Teaching success

By the time he was 22 years old, Matt Bolton was a chef at a four-star restaurant and had earned numerous prestigious international culinary awards typically granted to graduates of the Culinary Institute of America or Johnson & Wales University. But Bolton is a proud graduate of SUNY Adirondack. 

“SUNY Adirondack gave me the same education, if not better,” Bolton said. “I think it definitely set me up for a lot of success in the industry.” 

Bolton fell in love with the restaurant industry in high school, when he took a job at Friends Lake Inn. As the North Warren graduate was looking at colleges, the chef under whom he worked convinced him to stay on and continue learning in the kitchen while attending SUNY Adirondack. 

At the time, the college’s culinary program was so small, it shared a workspace with the cafeteria staff. “I really liked the small, tight-knit classes,” Bolton remembered. “We had the same students in the same classes, all the way up until we graduated, which was really nice, that’s how you form bonds and friendships. I was comfortable.” 

And he thrived under the guidance of Chef Bill Steele — a “great mentor,” Bolton said — under whom he was awarded the college’s Parnassus Award/Culinary Arts. 

Bolton graduated and continued working at Friends Lake Inn, never considering a career doing anything else. But in 2012, Steele called: SUNY Adirondack was expanding its culinary program into a building on Bay Road and wanted Bolton to sign on as an adjunct professor to help run it. 

“I really had no inkling at all to be an educator,” he said. “I always took local high school kids and gave them a job at Friends Lake Inn, but that was three or four at a time, not 60 to 70 students at a clip.” 

But when Steele said he planned to retire a few years later, Bolton enrolled at SUNY Oswego, from which he earned a vocational education teaching degree. He is now a full-time instructor of Culinary Arts at SUNY Adirondack and played an integral role in the program’s successful transition to its downtown Glens Falls hands-on culinary facility, Seasoned. 

“That move really opened the program up for a lot more changes,” he said. “We saw a huge increase in enrollment and, now that we have Seasoned, we are a public fixture in the community.” 

Since Seasoned’s inception, Bolton has helped forge relationships with regional farmers and vendors, from whom the food prepared at the restaurant is provided. He also signs the restaurant — and his students — up for every event he can. 

“Our culinary program was always a hidden gem,” he said, “but now it’s out in the open.” 

The program’s reputation extends far beyond the region, too. “When I first started it was, ‘Oh, it’s a community college,’” Bolton said. “But we changed their perspective; now a really good percentage of people realize it’s a high-quality education, especially in culinary.” 

For the price, Bolton said, there isn’t a better value. “We’re one of the best tuitions in the state and you get as good, if not a better, education than at any of the big-name schools.”