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Zest for life

PVCC culinary director leaves behind a legacy of passion

By Jenny Gardiner living@c-ville.com

Patient and fair. Loved teaching. Passion for life. Joyful partner. These virtues are extolled again and again as the Charlottesville food community mourns the passing of chef and food educator Eric Breckoff, who died unexpectedly on August 16 at age 60.

Breckoff was the much-beloved inaugural director of the culinary arts program at Piedmont Virginia Community College. John Donnelly, vice president of instruction and student services at PVCC, says Breckoff was an exceptional choice to run the program.

“He loved teaching and loved what he did and was a great program head and he was so passionate about the program, the students, and teaching,” says Donnelly, who also notes how far-reaching Breckoff’s efforts into the community were. The chef connected his PVCC culinary arts program students to the Monticello Harvest Days and CATEC, through cooking demos and helping place students in jobs in their area of interest. “It’s a significant loss for the college, for the program, and the culinary arts community,” says Donnelly. “He was well known and well respected, and we’ll miss him tremendously.”

Another PVCC colleague, Ridge Schuyler, worked alongside Breckoff at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, where the culinary arts program is located.

“He was larger than life with huge passions: a passion for food, a passion for politics, and a passion for people, especially those who saw food as a way of improving their lot in life,” Schuyler says. He jokes that his proximity to Breckoff also meant the threat of an expanding waistline.

“His students would produce meals, desserts, entrées, and appetizers, and he would bring [them] to our office and stand over us till we tried everything,” says Schuyler. “He was exuberant about both the food and the people who produced it.”

And his students carried his passion forward as they began their own careers. Alicia Simmons and Vinnie Falcone learned through Breckoff’s program before taking jobs at Belmont’s Tavola restaurant, where they each rose quickly through the kitchen ranks to become sous chefs (at different times). “They arrived well-prepared for the job, and became indispensable,” says Tavola chef/owner Michael Keaveny, who says Breckoff was his first call when staffing needs arose.

Simmons, now at Restoration in Crozet, mourns the treasured instructor. “He was such an inspiring instructor,” she says. “I

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