Fueled by the belief that every student should have an exceptional, school food dining experience, the Central Kitchen has professional chefs on staff to cook real, wholesome foods from scratch. We’re challenging the status quo, setting higher expectations and feeding more kids than ever before.
Tom Lucero
Central Kitchen Manager, Executive Chef
Tom is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy. In his years with Black Angus Restaurants where he started as a dishwasher, he has held positions of Executive Chef, District Chef, Kitchen Training Director, Regional Chef and District Manager. After a short time with Ruby Restaurant Group as their Regional Manager of Food and Beverage, he moved on to Yard House Restaurants and McCormick’s and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant to further his culinary and corporate skills.
The past three years Tom has worked as the Corporate Executive Chef of Sienna Modern American and Land Ocean New American Restaurants. Tom’s love for food comes from working with some great chefs and restaurant corporations. His philosophy in life and work is “you never stop learning” so every day is considered a learning opportunity. He has a passion for teaching and training and loves to see people grow.
Shawn Marie Rivera
Central Kitchen Floor Supervisor, Chef
Shawn has her degree in Culinary Arts Management and has taken steps to further her education by majoring in Nutrition and Food at California State University, Sacramento. Shawn’s goal is to apply her education with her experience to develop menus and meals students want to eat that utilizes the farm to school program.
After working in the kitchens of many of our school sites such as Ethel I Baker, William Land, C.K. McClatchy, John F. Kennedy, and Luther Burbank, Shawn knows first hand that the food students want to eat not only needs to look delicious, but it needs to taste as good as it looks.
In Shawn’s free time she enjoys time with her family, hiking to find waterfalls, and can often be found taking pictures of food; especially pictures of school lunch.
