Smith College’s Director of Culinary Services German Alvarado didn’t always know he wanted to work in the restaurant industry. Growing up in Los Angeles, born to a single mother and raised by his grandmother and aunts, food had been an important part of his life long before he was entirely aware of it.
“My food story really starts like many people from Latin American history or Latin American countries. It’s just, like, from home, you know?” he told me.
We met in early April at 30 Belmont Ave, an administrative building tucked away on the fringe of south campus. We were scheduled to meet in the conference room, but ended up sitting in a small, homey kitchen at the back of the building, falling snow visible through the window panes. Both of us being California natives, we sympathized over the strange bout of weather.
He spoke about his childhood home and neighborhood in L.A. with reverence. “It was very much a community to get everybody fed. And it was the same story for everybody in our neighborhood,” he said. “I knew I could just walk across the street, visit somebody, and I would always be offered food.”
Growing up, Alvarado lived in a three-house complex with some of his relatives residing in the back and his household in the front. He recalled an effort to start raising money for the family in the form of a neighborhood cookout, selling tamales, pupusas and horchata out of their front yard every Saturday for about two years while his uncle — a DJ at the time — would spin music.
“It became very popular,” Alvarado said, smiling at the memory. “In my head, I’m thinking there were probably about 100 people that would come in. Maybe it was more around the 40 to 50, you know? But at that age, running around and seeing the crowds of people, it was just fun.”
Even if you didn’t have money, the Alvarado family wouldn’t turn you away; while they did these cookouts to raise money, they also did it simply to have fun. “I know this because even as I got older, they’re still the same way, you know? You go to their house, they have a big pot already on the stove. And that’s really what I love about food … It has always been a part of me.”
As a young adult, Alvarado started working in restaurants, not knowing it would segue into his long and lucrative career as a high-end culinary chef. “I felt like it was easy,” he said. “I loved the challenge … I loved the community.”
He began to work his way up in the restaurant business, working at “farm-to-table” restaurants as he moved around the country, working for several years at Esselon Cafe in Hadley, MA when it first opened in 2006. He moved back to California to begin working at a new restaurant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which was one of the first fine dining, high-end restaurants where he began to really challenge himself.
“It was me going in 15, 20 minutes early every single day, looking at the menus, and then researching and researching until I was satisfied. I wanted to always be on top of it, you know?” he said. “I knew that I was the underdog in that story.”
By the time Alvarado left LACMA, he had moved onto the grill side of the kitchen—considered the “place to be” because of the expensive proteins you had to deal with. He recalls the wood-fired stove being one of the biggest challenges to work with. The best part of working there being the food trucks that would come in from local farms every morning.
“We would change the menu on a daily basis according to what he had… We would modify the entrees we already had and change the vegetables or starch, or make some sauces. My chef would elevate it to the next level, and my job was to execute it and make sure that it came out perfectly.”
After LACMA, Alvarado moved back out to Massachusetts and began his tenure at Smith.
“I’ve been at Smith for 10 years,” he said, pride in his voice. And he has every right to be proud – his career in Smith dining has been nothing short of fruitful. “I’ve worked in every kitchen. I’ve worked mostly all the big events. And I helped open up the Compass Cafe, as well, during COVID. I came up with the recipes for ramen, the full broths.”
One aspect of Smith Dining that many students may not know — I certainly didn’t — is the ‘whole animal’ program. Alvarado explained to me that, when making menus that involve animal products, they purchase whole animals from local butchers. These animals are processed and stored in a freezer, meaning they have plenty of cuts; parts of the animal that typically aren’t cooked are used to make huge broths and stock.
“It’s using — not the leftovers — but the things that usually other institutions don’t use,” Alvarado said. Part of his mission as Director of Culinary is to put Smith on the map. “There’s a lot that we do already that people don’t know about. Since I’ve been in this role, I’ve visited other schools who get credit for all these things that they do — things we already do.”
Food production and menu planning are Alvarado’s biggest responsibilities in the dining system, working with Patrick Diggins — Associate Director of Purchasing and Operation — to purchase and source food as locally as possible.
One of their biggest challenges is variety.
“It’s something that we’re always trying to work on and improve, making sure that we have the highest quality of ingredients, but that we also have enough food for all the houses,” he said. “You know, for instance, the broth bowl night at Tyler has always been so popular… So we worked with them [Tyler staff] to come up with some other menu options during that day that might help them out.”
Many factors go into menu-making, including the season, what foods are waxing or waning in popularity, what’s available from local vendors, and—most importantly—the ever-changing clientele profile, also known as the student body.
Although our conversation happened before some recent controversies regarding dining — for instance, the impending closure of the Cushing-Emerson dining hall — Alvarado spoke to me about the unique Smith dining format. “It’s a very complicated system here, being decentralized. That’s always a challenge,” he said. “But we’re excited to tackle it, you know. I’m excited for sure … There’s a charm to it.”
The expansion of allergen-friendly dining is another goal that Alvarado has been working with the Dining administration on. Lamont has been both a catalyst for new recipes and a guinea pig for testing popularity.
“If you think about it, we have so many items in each meal period. Breakfast, lunch and dinner times five, you know— it comes out to be quite a bit,” he said. “We have the gluten free house [Dawes], you know, and they always do a great job. But now that we have Lamont, it kind of helps them out there.”
Ultimately, community is the lifeblood of good dining; we discussed the unique identity of each dining hall, the different “vibes”, and why students might prefer one dining hall over another. “What makes each one special is the staff,” Alvarado said. “You set the experience for students because you want to have fun. It’s not just about the food, but the whole experience.”
In addition to taking student feedback about existing meals, dining has also started to integrate student recipes more and more into the menu cycles. He described his relationships with some of the student orgs, as well as the highly-popular International Students Day, as being some of his most fond experiences. “We just had BSA [The Black Student Alliance] happen at Cutter and King. We worked with them to come up with some great recipes, and students loved it,” he said. “We loved it too… And now it’s a possible option for our menu cycle.”
Another component of integrating new meals into menu cycles comes directly from the dining staff’s innovation and creativity. Recently, Smith has started participating in cooking competitions like the Chef Conference at UMass. Last summer, Smith staff won a silver medal for their dish, which was then circulated in dining halls as a special award-winning meal. “I think we have a really talented dining staff, and it shows every time we have these events. They show up and put out some great food.”
Alvarado has been in his position of Director of Culinary Services for over a year now, and it has been a learning process all the way through. As Alvarado said before, food has always been a part of him, since he was a young boy scampering through crowds of his neighbors in Los Angeles. It continues to be a part of him, both at work with his colleagues and at home cooking with his daughters.
“Everyone always goes back home, back to that one dish they know,” he said. He loves all types of cuisine, but if he had to choose a favorite, “I would say pupusas or pozole.”
