Ian Keith ‘97

Culinary Excellence Manager, Rutgers University Dining; New Brunswick, NJ

Ian Keith ‘97 is the chef responsible for managing quality control and education on culinary excellence for Rutgers University Dining Services. Additionally, he is the chef for culinary development and instruction at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health. Ian’s most recent accolade was conceptualizing and launching Harvest, a plant-centric, sustainable café concept that is used as a platform for integrating culinary health and wellness into the dining program at Rutgers University division-wide. At Rutgers Dining Services as a whole, he is tasked with the evolution and advancement of principles and programs that foster and promote sustainability and health. At the Institute, Ian jointly designs menus and recipes for national research on digestive health and childhood development with the department of nutrition. He is a collaborator on experiments within the departments of plant biology and plant pathology on commercial niche crop viability within the State of New Jersey. In the university food science community, he is an authority and lectures frequently on quantity and experimental foods. A second-generation graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Ian’s career path has taken him through cooking macrobiotic diets at the Ritz-Carlton Hotelier, directing operations for James Beard Award-winning restaurants, and establishing certification from the Northeast Organic Farming Association for small farms. He is also a member of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. (New Brunswick, NJ) @RutgersDining