This is part of the Willistonian Interview-a column in which Nate Gordon and Liz Calderone interview different Williston faculty, staff, and students.
Kevin Martin is the Director of Dining Hall Services at Williston. He wants students to know that he and his staff are always happy to hear your suggestions for what you would like to see in the dining hall. When not working, Mr. Martin enjoys running, biking, skiing, among others.
by Nate Gordon ’16
Nate Gordon: How did you get the job of Director of Dining Hall Services at Williston?
Mr. Kevin Martin: About eight years ago the former director had retired so there was a search to find a new director. I had been at Smith College for twenty years in dining services there and I applied for the job and was fortunate enough to be hired.
NG: How did you get interested in the profession of dining hall services?
KM: It was a change of careers for me. I previously had a degree in health and physical education and I was teaching physical education, but I always liked to cook. I’m originally from Rhode Island and there’s a great school down there, Johnson & Wales University, that has an excellent culinary program. I went to culinary school there and then worked my way through restaurants in the Boston and Worcester area and then came out to this part of the state. My wife is from Westfield so I’d been out to this part of the state. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and when I had the opportunity to go back to school for culinary–it was a good move, I enjoyed it.
NG: What do you find to be the most interesting part of the job at Williston?
KM: The thing I like best is that it is a different menu every day–it’s not like a restaurant where you are making the same menu. We can see our customers and make them happy. We can find out what they like and make any changes we need to make sure we can do the best that we can to make a good quality product. It’s a nice job because you can see when people are happy. It’s not like working at a desk and doing paperwork and you don’t see the results. We can see the results right away.
NG: What kind of changes have you introduced to the dining hall since you’ve been here?
KM: We put a lot of different things on the menu to make sure we have vegetarian items on the menu, that we really listen to what people want. We changed the flow–we put in stations a couple of years ago, so we had the pizza station, and a lot of different items on the menu so its not just going through the “hot line”–we have different stations. We went trayless and just this past year we went to composting so there’s a lot of things that not only affect the dining hall, but affect the whole community.
NG: What are the near future goals of the dining hall?
KM: I think what we would eventually like to do is make some changes, as far as the dining hall itself, we’re looking at changing the serving lines so that it doesn’t run the way it does [now]. We have a blueprint. We had a consultant come a couple of years ago and we looked at changing the flow of traffic. There was a group of us, not just myself, who worked with the consultant to develop a new flow of traffic so hopefully, within the next couple of years, we’ll be able to do that. It’ll make it a lot easier for people to come into the dining room and move through the lines and hopefully not have long lines waiting.
NG: Do you cook the food yourself? I know you cook eggs in the morning at the grill, but do you cook what we see at the “hot line?”
KM: Not really, no. Once in a while I’ll step in when they need a hand, but I have a good group of quality cooks back there that do the job. I just do a lot of the “behind-the-scenes work.” I do cook when there is stuff for specific catering events–for the head of school’s house, help out with the trustees. We don’t have a catering department like a lot of schools do. So when it comes time to pitching in, instead of having one of our cooks or taking cooks from the regular dining operation and having them do catering, and then having to work short-handed in the dining room, I’ll do a lot of catering stuff and take one or two of the cooks to help me depending on how many people we’re cooking for.
NG: What kinds of hobbies or other things do you like to do when not working?
KM: When not working, I enjoy cooking, even though it is much of my work. I find it to be a stress reliever. But I also like bicycling, skiing, long-distance running, and golfing once in a while.
NG: Is there anything else you would like the students at Williston to know about the dining hall services?
KM: Just don’t be shy if you have a special request, make sure that we know about it, use our suggestion box. Because we like doing new things and not getting into a rut; if there’s new things that come along, we look at them. As far as online or magazines we get in the food-service industry, we look at those so we’re always looking to change for the better. But, like I said, we don’t mind having students come up to us and letting us know what they want and just chatting with us.
