“I started my career at age 14 washing dishes, and 34 years later I’m still washing dishes,” Chef Gary Whitecotton said with a smile, as he finished his two-day cooking school at Rappahannock Community College’s Glenns campus.

Certified Executive Chef Whitecotton has spent almost his entire life in the culinary world. Before joining the Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning he was executive chef at the Country Club of Virginia for 14 years and the James River Country Club for eight years. His career has taken him to various restaurants and clubs along the East Coast, “sometimes holding down two jobs at same time,” he said.

But he confides that his present job as a culinary instructor at RILL gives him a great deal of satisfaction. “There is a lot more going on in that round building in Warsaw than one may think. To see these students get excited about cooking, creating cooking ideas, and learning about restaurant management and all t...