Parnell Kitchen, 1996

Kitchen staff rarely gets the love they deserve. While one of the hardest work and most essential jobs on staff, the kitchen staff is often made of first year staff members. As we all know, a poor first year experience in the kitchen can taint a person for years.

Yet despite how critical these jobs are, Kitchen staff are often forgotten. There are few staff photos of just the kitchen staff. And again, because so many are first year staff, sometimes whole groups just disappear. The accepted wisdom is, if the staff member is any good, he will move out to a program area. Conversely, to be program staff and sent back as a director was a duty no one wanted.

In our archives, we only have a handful of Kitchen staff photos. Here is one: the 1996 Parnell Kitchen Staff. While they didn’t know it, they were one of the last Parnell Kitchen staffs. L-R Front row: Jimmy Nichols, Ross White, James Littlefield; Back Row: Jason Pedersen (Director), David Lavender, Jamil Matthews, and Robert Worden.