The Idaho Potato Commission along with the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education selected Warren Leigh, professor and culinary arts department chair at Holyoke Community College, to receive the 2023 Postsecondary Educator of the Year award. He also earned the Honorable Mention Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts Community Outreach award. Both national awards were presented at CAFÉ’s annual culinary leadership conference in June.

The Postsecondary Educator of the Year award recognized Leigh’s professional commitment to the educational community and outstanding leadership skills.

One student recommendation from Leigh’s application pondered whether he had a cat’s nine lives? She based this on his discussions of his vast professional experiences outside the classroom, his in-depth knowledge of the curriculum exemplified by his ability to have free-flowing discussions always keeping the lesson’s objective in mind and his ability to draw students into the lesson. She ultimately (and good naturedly) decided he was an overachiever.

Leigh is a professor and culinary arts department chair at Holyoke Community College and also a high-level Alpine Level 3 ski instructor, the owner and operator of a catering and consulting business and a culinary education visionary.

Highlights from his award application include:

• Shepherded successful $147,00 grant for a mobile kitchen
• Created a non-credit Line Cook Training Program for the college’s Workforce Division
• Facilitated a training program in a Soup Kitchen serving at-risk people, teaching them meaningful work skills.
• Participated as a stakeholder in several food insecurity and food economy initiatives and was a key supporter City of Holyoke's recent Food System Study in collaboration with the Conway School of Design.
• He was instrumental in planning for a the state-of-the-art Culinary Arts facility with five kitchens including a fully functional restaurant production kitchen, separate lab stations and a bakery. He also was active in creating a new curriculum utilizing the new facility’s functionality.

Student Hamenth Swaminathan’s recommendation letter sums up Chef Leigh’s culinary arts expertise: “Culinary arts is a tricky field in which to teach. It is both the food business and the business of food and Professor Leigh is well-versed in both.”

Leigh earned the Auguste Escoffier Community Outreach Honorable Mention award for his efforts to engage the community in discovering healthy and local food and also shining a light on the problems associated with food security in the community.

Early in his tenure at the college, Leigh realized the area that surrounds the institution is a food desert and that the college could have a long-term impact on the situation. It took a few more years, but the idea of mobile kitchen that engages the community in healthy, culturally appropriate cooking by culinary and nutrition students finally came to fruition. The school applied for and was awarded a $147,000 grant to purchase a food truck. The vehicle can only be used to engage the community, and not for raising money.

Leigh plans to use the mobile kitchen in various classes, such as the credit Restaurant & Events class but also non-credit classes like Line Cook Training. He envisions its use growing when they begin work with community partners such as the Boys and Girls Club, Holyoke Medical Center, Freight Farms, Holyoke’s Community Garden and Holyoke’s Farmers Markets.

Click here to go back to the 2023 CAFÉ award recipients list.