Rob was 9, eating at a soup kitchen with his mother and brothers. Several adults there, wanting to make sure the children were fed well, walked over and offered them their meals.

“One man looked at me and told me to respect all the food that I get,” Rob recalls. “The people in soup kitchens have a passion for food that is stronger than any chef's passion. This is how my passion for food was started, on that night.”

Cooking shows, books, high school culinary classes and a restaurant job fed his zeal. Competitions fire up this go-getter - he's beaten professional chefs in Boston and won a gold at the Skills USA national competition in 2004, and continues to compete.

“I’ll probably never stop doing those. It’s what I do,” he says. “It’s my passion.”

Rob received his associate degree in culinary arts and now is enrolled in the school’s Bachelor of Applied Science in Hospitality Administration program. The BASHA program will complement his culinary degree and prepare him for a management career in the hospitality field. 

“I thought it was important to know that side of the culinary industry,” he says.

His plan? Graduate, obtain American Culinary Federation certifications, earn a master's degree, compete in the worldwide Culinary Olympics, work with as many chefs in as many countries as he can and become one of the world’s few certified master chefs (there are about 80 now). Then he hopes to teach.

“I like to spread the knowledge of this industry,” he said. “If I know so much, why keep it to myself?”