By Zackary Nichols
Courier Staff Reporter
Chef Herve Le Biavant has been awarded ROP Teacher of the Year. Chef is Logan’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management teacher.
Chef Herve said that he, “wasn’t expecting to win at all, it was all very sudden. I wasn’t expecting anything, but I am very happy. I was very proud to be a nominee, and considering all of the teachers in ROP, this was something that made me feel really good.”
Culinary Arts II student Adrian Geronimo congratulated Herve, saying “I’m very happy for him!”
This is the first time Chef has been awarded Teacher of the Year in his eight years at Logan.
“I hope this helps motivates students to join the class.” Chef added later. “It’s a fun class and you’re always going to use the skills you learn in here. I don’t care if you’re going to be a lawyer or a doctor, you’re always going to have to cook. My goal here is that students leave my class with the very basic skills of cooking. If I can teach a student to cook at least a simple meal for themselves or a little brother or sister, then that’s very good.”
“Come join the class and enjoy.” Addressing all prospective students Chef continued, “Whatever you cook, you get to eat, and if it’s not good you can start again. So that you can all come over here and enjoy the class.”
Chef has decades of professional culinary experience under his belt and has worked around the world before coming to teach at Logan, including fourteen years of experience as an instructor at California Culinary Academy – Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco.
“Being a chef is a great career, but being a teacher is even better because I can transfer that knowledge to students. I’m still doing what I’ve loved all my life, on top of that getting to bring this to the students, that is the most important thing for me.“
Some information has been taken from a video created by the Alameda County Office of Education, played at the Teacher of the Year Ceremony. The video can be found here.
