With 85% of the student body living on campus, Villanova’s wide array of dining options are near and dear to the hearts of many. Hundreds of chefs, cooks and dining service staff members work day-in and day-out to serve reliable, healthy and convenient meals to the Villanova community.
Even the smallest kitchens are known to be stressful, chaotic environments. Just serving 50 tables a night requires near-perfect execution from every cook, waiter, buser and dishwasher. Now, imagine what it would look like to serve thousands of students each and every day. The Villanova Dining Services staff work with grace and celerity to handle such a monumental task, and Executive Chef of Residential Dining Christopher Wiseley plays a key role in preparing and managing each team.
Wiseley grew up just a few minutes from Villanova in the Drexel Hill area. It was during his high school years growing up in Delaware County that Wiseley first found his love for the food industry.
“I was 12, and I got my first job washing dishes in a kitchen for the Knights of Columbus,” Wiseley said. “They had a little restaurant and catering business. I worked there all the way through high school, and I did every job: washing pots and pans, cooking, bartending, waiting tables. I just always felt at ease and at home in the kitchen.”
After high school, Wiseley graduated from Johnson & Wales University, originally with no intent of pursuing a career in hospitality.
“I tried not to be in the kitchen for a while, but it kind of pulled me back in,” Wiseley said.
Wiseley’s career truly started back at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. It was there that he honed his skills, supervising a kitchen that served a 300-seat restaurant, as well as room service for more than 400 rooms. After his time at the Marriott, Wiseley sought a new opportunity at the Drexelbrook.
“The Drexelbrook fostered my cooking,” Wiseley said. “I worked under a chef who went to the [Culinary Institute of America] and learned their points of view and really developed as a cook. Then I left there and came to Villanova.”
For the past 20 years, Wiseley has worked at Villanova, first as Chef Manager in the Connelly Center before stepping into his current role as the Executive Chef of Residential Dining.
“The executive chef role…it’s more planning and strategic, making sure that the chefs in the building have everything to succeed,” Wiseley said.
Often, kitchen workers will tell horror stories about the stresses of working on the line as a cook. But for many, the rush of hundreds of orders coming in, handling hot pans and working against the clock is what the job is all about.
“When you’re in it and you’re doing it, and you’re working on a line, you are trying to do everything you can to not be working on a line… but when you’re away from it, you miss it,” Wiseley said.
In coming to Villanova, Wiseley found something that he had been searching for ever since he started washing dishes for the Knights of Columbus. He found a community.
“I was always trying to get that same feeling I had when I was in high school and I worked,” Wiseley said. “Everybody in the kitchen knew each other, we were friends. I think Villanova gave me that sense of home where I wanted to be. I enjoy working with all the people that work here. They work hard. [There are] days where they don’t have to come in, but they come in and want to help. They’re community here.”
Outside of running from location to location trying to manage the dining halls or Connelly Center, Wiseley takes time to enjoy the simple things in life, such as the beauty of campus or a perfectly-made pizza.
“I’m out running around a lot, so usually I like to be outside, walking around and seeing everybody,” Wiseley said.
And when it comes to pizza, his favorite food, Wiseley finds immense value in the nuances of sauce-to-cheese ratios and perfectly balanced dough recipes.
“It’s very hard to find good pizza,” Wiseley said. “Everybody has their little tricks of what they do for the dough. We do it every Friday in our house, we make our dough, find the right ratio of cheese to sauce.”
Like so many of us, Wiseley found a new home at Villanova. In the University’s Dining Services, he found the camaraderie that had such a profound effect on him in his early life. And anyone who has ever worked the line knows that it’s those friendships that make it all worthwhile.
