Head chef provides thousands of meals for students each day and says he loves every minute of it.
RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Pepperdine’s executive chef sympathizes with students whose plates are too full to cook anything at the end of a hard day.
Of course, by the end of Ralph Zavala’s shift at 2 p.m. he has already helped make meals for most of the Pepperdine student body.
“I just taste all day,” said Zavala, executive chef at Pepperdine. “At home it’s just snacks.”
Zavala prepares 60 to 80 different dishes in a typical week for Pepperdine, where he has worked for three years. He also prepares food for campus events like the pre-dinner for “Damn Yankees” cast and crew and also caters a variety of additional foods as part of his other position of district chef for Sodexho, where he has worked for eight years.
“I like the combination,” he said of his two responsibilities. “They’re both a lot of fun.”
Zavala also said he likes variety in meals. For his own meals, he enjoys experimenting with different ethnic foods, particularly Brazilian, and anything “different than standard.” And when it comes to preparing food, Zavala said he has no favorite but rather savors the opportunity to try so many types of dishes.
“I like how [cooking is] always a melting pot of cultures and of food,” he said.
But stability is also important for Zavala, who decided to become a chef 25 years ago. His interest in the field was sparked after interviewing for a job at Café in the Park, a fast food chain in Beverly Hills, in which he met with the chain’s president. He has worked as a chef ever since.
“He took me under his wing,” he said.
In the quarter century since he began to cook professionally, Zavala said customers have become much more knowledgeable about food.
“It keeps it challenging to have to keep up with the different trends,” he said.
Zavala said the biggest challenge, though, is the business aspect of his job. He already spends about half his time working with those issues, which is why he does not plan to move into a management position.
“I like everything,” he said. “But I especially enjoy cooking and working with the students. This side is much more fun.”
Other sources of fun include going to the beach or to parks. “I like going anywhere outdoors,” he said.
Zavala said he expects to still be working at Pepperdine in 10 years, but the Waves Café might look drastically different by then.
In 2005, Pepperdine officials began working with architects to renovate the Caf, and submitted pictures last week. Within one to two years, the familiar setup will be radically redesigned, according to Zavala.
“We’ll still cook to order, and still have the [same] food stations, but it will be completely different,” he said. “We’re looking at a European-style kitchen, maybe a glass waterfall.”
But he will continue to serve several thousand meals to hungry Pepperdine students every day.
11-09-2006