Meet Chef Clive Wanstall
After working in restaurants and five-star hotels in London, including the officer’s chef with the Royal Engineers as an agency chef and a caterer for a wide range of events until his mid-twenties, Clive decided to cross the Atlantic. He enjoyed an introduction to modern American Kitchens in Knoxville, Tennessee, Clive and his wife then moved to Berkeley, California, where, as Clive says, “the food scene was rocking”! A period with restaurateur Narsai David and a hotel opening took Clive into boutique supermarkets (at a time when Market of Choice was inconceivable) because the Berkeley 80’s food scene had created the demand.

He was then off to Hawaii to run a small Italian restaurant on Maui as manager before settling in Eugene as manager at Ambrosia. After a few years, he joined the Advisory Board for the Culinary Arts Program at Lane Community College. A few years after that, an instructor Chef position was open, and he thought, “I could do this. What do you do at a restaurant? You hire people, train people, hone their skills, and then eventually, they leave, often when they’ve learned as much as they can”. While he had no formal training as an instructor, he realized teaching was something he’d always done.

Students have learned charcuterie, ice carving, short order, ala carte, banquets, catering, and even food truck operating classes during Chef Clive’s tenure at Lane.

Community is very important to Clive, and for the past 20 years, at Thanksgiving, Clive has given his students a volunteer crash course in high-volume production when they prepared a free full Thanksgiving meal for families in need. Yearly over 2,000 people are served. This also served as a good reminder to the students that as a chef, you may not be taking the holidays off. Focused on the students. He feels that people can come to Lane unsure of their future and take advantage of the wide range of programs available to eventually find their path.