Chef Daniel Thomas is celebrated for taking care of the world’s most powerful in Washington, D.C. He has taken care of presidents, politicians, military leaders, while he served as a Head Chef for the United States Senate, Executive Dining Room, Congressional Leadership, and the Head Banquet & Catering Chef for the United States Capitol.
The owner of DWT Culinary Associates, LLC, Daniel is now a private chef to Washington D.C.’s power elite; his clients include numerous U.S. senators, Congress members, Cabinet members, military leaders, celebrities, executives, and law enforcement leadership. Daniel has been a keynote speaker for multiple high-profile organizations, a featured guest chef on Disney for the Tamron Hall National television talk show and authored his first cookbook: “Recipes for a New You! Healthy Eating at Its Best!” His book has received recognition at the Library of Congress National Book Festival.
Why would a successful celebrity chef return to school to complete a bachelor’s degree at Johnson & Wales? Impelled less by fame than by “how many lives I’m able to change on the way to the top,” Daniel charts his educational journey in how learning disabilities initially prevented his enrollment at JWU — to circling back 20 years later for help in elevating his entrepreneurial skills.
Dreams Can Come True
Daniel gratefully acknowledges his late adopted father’s influence on his culinary career — and for teaching him how to cook. A pastor, who was borderline diabetic, his dad inspired Daniel to want to serve all people in achieving a healthier lifestyle.
“My dad was the chef in our house. At three years old, I already knew I wanted to become a chef. I dreamed of cooking for the President of the United States, and for astronauts journeying into outer space. As an adult, I have cooked for five presidential families, over 100 Foreign Heads of State, a Head Chef to the United States Senate at the US Capitol and actually became the first Black chef keynote speaker for NASA. I am currently working to build the first restaurant for space travel.”
Achieving his dreams has not always been easy for Daniel.
Struggling to learn in middle and high school, Daniel was eventually diagnosed as having both dyslexia and ADHD. Not all schools at that time understood how to teach students the strategies that help someone who is living with learning disabilities unlock their full potential.
“Growing up, I first attended a predominantly black school and then transferred to an almost all-white school. I had to travel two hours to school, and another two hours back home, by catching multiple trains, multiple buses. And at this latter school, everybody else had Ferraris and Lincoln Town cars with drivers — it was a culture shock.”
“I received mixed messages, ranging from ‘You’re not going to amount to anything,’ to ‘You know, you’re going to be amazing.’ People were telling me, ‘Hey, look, it’s okay that you have learning disabilities – it’s actually a superpower.’ First, I thought I had a disease that prevented me from learning and then, oh my gosh! Now I have a superpower.”
Daniel believes that things happen for a reason.
Unfortunately, Daniel’s high school grade point average of 2.1 was so low that in 2005, when he applied to Johnson & Wales in Charlotte, it didn’t meet the minimum requirement for admission. “Disappointed when my application was rejected, I have come to understand, from a spiritual perspective, that something delayed is not denied. Rejection gave me time to learn how to turn my learning disabilities into my superpower before I could benefit from an education at Johnson & Wales.”
Rejection is simply redirection.
Recognizing that he had to work harder than other students to get where he wanted to go, Daniel enrolled in a junior college and accepted help to improve his concentration and reading skills. “After getting my grade point average to between a 2.9 and 3.0, I had the confidence to shoot for the stars — I applied to and was accepted at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where I earned an associate’s degree.”
Bachelor’s Degree Delayed
Ready to begin a bachelor’s degree, Daniel’s life was once again redirected.
A contracting company that had an association with CIA had been tracking Daniel’s performance. As Daniel was about to begin the bachelor’s degree program, the contracting company asked him to work for them in Washington D.C. Initially Daniel declined — he was only interested in going to D.C. for a position in the White House or the Capitol.
“When the company countered by saying that the House of Representatives might be opening up a position in a few months,” Daniel explained, “I told them, ‘OK, you got me.’ Although it meant losing me as a student, CIA encouraged me to go to Washington — they knew it was a chance of a lifetime for me.”
