David Pazmino is a chef and teacher at the Tappan Green Restaurant. He has been working in Brookline for over two decades. Outside of school hours, Pazmino enjoys playing disc golf competitively. He currently lives in Newton, Mass. with his wife and kids.
What is your role at the high school, and what does a day look like for you?
We all come in at 7 o’clock in the morning. We’re open during breakfast (7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.) and then lunch (11 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.). So we’re running a restaurant and trying to create a classroom environment within that restaurant. From prepping to planning the next service to doing something three to four days out, we’re kind of doing the full gamut. It’s pretty busy.
What led to you working at Cook’s Illustrated, the cooking magazine?
I used to teach at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, and I was there for close to eight years. Then I moved to Connecticut, and I [started] working at Wesleyan University as a food service director. One of my former students contacted me and said, “Hey, I’m working at Cook’s [Illustrated]. If you’re ever thinking of coming back to Boston, they’re always looking for people.” So I connected with him, and got a job for Cook’s. I actually still do a lot of freelance for them. I teach during the year, and during the summer I’ll do one or two articles for them that generally get published the next year.
What led you to pursue a culinary career?
After I got my bachelor’s degree in history and Latin American studies, I went and got my master’s degree in Latin American history. I liked history. I just didn’t love the idea of teaching it. I really loved cooking for a while; I had jobs throughout college and graduate school in restaurants, but it was just like, “Oh, I need a job to pick up some money.” But, the more I did it, the more I was like, “I really like that.” So, I went back to culinary school for two years. I was actually working here in Boston and Cambridge and one of my former instructors at the New England Culinary Institute had said, “There’s a teacher assistant position here and I know you’ve taught before.” So that’s what led me back to teaching. This is my 22nd year teaching culinary arts, and my third year at BHS.
What do you suggest to students interested in pursuing a culinary career path?
We’ve had some students that have done that. Some of the students will come to our class for not only Restaurant and Culinary Careers I, but also II and III. We had a student last year that had finished Restaurant and Culinary Careers II and is now at culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America and one that went to Johnson & Wale. The best way is to just spark their curiosity by getting to know what they’re interested in and then giving them different possibilities to think about with that. The nice thing about a culinary career is that there are a lot of things you could do; it’s not just working in a restaurant. You could be a wine sommelier, you could do food procurement or culinary writing like I was doing with Cooks Illustrated. Some people are personal chefs, some people want to start a food truck. There’s a lot of things. It’s a dynamic industry. Everyone has to eat. It offers a lot of creativity as well. I think a lot of people that are creative gravitate towards it.
