Two years ago, Kate Hays found herself at a crossroads. After decades in the food industry, she was ready for a new challenge.

She tired of backbreaking hours in the kitchen and longed for a job with health insurance. Hays, who had worked in restaurants or small catering companies since dropping out of college 33 years earlier, applied for a gig as a chef for University of Vermont Dining Services.  Campus dining halls, she conceded, have yet to earn a reputation for culinary excellence.

"I think a lot of people were dubious," Hays said. "I was dubious."

In 2013, she took a job as a catering chef at UVM. In less than two years, she worked her way up to executive chef of the Davis Center and, in July, UVM Dining executive chef. Hays, 54, oversees the chefs on campus and food purchases totaling $23 million annually.

"It's a scale of food I've never seen," Hays said.

Hays, who lacks a formal culinary background, began her career in the Boston food scene and settled in Burlington in 1986. She was first hired as executive chef at the Daily Planet, the Center Street eatery renowned for its creative take on cocktails and cuisine.

"I walked in here and thought it was just funky enough, and I was lucky enough to get the job," Hays said. "At the time, Burlington's food was five years behind Boston."

Before making the unconventional jump to UVM, Hays owned Dish Catering from 2002 to 2013.

Hays sat down with  Burlington Free Press reporter Zach Despart at the Daily Planet, her old haunt. Over a dinner of duck and frisée salad and spinach and artichoke ravioli, we talked about her passion for food and hopes for transforming UVM's campus cuisine.

What were your experiences with food as a kid?

My mother used to cook us whatever we wanted for our birthdays. We would pore through whatever collection of cookbooks she had, and it was the New York Times Craig Claiborne collection and you would find the most delicious-looking picture and order that. I remember eating snails for the first time — it wasn't anything I had picked, I think it was my sister or brother's birthday — it was with garlic, so what's not to love. I was probably 6.

Growing up outside of Boston, was yours a culinary household?

Very much so. My mother loved to cook  — she once had a suckling pig shipped in by bus. We were always cooking and eating and all of us, all of the children have been in the food industry. My sister, my brother — my mother cooked and catered. The only person not involved in food professionally was my father. And he loved to eat.

When did you become aware you wanted food to be part of your life, part of your livelihood?

Before I got into cooking, when I was a little kid I used to experiment with food. When it didn't work out I would take it into my room and hide it where it would rot. My mother would say, 'What is that smell?' And I would have tried to make creme brulee and it didn't work so I hid it in my cupboard. Why throw it out? That would be too easy.

I always thought it was really cool my mother could conjure that magic with food and how people responded to that. I started out in psychology until I was burnt out and exhausted and decided I needed to do something different.  I had loved to cook but no one had told me how stressful that was. So the laugh was on me.

So this was in college?

Yeah. I started cooking professionally in '82. I dropped out of Northeastern. I dabbled in classes and, just, forget it. I just went right into cooking after working in a mental hospital.

What has more insane people, a ward or a kitchen?

It's about the same. It's how the medicate themselves that's different. I think having the background of dealing with crazy people has served me well in kitchen work because you become unflappable.

Was there a sense you had you wanted to run a restaurant, and take an executive role? Or did you want to solely cook?

For a while I think everyone dreams of owning a restaurant until you've done it for a few years and realize, 'Oh my God, that's five years of having nothing but a labor of love.' It's ever-changing and ever-evolving. If you're ever going to work yourself to death, you might as well have something to show. I'm not talking money because you'll find a lot of passionate people in the food industry where it's more about meeting people and a sense of community through food. It's such hard work that I like to see people come out with a little something. It's nice to see people recognized with the James Beard Award, to get accolades in the press beyond Vermont.

What is the measure of a good chef?

Someone who can cook but also inspires awe and respect in others. And someone who respects the product they're working with  —  someone who can coax magic out of a really humble ingredient. When you start out it's all about fancy and tarting it up, but as you get older or more experienced, it is winnowing it all down to simplicity. And sticking with it, it's hard.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I love my job and want to see where it goes. It's a really exciting new model. What we are doing at UVM is so drastically different than what it traditionally is. We're working with UVM to change their model to do so much in the local landscape. We're in the process of opening a dining hall in 2017. We're hoping to have an education center that's farm-to-table.

Traditionally, dining on campus gets a bad rap, doesn't it?

That's why it's funny. Last semester we were getting local pork belly. We just opened an all-local deli in the Davis Center with local meat and bread from August First Bakery, Intervale food hub vegetables. It's really breaking all the expectations. I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't see where it was going, and knowing a lot talented people who were already on staff here. The two-and-a-half years I've been there already, the progress we have made, in terms of fresh and local food, has been amazing.

What do you look for in a new dining experience?

I look for a place that has food that is interesting without being overly pretentious. I would much rather come to a place that has food that is like this, a place that has an interesting menu where if you're in the mood to eat a burger, you can eat a burger. Or you can eat more high end if you can, but you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for something that is going to shoot so high and miss. I hate being disappointed and there are so many places that try, try, try and fail. If I'm going to spend that amount of money, I want it to be mind-boggling.


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