Karma Samtani

During my first and second semesters at Bowdoin, I was a grill assistant at Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill. One of the highlights of my job was getting to learn from and work with incredible chefs like Theresa Tetreault, who would pick up shifts at Jack Magee’s on top of her full-time job at Moulton Union. This week, before one of her shifts, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Theresa and learn a bit more about her journey to Bowdoin and her experience working here. These are some highlights from our conversation.

[Answers edited for length and clarity.]

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, and how long you’ve been working at Bowdoin? 

My name is Theresa Tetreault. I am a Cook 1 at Moulton Kitchen, and I will be celebrating eight years here in November. I started off as a casual [employee] in the salad room, and then a full time position [be]came open in the kitchen. That was a Cook 3 position, and it was just for the academic year. During that time, I worked another full-time job, and I’d been wanting to get year-round at Bowdoin, and [a full time position] finally came to me the year after [Covid-19].

(Note: Bowdoin designates cooks at dining halls as Cook 1s, 2s and 3s. Cook 1s are charged with leading kitchens in the absence of a manager.)

You shared that you were working another full-time job while you were starting out at Bowdoin. What was that job in? And what did your path to Bowdoin look like?

Between the two jobs, I was doing 80 hours a week. But my experience comes from working with my parents in Harpswell. My dad was a meat cutter by trade. I was a baker, and I learned how to do a lot of things. I loved to communicate with the customers, [and] therefore, I love to communicate with the kids here.

My dad worked at Bowdoin and the Vegetable Corner. [He] retired from Bowdoin, [and] my dad decided to close [the Vegetable Corner during] winter times. I needed a job, so I applied here. [I] was still catering at the time, so I was working three jobs: Bowdoin, the catering and the Vegetable Corner. But when my dad reopened [the Vegetable Corner], I didn’t go back. I just wanted to get in here. They knew my dad, and they were good to me.

But I’ve just always been interested in cooking. Coming here, I learned so much from the cooks. When I first started in the kitchen, I had two Cook 1s that were teaching me so much. I learned from everybody. Everybody has knowledge to share.

What does a regular day in your life look like? 

I get up. My pattern now is I go visit my 86-year-old aunt in [her] nursing home, and then I come to work [and] push through work: an eight hour shift or more. Then [I] go home and try to get to sleep. On my days off, I try to work at Smith [Union] when I can, at [Jack] Magee’s Grill. Any time they call, I just like to come in.

Can you talk a bit more about what that eight hour shift looks like for you? 

A typical shift when I come in: usually, lunch is going. I always like to check and see if they need any help first because we always do meal-at-hand. Then I check to see what I’m doing for the night; what my dish is going to be. Usually, we’re assigned our dishes, or we pick what we want to [cook]. I make sure I have all my mise en place in place and then start my dish. Or prep for the next day, see what needs to be done, see who needs help.

Once that’s all established, then we just move on. At a certain time, we stop, and prepare our dishes for the night, make sure everybody’s ready, and we get it all out there on time. Dinner service happens.

We’re watching each other, communicating with each other, mak[ing] sure we’re not running out of food. If we are, we’re always trying to help each other out and go look in the walk-ins, getting things ready. At 6:30 p.m., we try to stop prep and start cleaning up. We run till 7:10 p.m. and then shut the line down. We try to cool all the food down, get it down to temperature [and then] put it away for the night.

So we do all that process and cleaning. We also write down everything we serve so we know how much we had, how much was left over. And then [we] clean up and call it a day.

Who would you say you’re closest to among the people you work with? 

Mike Quill, my head chef, and [Assistant Chef] Mark Neuhaus. Mike has me doing a lot of catering functions, and Mark is always having me move forward to learn things. He’s always teaching me something, as well as Mike. So I think those two are the two people I look up to most in the kitchen.

I’ll tell you one of the things you didn’t ask me about. I love that the students work with us. I really do. I love to get to know the kids. I like that you don’t look at us like lunch ladies, you know what I mean? And converse [with us]. It’s just such a nice rapport that we have, and the kids really do a great job. I’m really glad that they work with us and we have that opportunity to meet them.

You students respect me and the people we work with and that is a big thing. I see that a lot on campus here, and you don’t see that out in the real world. It’s very nice, and I thank you guys for that.