Chef Doug Yeomans, an Elgin Community College culinary arts grad whose career has included preparing meals for President Barack Obama and celebrities at the Kentucky Derby, will be returning to his alma mater this month to share some of the tricks of the trade with ECC students.
The visiting chef will not only be speaking and working with students, he’ll be helping them prepare a four-course meal Thursday, Oct. 30, that will be served that night at the school’s Spartan Terrace Restaurant.
Yeomans found his interest in cooking when he was in second grade, he said, and that ultimately led to a 25-year-plus, multifaceted career that’s included working at or consulting for a variety of restaurants, overseeing suites at Arlington International and Churchill Downs racetracks, and managing American Airlines’ international first-class dining program at O’Hare International Airport.
“It’s in my DNA,” he said. “It’s what I love to do.”
Yeomans, whose career started at 15 as a dishwasher at a now-defunct Italian restaurant in St. Charles, gave four-year college a shot at Western Colorado University before deciding culinary arts was his calling.
“I told my mom, and the reaction was like if I told her I wanted to be a guitarist for a living. Still, she supported me,” he said.
When he realized that tuition to attend prestigious East Coast programs like Johnson & Wales and the Culinary Institute of America came with a hefty cost, he looked closer to home.
“With the instructors ECC has, you get the same education you would at those places at a fifth of the price tag,” Yeomans said.
Among his memorable career experiences include serving food to celebs like Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock and Anna Nicole Smith at Churchill Downs and overseeing a staff preparing 18,000 meals a day for American Airlines.
“It was relentless,” Yeomans said.
That job included setting up meals for charter flights taken by the Dallas Cowboys, the Chicago White Sox, and Barack Obama and his family when he was president-elect.
“I worked from notes from Michelle (Obama),” Yeomans said. “I did a basil-wrapped, seared sea bass with smoked tomato coulis over a saffron toasted garlic pilaf with herb charred green beans for the Obama meal,” Yeomans said.
He’s worked with Iron Chef’s Maneet Chauhan and noted Hawaiian chef Sam Choy and has auditioned the for the TV cooking competitions “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen.”
Yeomans has also run his own catering business. He still puts on wine-and-food pairing events and fine dining dinners for charities.
“I’ve done about 2,000 wine pairings, and each has had a different menu,” he said.
These days he’s the executive chef for Caputo’s Fresh Markets, which has him catering meals for Caputo’s 10 grocery stores and hosting wine tastings and chef’s tastings for the company.
“The hours are usually 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. so I can frequently be home to have dinner with my family,” said Yeomans, who is married with three daughters, ages 20,18 and 11, and a 9-year-old son.
Cooking at the Yeomans house typically includes seasonal ingredients served with the intention of introducing a variety of cuisines to the children, he said. Recent meals have featured burrata and eggplant parmesan and steak-and-zucchini fajitas.
Yeomans likes to teach himself new techniques and how to make traditional foods his own way, which may be why he’s also spent more than seven years as a culinary instructor.
As for the ECC dinner, the evening’s menu will feature fresh tropical seafood ceviche; bronze cut linguini in prosciutto-infused smoky Romano cream; black pepper-espresso rubbed braised short rib; and spiced pavlova with brandied white chocolate crème anglaise.
Yeomans will start the day at 9:30 a.m. with a live demo for culinary arts students before working with a team of 12 to 16 budding chefs divided into teams, each of which will be assigned one of the four courses.
“I hope to teach them about passion and execution.You can’t control what diners bring to the table. Execution is all you can control,” he said.
He’ll include tips on techniques, using seasonal ingredients, controlling costs, the bells and whistles of presentation, and how tough the career path can be, he said.
“I also want them to know that a chef is a leader, planner, coach and mentor. Above all else, a chef is a teacher,” Yeomans said.
The meal Yeomans and the students prepare will be served at 6 p.m. To purchase a tickets, which cost $95, go to eccartscenter.org/tickets/eventdetails.aspx#event-26CULVC1.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
