Have you ever wondered how your lunch is prepared each day? Who is working behind the scenes to prepare tasty, healthy meals for hundreds of students? I spoke with Nicolas Ramos, the head chef, and Amy Van Tassell, the director of the cafeteria, to learn more about this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramos has worked at ECFS for more than seven years. He started as a catering chef and then worked his way up to sous chef. Eventually, he became the executive chef. \u201cNick is the best chef we\u2019ve ever had here,\u201d comments Van Tassel. \u201cWe\u2019re so lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since October of 2018, Van Tassel has worked at ECFS. She manages the budget, ensurese the numbers are intact, oversees the schedules and more. Despite all of her personal contributions, Van Tassel recognizes that the kitchen wouldn\u2019t function without the whole team. She shares, \u201cI can\u2019t do it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also can\u2019t do it without them. Our school relies on the kitchen staff for breakfast, lunch and catering for events. Van Tassel shares, \u201cIt\u2019s our goal to make sure that the community has a healthy meal every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These meals are planned out weeks in advance. Van Tassel and Ramos, along with the other kitchen staff, work hard to formulate clarity meals, vegan and vegetarian options and much more. Ramos explains, \u201cJust because it\u2019s allergen-free, we still have to make it taste good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first couple of weeks, I try to calculate what people might like and what people might not like,\u201d remarks Ramos. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a challenge to please everyone\u2019s palates.\u201d The menus cater to what types of food students and teachers enjoy. They incorporate feedback from Google Forms, the comment board and other resources to create meals that please everyone. One of the most popular meal options in the cafeteria is, unsurprisingly, the pizza. Around 225 pies are prepared every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They are gone by the end of the day. Ramos reflects, \u201cWe might have half a pie leftover.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooking healthy, nourishing food is a priority for the kitchen staff. \u201cWhen we make the menus, we really sit down and look at how the menus flow into the week and how your day is gonna roll from your breakfast to your lunch and how it creates a fulfillment for you for the day,\u201d explains Van Tassel. \u201cIt\u2019s important to us that you go home happy and that you have a good meal during the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their work usually starts at 6:00 a.m. Often, they cater for events and stay until 10:00 at night. Their workdays can span from seven to 15 hours. \u201cWhen we work the weekends, we work the weekends. When we work at night, we work at night,\u201d shares Van Tassel. \u201cOur day ends in June.\u201d Their contributions to Fieldston are what keep it running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A core part of Van Tassel\u2019s and Ramos\u2019s job is connecting with the Fieldston community. Van Tassel comments, \u201cIt\u2019s nice that you get to know everybody instead of just making your food.\u201d She also hires chefs who care deeply about Fieldston. She believes \u201cwhen you find people with the passion and who love the community, that\u2019s what makes the food taste good.\u201d For her and the rest of the kitchen staff, \u201cIt\u2019s not just food for us, you\u2019re part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever wondered how your lunch is prepared each day? Who is working behind the scenes to prepare tasty, healthy meals for hundreds of students? I spoke with Nicolas Ramos, the head chef, and Amy Van Tassell, the director of the cafeteria, to learn more about this process. Ramos has worked at ECFS for more than seven years. He started as a catering chef and then worked his way up to sous chef. Eventually,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":11642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,426,436,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[655],"class_list":["post-11641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-faculty","category-food","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-30-at-8.18.51-AM-e1746015575486.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11643,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11641\/revisions\/11643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11641"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}