. The staff is superlative” says BU freshman Macken Murphy), clearly this

approach to life has worked for Orlando thus far.

As I sit in Marciano Commons, sipping my watermelon water and eating my spinach and

mozzarella omelet on the first floor, the cooks gather around to have their morning staff meeting

behind the pasta station. I immediately see Orlando- his all-white uniform and tall chef’s hat

sticking out in the sea of red polos and black aprons and baseball caps. As they discuss

tomorrow’s atypical schedule and ways to keep up morale as the school year winds down, a tour

group led by a BU student makes their way through the dining hall. As potential students and

their parents make their way through Marciano, a girl looks over at the vegetable primavera
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linguini with wide eyes; “That smells SO good,” she says loudly. The tour guide smiles and says

“Right? Honestly, Bay State has the best food on campus, it’s always so good.”
Orlando’s ears perk up at this passing compliment. Subtly looking back, he shyly smiles

to himself, then quickly turns his attention back to the meeting.