In less than two weeks, the nearly 54,000 students of Seattle’s public school system will return from summer break. And award-winning chef, Emme Ribeiro Collins, will be there to welcome them with a warm meal and stretched out arms. The Seattle-raised Chopped Champion serves as the executive chef of the district, working with the director of nutrition services to bring farm-to-table lunches, made from scratch, to the students of the Emerald City.

Under her direction, Seattle’s lunch program has become a model for the country. Collins tells EBONY that the job has been one of the most rewarding positions of her life. As a young girl, the Brazilian-born chef remembers going from home cooked meals for lunch in her native country to corn dogs on a stick in her new school district. “It was shocking,” Collins recalls. “I would just go completely hungry.” Now her life has come full circle. “It’s the proudest job that I’ve had—to now be in control of the menus of what the students are able to eat.”

Collins started in her role as the district’s executive chef in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. After restrictions spurred shutdowns and issues with the landlord of her family restaurant arose, Collins made the tough decision to shut down the business. It left her wondering what was next. She had spent years as a celebrity chef, and working in her family business. COVID marked a turning point in her lifelong love affair with food. 

Taking a page out of her mother’s career book, Collins chose to look into culinary instruction. Her mom was a culinary instructor for the career and technical education skill programs for one of the local high schools. When Collins began Googling jobs she keyed in on a posting for a district executive chef. For the last two years, she’s not only shaped the meals that students receive, she’s fed families reeling from the fallout from the global health crisis.

Collins first fell in love with food at a very young age. Some of her earliest memories center around her time in Brazil when her mother owned a catering business that operated out of the home. When the family moved to Seattle, her parents opened up their first restaurant in the city.  “Food has just been a part of my life forever,” Collins says. “It is a part of me.”

Collins entered the world of academia at a tumultuous time. COVID not only disrupted student learning, it created financial stress for millions of families and triggered supply chain disruptions that made it difficult for schools to get the food items needed to serve student lunches. But Collins’ experience working in nearly every facet of the culinary business uniquely prepared her for this moment.  

“There are several problems with school lunch across the nation,” Collins admits. “I think that’s why we really need to bring more chefs and more people who are culinary minded to the industry right now.” While most school lunch programs are led by dieticians who are governed by federal guidelines that determine what qualifies as a reimbursable meal for school lunch, Collins says more districts could benefit from having cooks and creatives in the kitchen. 

“Students deserve culinary professionals who are taking the time to create a delicious meal that tastes like its home cooked, and using local ingredients when possible that fits the guidelines,” Collins says.Fortunately for the students of Seattle, Collins says she loves a challenge. “I've been able to definitely achieve that with our school district.”