Executive Chef Makes the Grade

02/26/2015
By David Perry

These days, chefs trot the globe, star on TV shows and earn applause for their craft. At least the few celebrity chefs do.

But Frank Hurley found his calling early on, long before chefs became rock stars. 

In his native Danbury, Conn., Hurley found his calling at 8, watching his mother construct meals at home. Cooking was an act of love.

Last month, Hurley, the 40-year-old Executive Chef of University Dining Services, achieved elite status among chefs at universities and colleges, earning ProChef II certification from the Culinary Institute of America. 

“It’s all about sharpening and testing the breadth of skills an executive chef needs, from kitchen skills to management of financials,” says Hurley, who has been at the university since January 2014.

The four-day course is grueling, spread out over 12-hour days at the Culinary Institute of America’s  third and newest campus in San Antonio.  With five other Aramark Higher Education Chefs from across the country, Hurley worked his way through 11 exams, including three the first day.

“Usually,” explains Hurley, “you have four to six months to study and prepare for this. But I was a fill-in for another chef. When I got the call that I would be going, it was relatively last minute. I had three- and a-half weeks.”

And yet, he had prepared for more than three decades.

“My mom and dad were great parents, but it’s not like I followed them.  Neither side was in the hospitality industry. My mom was a nurse and my dad was an engineer. The closest I came was an uncle who was the general manager of the Daytona Hilton for 15 years.”

When it came time to decide upon higher education, Hurley chose Providence-based Johnson & Wales University’s Culinary Arts program.

He graduated in 1994, schooled hard in the basics. 

He worked in a city club in Connecticut, and joined Aramark in 2000, landing the Executive Chef title while working for New York University. “I was around long enough to know that what I really wanted to do was higher education.” Hurley did stints at John Carroll University and Cleveland State University in Ohio before becoming UMass Lowell’s Resident District Chef as 2014 dawned.

“When you start out, it’s more about city clubs and country clubs, high-echelon food,” says Hurley. “And even when I finished school, higher education food was sort of still meatloaf, mashed potatoes. Now, it has all changed. There are cook-to-order stations, sushi, and we are working to serve such a diverse audience. 

One of the things I’ve always loved about serving students is being able to please their tastes. And the response, the feedback, is immediate.” He loves it all.

“As demanding as it was, I really enjoyed CIA -- it all comes down to the principal of studying and learning the proper way to do things. The proper cooking technique. It is put together by Aramark and the CIA to reinforce the capabilities you need to have to do this. It’s about the day-to-day principles and keeping us well-rounded.”

Hurley lives in Bedford, N.H., where he cooks for his wife and two daughters.