OUR STUDENTS | For some 20 years now, all the ingredients of an impending kitchen nightmare have confronted Joe DiGregorio at any given moment of every day of each semester he teaches.
Over the course of eight months each year, the veteran chef and his students toil over the blazing stoves of Vita Nova restaurant to feed some 4,000 diners—each a paying customer, and none expected to pay for a trainee’s mistake. Through lunch and dinner, dozens of Hospitality Business Management students will rely on him for cucumber-cool guidance as countless perils threaten, from a broken hollandaise to limp linguine.
In the intellectually contemplative world of a university, it’s a remarkable sort of high-pressure classroom he oversees. But in the superheated realm of commercial kitchen work, that pressure is a way of life.
So as chef instructor and senior lecturer at UD’s student-operated fine dining restaurant, DiGregorio is legendary for embracing Zen amid the zaniness, and for being chill no matter how hot the fire. He knows: The way to instill confidence is to show confidence. The way to avoid panic is to exemplify its futility. And the way to introduce young restaurant professionals to the meltdown-prone real world is to make them stare it straight in the face, and prevail.
“When he comes over to help, you feel so reassured,” says student manager Victoria Bailor, BE17. “In the beginning, he gives you all you need to succeed. From there, it’s more sink or swim. But he’s also there for you if you start to sink.”
Some will come close to that precipice in frantic moments. He can see it in their eyes—that paralyzed fear of a cook caught “in the weeds” of a rush. He speaks to them calmly, walks them through the swirling chaos, shows them how to step through the crisis themselves, and watches with pride as they emerge from that cauldron with the skills demanded by industry—resilience, team spirit, leadership.
As a result, UD-trained students are snapped up by hospitality industry recruiters soon after graduation, confident they can cope with whatever comes their way. “We have alumni all over the world, and they are very accomplished,” says manager Venka Pyle.
For DiGregorio, who has been with Vita Nova since its birth in 1996, it’s all about ensuring that the lab cuts no corners, despite its hands-on training role. It intentionally aims for a high-end, haute-cuisine experience, drilling its students not only in cooking, but also in the formal French styles of service that seem quaint luxuries today. Through the years, it has also been aided by tremendous donor support.
“We are so fortunate to have had so many believe in our work and mission," he says. "There aren't a lot of models that do what we do. We do everything right here—it's a condensed experience .”
by Eric Ruth, AS93
