Meet DSC’s Campus Food Services New Head Chef, Jason Lutton

Photo by Aldrin Capulong

Daytona State College’s culinary programs have seen tremendous expansion over the past two decades, growing from an American Culinary Federation sanctioned apprenticeship to one of Florida’s most comprehensive hospitality and culinary management programs.

Jason Lutton was one of those early culinary apprenticeship students whose career has taken an illustrious pathway.

As a certified executive chef for well over a decade, he has traveled throughout North America, working as an independent contractor for three Super Bowls, a World Series, horse races, professional golf tournaments and large conventions.

For a time, he served as executive chef for a division of NASCAR and as personal chef to Bill France and Lisa France Kennedy. He was the private chef for The Eagles rock band, and prepared food for professional athletes, public figures, even the president of the United States.

Now, at 43 years old, Jason’s career has come full circle as the general manager and executive chef for Daytona State’s new food services provider, Metz Culinary Management.

Running DSC’s food service operation is much more than simply knowing one’s way around a kitchen. “There are a lot of different variables that come into play,” he noted. “You have to understand numbers, you have to be a people person. Here, my biggest challenge is learning the school environment, what the students like to eat, their tendencies, their palate, all while keeping in mind the budgets they’re on.”

“I started working in kitchens when I was 17 years old, as a dishwasher, and I still wash dishes,” he said. “Never be too good to do what’s needed.”

“During the Super Bowl, I was working with high-end, high-profile people and food,” he explained. “Here, I’m not working with sea bass. I’m working with Cajun mac and cheese, serving a few hundred students everyday rather than three meals a day for thousands of people attending a Microsoft convention.”

“We want to do the freshest stuff we can and give the students the best product we can,” he said.

“We try to do as much as we can from scratch – create our own burgers, bread our own chicken. We want to provide quality products at an affordable price.”

Metz also plans to add more vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options to the menu.

Jason said the key to success in his business is to network with colleagues, keep an open mind and always be willing to learn something new. “If you stick with it, you’re going to meet a lot of different people in this business. You may learn something from someone who has been in it for 20 years, but you also may learn something from someone who is new to the culinary industry – a different way to cook something, or maybe a better way to butcher a fish or prepare meat. Never stop learning.”

But most of all, he added, one should remember that in the kitchen, no job is too small for the head chef. “I started working in kitchens when I was 17 years old, as a dishwasher, and I still wash dishes,” he said. “Never be too good to do what’s needed.”

DAYTONA STATE MAGAZINE • SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Would you like to work in the most high-growth industry in Central Florida, the nation and the world? Daytona State College Hospitality and Culinary Management programs offer multi-level, multidisciplinary fields of study that build upon one another and combine theoretical concepts with hands-on, applied training. Find out more at www.DaytonaState.edu/dept_directory_hos/index.html