The Force Behind the Food
Director of Dining Services Robert Rizzuto has a storied career as a chef, having worked with renowned chefs in top-tier restaurants in New York City and France, and has prepared food for dozens of some of the most famous people in the world.
But, he says, no culinary experience has been more meaningful than his work at New York Tech, where he’s spent decades designing fresh, healthy meals for faculty, staff, students, and outside guests alike.
New York Tech’s food service at the university’s campuses is completely in-house because of Rizzuto. Students from all six schools and colleges—and the residence halls—enjoy freshly prepared meals that source ingredients from both the kitchen and a pesticide-free garden on the Long Island campus.
However, these meals would not be exceptional without Rizzuto’s passion for engagement. He states that working with his team and speaking with the campus community “is the greatest satisfaction of my work.”
He says, “For us to be successful, it must be about engagement.” For example, Rizzuto works with the culinary medicine program in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “They are into nutrition and eager to see how they can bring nutrition into the medical field. I enjoy engaging with the students and sharing the knowledge I have.”
Rizzuto remains committed to the main purpose of dining services in higher education—bettering life on campus—and notes that “change, listen, and act” is a model that he and his team live by. As he oversees NYIT de Seversky Mansion and the campus dining program on Long Island and in New York City, his team thrives on feedback and ideally meeting in person with students. “We want to be a liaison to bring people in the campus community together, over food. It is important that we get people outside of the office and classroom to engage.”
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