Name: Zak Kell
Title: Chef de Cuisine – oversees Read & Bookmarket Eateries
Length of time at IU: 2 years in May 2024
Instagram: chefzak@iu
Why IU?
I grew up in Indiana. After working in New York restaurants for 20 years, I decided to move back home to be closer to my family and get away from the corporate restaurant world. I worked in a sorority house kitchen for a couple of years before a chef position opened up at IU. I knew IU’s Executive Chef, David Tallent, and that IU Dining produced excellent food at a high volume. In May 2024, I will have been a chef at IU for two years.
Who has inspired you as a chef?
Working for Chef Neil Kleinberg at Clinton Street Baking Company in New York, I learned that food doesn’t always have to be pretentious or serious. And working at NYC restaurants with so many different types of cuisines—Clinton Street, Community Food and Juice, Buddakan in Chelsea Market—I’ve had the privilege of expanding my culinary skills and knowledge alongside award-winning chefs.
What do you like most about your job?
Aside from the hours and benefits, I really enjoy the managerial part of being head chef at Bookmarket and Read. Leading the team to produce a high volume of quality food is a challenge, but my sous chefs and staff do a great job of making sure everything runs smoothly. Working for a university as part of a team is also a very different energy from a corporate restaurant environment. I enjoy working together with my team at IU to achieve the same goal.
What is your day to day-to-day work life like?
Every day is different. Being a manager is being a problem-solver more than anything, and I like the variety and importance of the role to the overall operation. I always check in with the team to make sure everything is executed correctly at Bookmarket and Read. When there is downtime from solving logistics, I develop new recipes for our menus and work through any staffing or administrative issues.
How do you find out what the students like and don’t like?
We get feedback from a student-run Meal Plan Committee (representing all on-campus dining; students from IUSG and Union Board were just added) and from leadership meetings with RAs. As an example, when we were putting out bagels preloaded with cream cheese, a student who cannot have dairy products requested a plain bagel option. We immediately responded by preparing a separate topping station.
How do you manage allergens at Bookmarket and Read?
I write all my recipes specifically to exclude nuts because they are so high risk. At IU Dining, we do everything we can to avoid allergen cross-contact, and properly label everything with the top nine allergens to make sure the students feel safe. Eliminating nuts from recipes is simple and it takes the stress out of worrying about such a common, life-threatening allergy.
What are your favorite foods to prepare here or at home for your family?
My wife is from Jakarta, Indonesia, so I enjoy cooking Indonesian cuisine that is unavailable here, like nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice), sambal trassi (super-hot chili and shrimp paste chili salsa) and telur bumbu (eggs in Balinese sauce). I try to incorporate foods I make at home into what we do at IU while also managing production of the high volume of food we maintain.
What are your hobbies outside of work?
My son has been involved in Pokémon tournaments and collecting, which I have adopted myself. Outside of my family hobbies, I enjoy martial arts, specifically Wing Tzun Kung Fu—Chinese boxing. I enjoy learning the techniques and intricacies that come with it.
What did you prepare on the show ‘Chopped’? How did it go?
The theme of the episode was “Meatball Madness” (Season 22, Episode 3). I prepared a sweet and sour lamb meatball with ginger cilantro glaze for the appetizer. For the entrée, I made a wild boar meatball jambalaya with pickled okra, which the judges really enjoyed. Even though we started at 4:30 a.m. and it was a 17-hour day for production, I really enjoyed the experience.