About Chef Bill Roll
Bill Roll is an assistant professor of culinary arts and hospitality management at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey, where he teaches the next generation of culinary professionals. He graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America and began his restaurant career at Aquavit in New York City, a three-star New York Times restaurant. From there he moved to Durham, North Carolina to work under James Beard Award-winning chefs Ben and Karen Barker at their Magnolia Grill, named by Gourmet Magazine as the number eleven best restaurant in the country in 2000. He returned to New Jersey to become Executive Chef at The Bay Head Yacht Club at age 26, a position he held for six years, before moving to The Molly Pitcher Inn. His team consistently won Best Brunch in Central New Jersey from New Jersey Magazine. After nearly two decades running professional kitchens, Roll transitioned into culinary education, bringing his industry experience directly into the classroom.
Episode Overview
André Natera sits down with Chef Bill Roll to talk about the transition from running professional kitchens to training the next generation of chefs, and what that shift teaches you about the industry from the outside in. Roll talks about what culinary school can and cannot give students, why hands-on tasting and practical judgment are skills that have to be built through repetition and not lecture, and how he prepares students for an industry that is changing faster than most culinary programs can keep pace with.
They also get into AI in the kitchen, the private catering business, and what chefs who want to build independent income streams need to understand about client relationships, social media, and the business fundamentals of running a catering operation. It is a candid conversation about culinary education, the evolving role of technology in professional cooking, and how chefs can build careers with longevity beyond the line.
Topics covered in this episode:
- The transition from executive chef to culinary educator and what each role teaches the other
- What culinary school does and does not prepare students for in professional kitchens
- Why hands-on tasting, teamwork, and repetition remain irreplaceable in culinary education
- How AI is beginning to influence kitchen operations and culinary training
- Building a private catering business from scratch, including client relationships and pricing
- Using social media to grow a culinary brand and catering clientele
- The realities of the hospitality industry that culinary students are not told before they arrive
Guest
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