Last year Head Chef and Head of Catering Services, Gary Dougan, celebrated 40 years of working at Robinson. Daisy Thomas (English, 2019) found out what it has been like to create over 4,500 meals per day and be part of the fabric  ‘for nearly the whole length of the college’s existence’.

On the last day before I left Cambridge, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gary Dougan, Robinson’s Head Chef. Having eaten in the Garden Restaurant every day for the past two terms, it was exciting to be taken behind the scenes into his office and get to meet with the man who’s been responsible for most of what I’ve eaten since joining Robinson.

He started work at Robinson in 1984, so has been here 40 years. But, as he tells me with a smile on his face, ‘it’s actually flown by, I don’t know where the times gone. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it really’. The two of us do some maths and work out that he’s been here ‘for nearly the whole length of the college’s existence’ – it makes sense to start the staff member interviews with the person who’s probably made the biggest impact, over the longest time on the day to day life of Robinson. Noting that he’s been here the third longest, behind Christine James and Sarah Harold, he fondly describes how ‘we’ve all sort of grown up together, worked hard together. We’ve known each other for a long time, like family really.’

Having been here for so long, I asked him, it must be interesting to see the different cohorts of students pass through. He fondly recalls his days of playing football for the college in 1987/88 and the recent reunion dinner where old friends from his football days were surprised to see him still there, ‘there were people in the team at the time like Adrian Davies who went on to play rugby for Wales and Matt Dickinson who went on to become a really excellent newspaper reporter, it’s so great to see them doing good things’. He talks wistfully about the days when students and staff alike would fill the Robinson bar on a Friday but points out how these days the most student interaction he usually has is through committees with the RCSA.

I then enquired as to what made him want to be a chef in the first place and he described how his ‘parents separated when [he] was about 12’, saying ‘I was the eldest of four children so whilst my father was in full time employment it was down to me to prepare and cook all the household meals. And I thought, I really enjoy this, I really love cooking, In those days I had to experiment with what we had, but I got a bug for it. I’ve loved working with food ever since.’ With a laugh, I asked if he still cooked for his family despite food now being his full-time job, and he said he in fact cooks every day at home. In his words, ‘I do more cooking at home than I do here now, I enjoy it.’

When it comes to the job itself, what he enjoys most is ‘creating new dishes’. He explained how much he enjoys ‘the day to day challenges, every day is different. I like working with a great team of chefs who are all so individually talented’. With an infectious love for what he does, he said to me ‘if you have a happy kitchen and happy people, you’re going to produce happy food. In my kitchen we have so much passion and everyone works so hard.’ Throughout the interview, multiple people come in asking Gary for advice or answers surrounding the coronavirus panic – giving just a small insight into the many responsibilities and decisions that fall at his feet every day. But, always positive, he mentions how ‘even with what we’re going through right now, which is heartbreaking in some ways, I still really enjoy my job. I get out of bed in the morning and can’t wait to go into work.- my wife thinks I’m mad!’

He describes how his team of chefs now is almost the same as it was back when he started, with so many people having been there for over 10 years, which he notes is ‘unprecedented’ as ‘you’d think it’s high turnover, but not here. It’s a great place to work and who’s the lucky one with such a great team? Me’.

In the 40 years since he’s been at Robinson, it’s definitely changed a lot. When coming for his interview back in 1984, he was ‘delighted to become part of the challenge’ of such a ‘modern and different’ college. The role of the Head Chef has changed dramatically too. He describes how he used to be in the kitchen every day, now he’s lucky if he gets in there once a week. These days he’s got to focus on ‘recording and monitoring food deliveries, storage, sustainable food sourcing, waste management, minimising energy usage, recycling’, all of which he praises for its importance, but it seems that he misses the day to day cooking that he now relies on his team for. He also notes how much the diets of students and staff have changed – with a huge increase in vegan and vegetarian diets, as well as a large amount of allergens. Making around 500 meals a day (up to 4,500 a week), at times over 40% require special diets. When I mention my own veganism, he lights up and describes how popular the diet is becoming, and how ‘a lot of chefs enjoy doing those foods. It’s a lot more exciting than it used to be, a lot more flavours’.

He talks particularly passionately about feedback – how ‘good or bad, it helps me decide where we can go next’, praising staff members who email to ask after certain recipes. I figure this is a good time to mention the excited email I sent him at the start of term when I first saw vegan chocolate cake in the Garden Restaurant, and we both spend a few minutes gushing about how delicious the cake is (I even admit that my friends text each other when it’s there, so that we can all run down and get some before it sells out). Out of curiosity, I ask him who the most famous person he’s served food to is – and it turns out that Prince Charles and Lady Diana have both eaten at Robinson. But, not always preparing food of such royal caliber, Gary admits that his favourite meal is ‘plain and simple, a jacket potato with red onion, mature cheddar and mayonnaise’.

As our conversation draws to a close, I ask him what he hopes for in Robinson’s future. He describes how he wants the college to be ‘prosperous, happy and successful’. In a heartfelt moment, he describes how he’ll ‘always remember Robinson college as the place that gave me a good chunk of my life’. As important as Robinson has been for Gary, no one has been more integral to Robinson than him. With a wonderful team of good friends and a genuine love for all things food, he’s a huge part of Robinson history and will keep shaping and developing the food of Robinson for years to come. 

Thank you for all you have done for the College Gary, from the whole Robinson Community.