Letter from Chef Bradley

Hello, my name is David Bradley, also known as Chef Bradley around ANCS. I am the Chef and Nutrition Director at ANCS, and this is my thirteenth school year in this role. I am also an ANCS parent, a neighbor, and the sponsor of the Pickleball Club at the Middle Campus. I have lived in the metro Atlanta area since I was seven and consider Atlanta home. I grew up in the suburbs of North Fulton, and as an adult have lived in the West End/Cascade, Midtown, and Grant Park neighborhoods. I attended Emory University, earning a B.A. in Computer Science. I did not attend culinary school, and learned my craft through work, from the chefs and cooks I have known, and through self-guided study.

I am responsible for guiding our award-winning Nutrition team, which includes 5 other talented individuals across both campuses. I take the lead in many of the administrative tasks (menu development; USDA, GA Department of Education, and Fulton County Department of Health regulatory compliance; communication with parents; free and reduced meal eligibility), but I also serve lunch (and occasionally breakfast), cook, and clean each school day, too.

Prior to my time at ANCS, I worked as a chef, cook, and waiter in a number of restaurants around Atlanta, most recently as the opening executive chef at Lure in 2012. Throughout my career, cooking from scratch, sourcing quality local ingredients, and cooking along with the seasons have been a priority. I am incredibly fortunate to have a vibrant and productive school farm that helps guide this work on a near-daily basis. This sometimes requires a bit of extra work and time, but the impact in taste and in learning about how our food comes to us is more than worth this investment.

In addition to any day where we serve something from our school farm, my favorite menus are ones that celebrate our school and our world’s diverse cultural and culinary heritages or that tie into students’ learning in some novel way. I’m not an expert in cooking every kind of food, but we try our hardest to present foods and people in context, and seek authentic and original recipes for menus we run during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National Poetry Month, and more. Whether your family is represented in this list or not, I always welcome suggestions and treasured family recipes that we may be able to use. It’s always exciting to showcase dishes that have an actual connection to our school family. Just last week in observation of Hispanic Heritage Month we served a menu of Colombian food guided by one of our cooks, including recipes he’d learned from his grandmother.

I feel lucky to work in a kitchen where I get to know and see my guests on a daily basis, and to support a group of colleagues so dedicated to each of the students in our school community. I’m thankful that our school is one where collaboration and inclusivity is prized, and where all of the members of the Nutrition team may find ways that our service can enrich the lives of our students and staff.

If you have suggestions, questions, or comments, please get in touch – dbradley@atlncs.org.

Thank you,

Chef Bradley

David Bradley

David Bradley joined the ANCS faculty in the 2014-2015 school year as the Chef and Nutrition Director. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Emory University but has worked in restaurants for nearly a decade. From 2006-2012, he was the Chef de Cuisine at Ecco. From 2012-2014, he was the Executive Chef at Lure.