A local Champaign business that provides chefs for sororities and fraternities is to move into new headquarters very soon. College Chefs provides food service to as many as two dozen college campuses, such as the University of Illinois, and is planning to make a move to a new office near to campus in two months time in July.
The business, which was founded by Kevin Gadus three years ago back in 2010, is to be the very first commercial occupant in a building that was developed on the southwest corner of Park and Fifth Streets in Champaign by Kenwood Sullivan. The business has more than 70 full-time employees, according to the firm’s general manager of business operations Dave Tarrant.
The great majority of these employees are trained chefs with culinary degrees, Tarrant says. The sororities and fraternities they serve are on a number of different campuses including Purdue, Northwestern Wisconsin, Illinois State, Western Illinois, Illinois, Indiana, Florida State and Bradley. Gadus refined the concept for the business after relocation to Champaign-Urbana 13 years ago, back in 2000, in order to be near his two daughters.
College Chefs now has agreements to give food service to organizations on as many as 32 campuses come this fall. “We don’t position ourselves as a discount food service,” Tarrant notes. “We’re more concerned with a high-end product and the high-end chefs who come with that. We can offer them a no-frills package that focuses on high quality lunch and dinner and is still able to get price point competitive.”
Gene Salaz
