Executive Chef
Levy Restaurants

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

In the summer of 1992, Dominique journeyed out west with five other culinary students to an externship position at Glacier National Park in Montana. Promoted to the hot line in less than two months, Dominique was the only female on the line, where she worked at every station, including expeditor.

One year later, she headed north to the Bake Shop in the Grande Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Cold appetizers came next with a former college roommate as her supervisor! They worked hard (plating 300-400 orders of shrimp cocktail every shift), laughed a lot, and always got everything out on time.

Alumnus Dominique Metcalfe

Next stop was the Breakers in Palm Beach Florida, where Dominique started in Garde Manger. "It was my first Christmas away from home, and I became very lonely and homesick. But everyone working at these hotels is away from their families, so it becomes like your home away from home'. We were all one big family."

At the Breakers, she plated about 1,000 salads and cold appetizers a day and ended up being promoted to "Head of Canaps," where she was her own chef.

A job offer in Switzerland at the Train Station in Zurich was the next career move for Chef Metcalfe. She spent one-and-a-half years in Zurich, enjoying life, learning a little German, and moving up the ladder from Garde Manger to the Saucier Station in Au Premier (the leading restaurant in the Train Station) to Chef de partie Entremetier.

Then it was back to the Breakers again! Dominique was placed in the Florentine Dining Room, cooking in the show kitchen. Chef moved once again when her boyfriend accepted a Chef de Cuisine position at the Hyatt Regency Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. Not having an opening at the time for Dominique, Hyatt invented one. The position created was chef of the Staff Restaurant or, as Dominique likes to refer to it, the "Chef de Cafeteria!" Although she was initially embarrassed about the position, with over 600 stomachs to keep full every day, Chef came to realize how much responsibility she really had.

Her current employer is Levy Restaurants, based out of Chicago, Illinois. She is located in Pittsburgh at the David L. Lawrence convention center, a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, where she is executive chef.

Most recently, Chef Metcalfe was responsible for feeding the participants at the international G-20 summit held at the convention center. Read more in Chef Metcalfe's profile page in the Fall 2009 issue of IUP Magazine.

Since my graduation from the IUP Academy of Culinary Arts, exploring different foods, countries, and cultures have interested me. There are so many opportunities in the culinary arts field. Doors are open all over the world!

Read More: Chef Metcalfe Leads G-20 Culinary Team