Daniel Galvin '10
Degree:
A.O.S. for ACE Students
Major:
Culinary Arts
Hometown:
Philadelphia, PA
Biography:
All he did was ask for money; what he got was a career.
As a youngster, ACE student Dan Galvin needed a little spending money and did what a typical son would do—hit dad up for it. But the response he got was anything but typical.
“We got in a car and I’m thinking, ‘cool, we’re going to the bank,’ ” Dan recalls. “Instead, he took me to a restaurant down the street to wash dishes. I started doing prep after a couple months, and realized that I loved it.”
His career progressed relatively quickly after that. “I worked my first line when I was 16, and have been in it ever since,” he says. “I was tending bar by 18, and became an assistant manager at the age of 20, at a place serving upscale American cuisine near Philly. By the time I was 23, the owner of that place hired me as assistant general manager for all three of his properties. I was running the bar, overseeing the service staff, making decent money…but I was working for somebody else.”
The more he worked, the more Dan realized he wanted an establishment to call his own. “I ran a kitchen in an Italian place where I saw lots of opportunity for improvement. But the owner wanted it his way, which was fine since he was the boss. That’s why I’ve wanted my own place for some time.”
And that’s why he started thinking about the CIA, with his wife Katrina giving him the extra push he needed. “She told me ‘I have no problem being married to a line cook, if that’s what you want to do.’ We both knew I wanted more, so I came to the CIA.”
Leaving his wife and daughter Madison behind in Philadelphia wasn’t an easy decision. “The ACE program is why I came,” Dan says. “With my family back home, the 18-week externship and longer program length would have been a deal-breaker. I heard about ACE and said ‘Sign me up!’ ”
As a youngster, ACE student Dan Galvin needed a little spending money and did what a typical son would do—hit dad up for it. But the response he got was anything but typical.
“We got in a car and I’m thinking, ‘cool, we’re going to the bank,’ ” Dan recalls. “Instead, he took me to a restaurant down the street to wash dishes. I started doing prep after a couple months, and realized that I loved it.”
His career progressed relatively quickly after that. “I worked my first line when I was 16, and have been in it ever since,” he says. “I was tending bar by 18, and became an assistant manager at the age of 20, at a place serving upscale American cuisine near Philly. By the time I was 23, the owner of that place hired me as assistant general manager for all three of his properties. I was running the bar, overseeing the service staff, making decent money…but I was working for somebody else.”
The more he worked, the more Dan realized he wanted an establishment to call his own. “I ran a kitchen in an Italian place where I saw lots of opportunity for improvement. But the owner wanted it his way, which was fine since he was the boss. That’s why I’ve wanted my own place for some time.”
And that’s why he started thinking about the CIA, with his wife Katrina giving him the extra push he needed. “She told me ‘I have no problem being married to a line cook, if that’s what you want to do.’ We both knew I wanted more, so I came to the CIA.”
Leaving his wife and daughter Madison behind in Philadelphia wasn’t an easy decision. “The ACE program is why I came,” Dan says. “With my family back home, the 18-week externship and longer program length would have been a deal-breaker. I heard about ACE and said ‘Sign me up!’ ”
As for the CIA experience itself, “It’s been great,” he says. “I’ve had amazing opportunities to work with some very talented people and make great connections for my future career. There was a sustainability roundtable where I got to work next to Rick Moonan and John Besh. That was really cool.”
Eventually, Dan wants to run a business with his wife—“I get the back of the house, she gets the front”—so he can be with his family as much as possible. And daughter Madison, 7, is always excited to brag to people about her dad the chef. “She tells all her friends and teachers at school that her dad is going to be the next Top Chef,” he says with a smile. “She watches two channels on TV—Nickelodeon and the Food Network. We even got her a chef’s coat. She’s really into it.”
It’s probably only a matter of time before she starts asking dad for money.
Eventually, Dan wants to run a business with his wife—“I get the back of the house, she gets the front”—so he can be with his family as much as possible. And daughter Madison, 7, is always excited to brag to people about her dad the chef. “She tells all her friends and teachers at school that her dad is going to be the next Top Chef,” he says with a smile. “She watches two channels on TV—Nickelodeon and the Food Network. We even got her a chef’s coat. She’s really into it.”
It’s probably only a matter of time before she starts asking dad for money.
©Copyright 2007. The Culinary Institute of America
