Odessa College Culinary Director Dwight Bowman has had a variety of experiences over the years that led him to the friendly confines of West Texas.
In education for 22 years, Bowman has been at OC for more than five years. He came from Chicago and had a chance to teach here in 2018.
Bowman earned a bachelor’s degree in communications/marketing from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. He went to work for MCI, but he was miserable. His boss advised him to get out because of the company’s financial situation. Bowman did and he got out with his retirement.
He then went to culinary school at Kendall College, rated third in the nation. Bowman went on a job interview and was asked how $10 an hour sounded. At school that night, his instructor could tell something was wrong and suggested he try being a personal chef.
Initially, he cooked for a doctor’s office that was having a pool party for pharmacy representatives and the doctors in the office.
“The thing about being a personal chef is you never know what you’re walking into. People can be really nice or they can be not so nice,” Bowman said.
He was a game day chef for the Chicago Bears.
While the profession was fun and interesting, it was either feast or famine. Education, a profession many of his family members were in, gave him a way to cook and have a steady income.
“In 2004, I walked into Robert Morris University for a job fair. I was going to be the kitchen manager and they say we are desperate for instructors. I said my degree’s in communications and marketing,” Bowman said.
They told him not to worry about it because he had the experience. The university said they would give him teaching classes and Bowman thought, “How hard could this be?”
“The first month I’d go home and I went oh my God, they’re going to fire me. What have I done. How do people do this? I basically fell in love with it and here I am now,” Bowman said.
He said OC cares about its students and it’s not just lip service. Robert Morris University got absorbed by Roosevelt University and Bowman and 45 other people were let go over a period of time. Bowman said the university’s enrollment “tanked” and they expanded too quickly, so they were gone by 2011.
“Robert Morris kind of gave me an idea of what student support looks like and Odessa” gets it, Bowman said. “This college gets it and I love that because not every school does.”
That’s the one reason why he thinks enrollment keeps growing and the college is successful. He added that he wanted to make students feel welcome; they should be early; let them know they’re going to work, but they will be supported. Bowman has made sure to hire staff to meet those objectives.
The culinary program has about 40 students including hospitality, culinary and dual credit.
He added that when they start out, they won’t be making a lot of money. It has to be a calling.
“Being a chef is managing the business; it’s food; it’s labor; it’s presentation; it’s inventory. It’s how the place looks. It’s guest service; it’s training; it’s development. That’s a chef; not just cooking. I love doing that. The stressful part is keeping the lights and gas and all that stuff on,” Bowman said.
He added that the students don’t realize how hot it gets in the kitchen, or that they could get burned, that they have to do the dishes and mop the floor.
Starting out, students get the fundamentals learning that this is a stove, an oven, this is a fryer, a mixer, etc.
The program offers a grab and gourmet. They make everything from scratch and use vegetables and herbs they grow in the greenhouse.
Bowman wants students to keep their chef uniforms buttoned. They talk about the knife kit, how to care for the knives and take an equipment tour because as they progress he expects them to know where things are and how to use them. They also learn to make due with alternatives to things like herbs — using thyme instead of oregano.
“The restaurant business is razor slim margins and it has a huge failure rate because people don’t understand that when we put food out, we’ve got to make money,” Bowman said.
They had an excess inventory of bread and onions, so they made patty melts as a special.
“It sounds kind of funny, and it’s kind of cliche, but if it goes in the trash, you ain’t making no cash. That’s kind of what I try to instill in the students and it seems to be working,” Bowman said.
He added that he’s trying to give students options on their careers. They can be a chef in a restaurant, a personal or game day chef, a corporate chef, do research and development and restaurant design, among other paths.
Bowman is working to get hospitality approved at OC. He would like to create a big picture program where students can get a full view of a hotel’s operations — how everything from front desk to housekeeping and marketing work.
“Hospitality is guest experience, so where it’s going is they’re using some AI (artificial intelligence) and they’re also using some old-school … personalization. The idea is say you book a hotel room and you stay there once. They collect some information, so the next time you come do you want silk sheets on the bed; do you want the temperature a certain way; do you want the lighting to be a certain way; do you want music in the room. What do you like to eat. That’s kind of where the hospitality is going is customizing it,” Bowman said.
Hotels want people to rotate through the various operations such as front desk, housekeeping, landscaping, food service, marketing and selling.
