ETSU’s ‘one big family’ has lost a much-loved member. “I just walked away quietly,” said chef Rick Tabor, former chef for ETSU’s Aramark Campus Dining Services.
Only minutes after he formally submitted his letter of resignation to the Aramark staff, Tabor was asked by their district manager to immediately leave the premises. “I was hurt,” he said.
In the three years that the chef spent at ETSU he remembers more good times than bad, but recent feelings and issues with Aramark prompted his decision.
His reasons for resigning had nothing to do with the university itself; rather Aramark’s District Manager, Brian Ellis, made promises to him he couldn’t keep, Tabor said.
“I didn’t agree with everything Aramark did and I didn’t see eye to eye with them,” Tabor said.
He didn’t go into details about the disagreements but said, “He (Ellis) thought I cared more about the school than the company.”
Ellis was not available for comment on the matter.
Students remember the kindness Chef Rick showed. One particular student, Diego Suarez, student manager of Aramark, remembers the chef helping out at events when the staff was short-handed.
“Small stuff he didn’t need to do, he just did it. Chefs usually prepare meals and leave, but he always stayed around,” Suarez said.
Claudine Anderson, catering director of Aramark remembered Chef Rick as a “fun person to work with and always full of energy.”
Tabor’s love of food comes from memories of his grandmother’s cooking. He said she always made people feel good when she cooked, but as she got older and was unable to cook herself, he took over. He wanted to recreate those good feelings.
This was his calling, and he knew it.
Tabor trained for his career in Chicago and San Diego.
Soon after training, he entered the Navy where trips to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Islands were frequent. As the executive chef with the North Atlantic Fleet, he was responsible for over 5,000 sailors’ daily meals.
As his career continued, Tabor served meals at many government functions to the likes of Presidents Bush and Reagan and even the noted Rockefeller family.
As time passed and his service with the Navy ended, the chef went on to more commercial catering services. He entered hotel management, revamping restaurants in trouble and getting them on their feet again.
In 2002, Tabor accepted a job with ETSU’s Aramark Campus Dining Services as their executive chef. Even after being in the food industry for over 20 years, and with a long list of clientele, some even famous, he said the three years he spent at ETSU is where he owes much of his best memories.
“My best memories were the interactions with the student body,” he said. He could not remember one really good memory, but had a few that stuck out.
He remembered times he went to students’ dorm rooms to help them cook meals with the food they had. He remembered baking cakes for students’ birthdays while they were away from home, but most of all he remembers the way students always treated him. He described ETSU as, “One big family.”
“ETSU pride is in my heart and always will be,” he said, and that it why he plans on giving back while he is away.
The decision was not easy, and came at a huge cost, but after much thought, Chef Rick felt it best to move on.
Tabor has taken on a new venture. Back to the days of revamping restaurants, he is doing just that with the former Sophisticated Otter downtown.
Tabor and owner Dr. Daniel Paul began in late November 2005, with a vision to revitalize the building’s historical meaning.
The building was once a storage facility for the train station next to it. Their vision was to combine the old with the new.
After planning, organizing and remodeling, Picasso’s is set to open in early February. Tabor is the new general manager and head chef.
Tabor plans to bring to life the place it once was in the early 1900s.
The restaurant will have railroad lights and designated places where guests can actually eat in a train car. “It will give it a turn-of-the-century feel,” Tabor said.
The main focus of Picasso’s is good food, a great environment and good fun, he said.
Twenty Internet-accessible computers will be placed on the first floor, and ETSU students, faculty and staff will receive a 15 percent discount with a valid ID. A live jazz band will perform every Wednesday through Saturday night to compliment the environment.
A little piece of ETSU will be in this new endeavor of the man commonly called “Chef Rick” by students. The some 120 cards from ETSU students and their parents, he received over the years will hang as part of Picasso’s dcor.
Chef Rick owes much of his excitement of his career to ETSU, he said, and he just wants to give back for everything he said he has been given.
In the meantime, Kyle Grover, the new director of Aramark, is currently interviewing to fill Tabor’s position. Finding an executive chef that will meet all the needs of ETSU has not been easy.
Grover said he’s “looking for someone to make an impact on the students’ lives and (who) will get the job done in the right way.”
The extensive search of finding a new executive chef has not just been limited within the Tennessee area. Grover is still interviewing candidates from states like Montana, and the pool is very competitive, he said.

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