Stevens isn’t a large university, but the multifaceted student body can still feel vast. From students who write songs under their breaths to those who wake up at night in cold sweats from nightmares of differential equations, it can be hard at times to articulate what we share as a community. Perhaps that’s why the dining hall can feel like such a social adhesive for our campus. Not every student can relate to your frustrations with CS 115, but everyone’s interested in learning what’s on tonight’s menu at Pierce.
But who are the people who work to bring us those meals? I sat down with Executive Chef Anthony Pucciarello and Sous Chef Maureen Prestia, two of the key individuals who get the show running three times a day.
I arrived at the beginning of a meal service, but despite their busyness, Pucciarello and Prestia were warm and affable. Both spoke of their love of Stevens and of their dedication to the students here.
Chef Pucciarello juggles the dual responsibilities of working on campus and personally owning a restaurant in East Hanover, Pucciarello’s Italian Kitchen. He said it isn’t easy working 18 hours a day, from 4:30 to midnight, but that he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It makes it very easy in life, to accomplish goals, when you know from the beginning what you want to do,” Pucciarello said. His grandmother immigrated from Avellino, Naples, and married in Hoboken. He said his childhood memories are of his mother’s and grandmother’s cooking: pasta lying across the table, sausages and salamis hanging in the basement, grandpa’s homemade wine. His first job, at 10 years old, was to make pizza boxes at a pizzeria up the street from his house for $10 a week. In the 10th grade, he wrote his career paper about becoming a chef. He explained, “There was never any confusion about where my passion was.”
Pucciarello got his culinary degree from the Culinary Institute of America and his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In New York, he visited top restaurants and asked to work in the kitchen for no pay. While working, he would closely watch the chefs and develop his own skill. Once he learned what he could at a restaurant, he moved to the next one.
Seven years ago, Pucciarello had reached the point of owning multiple restaurants when he was asked by Gourmet Dining, a dining service company, to apply for a position at Stevens. Now, he’s Executive Chef of Pierce and the retail dining locations around campus.
However, his work at Stevens is predated by Sous Chef Prestia, who has worked for the University for 38 years. She started at 14 years old on the part-time dining staff, working in Colonel John’s and at the stations in Pierce. She worked her way up to be head cook and became production chef about two years ago. Prestia said that moving up allowed for fun changes of pace. “[Chef cook] was fun because it was a learning experience. I just walked into it […] learned it, loved it. Then I felt like I was ready for my next step, which would have been sous chef. It […] got me out of the kitchen a little bit, learning how to place orders, run the kitchen and oversee staff.” Now, Prestia works on the production side of dining operations and spends most of her time taking orders.
Pucciarello and Prestia coordinate on menus and staff management. They compose menus for each meal at Pierce, run catering events, and meet with Karly O’Brien, Stevens’ dietician, to ensure that every meal includes a range of healthy offerings. Prestia said that preparing foods that students enjoy is why she loves her job. She noted that the dining hall has recently switched to making more interesting meals and said, “I’m all about making fun foods for you guys.”
Pucciarello described the differences between managing the dining hall and running his restaurant; “Here, it’s more of a controlled atmosphere where it needs to be maintained specifically. It needs to be geared towards the students, because the students are our bosses.” There isn’t room for creativity, he said, because he needs to take recipes from a web portal called Webtrition, since all meals are required to have detailed ingredient lists and nutritional information. While he appreciates the ability of students to have that information, he looks forward to heading to his restaurant in the mid-afternoon because that’s where he’s free to experiment with dishes. “This is what I’ve accomplished at Stevens, and I’ve accomplished something completely different on the restaurant end.” Common to both jobs, Pucciarello said, is a relentless focus on satisfying the customer. With the ability of negative reviews to gain traction on social media, he said, “you have to be more on top of your game now than ever.”
I asked Pucciarello and Prestia what has been the biggest lesson they have learned from their careers. Both emphasized the necessity of being able to continually learn new things.
“I never went to culinary school,” said Prestia. “I learned everything here.”
“You’re never too old to learn,” said Pucciarello. “I’m 53 years old, and I’ve trained with the best, and I’m still learning every day.”
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