Chef Tom Hoover

Tom’s culinary influences were formed by a childhood growing up all around the globe as an Army brat and watching his mother combine her own considerable skills as a cook with the techniques and cuisine of whatever country they found themselves in. His first foray into fine dining kitchen work came during college when he hired into a small dim sum restaurant in Indianapolis. Shortly thereafter he committed himself totally to a career in the kitchen while still perusing and eventually attaining a Bachelor of Science degree in English and Modern Literature.

Under the sharp eye and keen mind of Hong Kong master chef Hong Moy, Tom learned the fundamentals and eventually gained the position of line cook in the rigidly ordered Asian kitchen.

After this apprenticeship, Tom moved to the West Michigan area in the late seventies where he spent three years as a counter manager at Saugatuck’s Loaf and Mug deli while at the same time working as a night porter at the Hope College dining service. When a cooking job opened up on the day shift at Hope Tom quit the deli to devote all of his time to cooking lunch and dinner for the faculty and students.

Tom was shift lead and the exec’s sous for ten years during which he joined the American Culinary Federation (1998) and began the process of getting his chef’s certification. Tom was promoted to his present position of Catering Chef Manager in 1999 and earned his Chef de Cuisine certification shortly after.

Tom designs recipes, composes menus and cooks for a wide variety of on and off campus events with numbers anywhere from 6 to 6000. In 2000, he was one of a hundred collegiate chefs nation-wide invited to the annual ACF sponsored Collegiate Chef’s Culinary Conference at the University of Massachusetts. In 2001, Tom and the Hope catering department were awarded the blue ribbon for best theme catering event in the nation by the National Association of College and University Food Service (NACUFS); the event was specifically awarded for the college's annual madrigal dinners. Tom is also responsible for the culinary portion of all events held at Hope’s presidential residence where visiting guest lecturers, artists, authors and musicians are often invited to enjoy lunch or dinner with the president, his wife, students and faculty.

In keeping with his employ at an institute of higher learning, Tom spends a lot of time teaching culinary skills in a variety of settings. He has lectured senior level undergraduate classes on subjects as diverse as medieval cookery to the intricacies of nutracueticals. He is most proud of his work with the Holland Lakeshore Institute where he teaches classes in a cooking skills program designed to help homeless folks and those struggling against addiction gain a new skill with which to regain productive lives. He also serves on the advisory board of the Michigan Career and Technical Skills Center, which provides a culinary program to high school students in the western Michigan area.

Tom enjoys writing fiction in his free time and dabbling in photography, resulting in a lot of pictures he has shared on C2C. He has published several short stories in various small press publications and intends to self publish a book of short stories as soon as he can set aside some time from posting on the forum.

Most of all, Tom enjoys his time at home in the kitchen helping his wife, Eileen who is an accomplished bread baker and “experimental” cook. He also treasures time with his daughter teaching her the skills he has learned and watching her grow to love cooking as much as he does.