by | Gianna DiPasquale
Editor-in-Chief
From his work in the Air Force to being a chef for Spurs players, Chef David Terrazas is making a statement for his first year at Mac. His previous career experiences and new ideas for his culinary classes have made him stand out among the crowd of new faculty members.
“I already grew up in a family that cooks because I have a Mexican-American and a Chinese Mexican-American background, so we literally cooked Chinese for dinner one night and Mexican the next night,” Terrazas said. “And I thought everybody ate that way, but they don’t, and I realized how special that was pretty early on in life.”
His time in the military also gave him the opportunity to explore the cuisines of other places. It added another special aspect to this love for food and cooking.
“I was one of those fortunate people that got to travel everywhere, and when you travel everywhere you get to eat everywhere,” Terrazas said. “So I learned how to eat, and experience different cultures and I really embraced that.”
His job in the Air Force changed after the events of 9/11, where he discovered just how big of an impact food really has on communities around the world.
“I went overnight from Military Analysis to Homeland Security, and Homeland Security had me looking at things that made people upset, made people want to act out,” Terrazas said. “Two of things that keep coming up are poverty and food insecurity.”
When he decided to end his work in the military, Terrazas was left wondering what the next steps of his career were going to be, and how he was going to make it happen.
“I already had a master’s and I decided to go to cooking school on the suggestion by my stepdad who just kind of said ‘Hey you’re always cooking, why don’t you do that for you?’ and I instantly knew that that was going to be the path,” Terrazas said.
As a new teacher at the school, Terrazas his creating his own plans for the culinary class, and how to exnad that through campus.
“We are essentially looking to create a dual credit program with St. Phillip’s College,” Terrazas said. “What that can do is actually get them a couple of semesters worth of credit so they move ahead of their peers when they do go to college.”
The culinary program is giving students the opportunity to experiment with their talents, and it gives them the opportunity to create new, delicious recipes.
“I like to say if you give 20 chefs in a room one recipe, you’re going to get back 20 recipes,” Terrazas said. “Because the secret ingredient they all add is themselves.”
