Life & Culture

Getting to know ECC staff: James Guzzaldo

Justin Gonzalez, Staff Writer and podcaster

September 3, 2025

Prof. Guzzaldo observes a Baking Operations student in the kitchen.

Professor of Culinary Arts and Hospitality, Chef Guzzaldo, shares his experience with the culinary arts at ECC not only as a current teacher, but as a former student.

Q: What led you to becoming a Culinary arts & Hospitality Chef at ECC?

A: “My teacher from when I was a student here, Chef Johnson, was retiring, and she reached out to me and let me know that there was an opportunity to come back home. I was living in Florida at the time, and I decided to take the opportunity that’d be a new adventure, something different, a new way to grow and give back”.

Q: How old were you when you realized you had the spark, and you wanted to pursue the Culinary Arts

A: “I knew when I was young. I was working in a restaurant as a bus boy, and then a server in high school and into college, and I was really liking it so I decided to go to culinary school.

I don’t know if it was a spark, I would say, it was more like a fuse. When you are a baking student you get access to a portion of the products you make and I would take it to friends or family. And just how much joy that brought to other people was very encouraging.”

Prof. Guzzaldo in a tall white hat and apron with a Baking Operations student in a white coat and a black hat. — Prof. Guzzaldo with a Baking Operations student in the kitchen. “Getting [the students] to transition to being self governed, self motivated, and self organized is a challenge, but it just comes with experience. Giving them the support they need but allowing them to try” Guzzaldo said. (Lila Dzikowicz)

Q: Where did you study Culinary Arts?

A: “Here at ECC. I did a kind of a general bachelor’s but it was not culinary related. An Associate’s is completely sufficient for most every role”.

Q: Was there a specific lesson or something you learned from a professor that has still stuck with you today?

A: “I wouldn’t say that i’m as good as she was at it (referring to his ECC culinary Professor), but culinary is not necessarily an easy field. I’d say toughen them up in a way that you expand their capacity, but she would do it with a gentle hand. So I try to do that.”

Prof. Guzzaldo holding a candy thermometer in the kitchen. — Professor Guzzaldo makes marshmallows in his classroom. (Lila Dzikowicz)

Q: As a chef, what do you find is the biggest difficulty in teaching students about the Culinary Arts?

A: “Getting them to transition to being self governed, self motivated, and self organized is a challenge, but it just comes with experience. Giving them the support they need but allowing them to try.”

Q: What advice would you give to a student pursuing Culinary Arts?

A: “I’m always encouraging them to get a job, go work in the field. Getting a job, however mundane, is gonna open your eyes to what the industry is really like, but it’s also going to give you some skills that are going to allow you to get more out of your time in school”.

Q: What’s your favorite meal to cook?

A: “Well for me it’s not really meals but i’ve always liked making bread. I’m also Italian, so I think it’s a little bit in my DNA to be a little obsessed with bread.”

Prof. Guzzaldo smiles at a student seen from the back in a white apron and black hat. — Professor Guzzaldo in his class Baking Operations with a student. (Lila Dzikowicz)

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About the Contributors

Justin Gonzalez, staff writer and podcaster

This is Gonzalez’s first year at ECC pursuing an associate in arts. This is his first year serving on the Observer staff. Gonzalez joined because he had never done anything with writing newspapers or journalism before, so he wanted to take a shot at writing. He hopes to write about how music can affect people’s moods and behaviors, and his ultimate goal is to understand what it takes to be a writer. His personal motto is to live life having changed someone else’s. Contact information: [email protected]

Lila Dzikowicz, staff writer and photographer.

Dzikowicz is a freshman at ECC interested in studying music. This is her first year on the Observer staff. She joined the Observer because she likes to write and hopes to gain more experience. She is interested in covering politics and human-interest stories at ECC and in the wider community. She hopes her experience on the Observer will give her the chance to meet more people in the college and surrounding towns who she otherwise would never have had the opportunity to have a conversion with. Her motto is “If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in” (Bridget Mason). Contact information: [email protected]