Living my dream in Washington, D.C.
Beginning as a chef for the National Museum of Natural History, Daniel worked his way up to be one of the chefs for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, then the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Leadership for the World Bank and the Kennedy Center honors awards dinner.
“The company liked my work, so they made me one of the chefs at the House of Representatives and then moved me to the Senate office buildings. As Barack Obama was nominated and then won the presidency, the company asked me to apply for the position in the Capitol building.”
Gratitude forms the foundation for Daniel’s mission to help change other people’s lives.
“At 5am on the day that the company congratulated me for getting the chef position in the Capitol building, I walked from the Senate building along the train corridor that runs through the underground tunnel to the Capitol. As I looked at each medallion in each state crest and each state flag that lined the tunnel, it hit me — ‘I’m in charge of our political leaders’ food and in managing their diets — and in making sure that all of them are well fed as they take care of America and the world.’
“My emotions surged as I recognized I was about to be a leader in that building. Historically, my ancestors had been considered the ‘help’ in that building, and my ancestors before them had been slaves who had built that building. I remember thanking God and my ancestors because I knew that they had paved the way for each step and block that I walked upon. I have never taken this knowledge for granted.”
Chef Daniel Thomas 2.0: ‘What’s Next?’
“I always knew there would be a time when I would ask myself, ‘Where do I go from here?’ After cooking for celebrities and the political elite in the Capitol building, going back to working in a restaurant didn’t feel like a move forward. Instead, I formed my own business, DWT Culinary Associates LLC & Marwell LLC.”
Manufacturing and nutrition become the mission.
“While in the grocery store one day during the pandemic, I was reading nutritional labels. It hit me that, ‘Oh, my gosh! There’s nothing black-owned on the shelves!’ Out of possibly 70,000 items in that grocery store, I counted less than seven items that were nationally manufactured by black-owned companies.”
In 2021, there were 161,031 firms (U.S. Census, Annual Business Survey) with majority Black or African American ownership, just 3% of the 5.9 million employer firms in the United States. Daniel is aware of the disheartening lack of Black-owned business.
“Brands that have black faces on their labels — Uncle Ben’s Rice or Aunt Jemima’s pancakes (Now Pearl Milling Company), are not Black-owned. I don’t have a problem philosophically with companies using black faces; however, as I walked up and down each aisle and recognized that almost nothing in the store came from Black-owned companies, the tears started to fall. I literally broke down in the aisle and cried.”
Desiring to champion nutritional literacy I chose to go back to school.
“About 12% of people in the United States self-identify as black, but the rates of diabetes, cholesterol, heart disease, cancer and other major health problems are disproportionately higher in the Black community. And because the Black community doesn’t own any of the food manufacturing plants and almost none of the healthcare systems, we don’t have a good way to address the health issues of Black Americans.
“Helping all people have healthier lives is also personal for me. My dad passed away a few years ago from cancer. One of my clients, Congresswoman Sheila G. Jackson Lee, recently passed away from cancer. I am still trying to wrap my head around her being gone. I had her food that was supposed to help her battle cancer in my refrigerator; sadly, I was not able to get to her before she passed.
“All of us, regardless of ethnicity, are focused on financial literacy, yet we are nutritionally illiterate. In my experience, most people don’t have a clue about how to read a nutrition label. During the pandemic I would hear people say, ‘I’m not taking the vaccine. I don’t know what’s in it.’ But everyone eats food, and most of us have no clue about what’s in it.
“At the moment that I broke down in the grocery aisle, I recognized, ‘I have a seat at the table, but I’m not using it in the way that want or believe I should.’ That insight inspired me to take my understanding of nutrition and manufacturing to the next level — I needed to go back to school.”
Why I chose JWU
Talking with his friends about different colleges, Johnson & Wales kept coming up. The courses Daniel had taken at other colleges would transfer to a bachelor’s degree at JWU. “At my age and level of experience, I wanted to know that the people at the top would have my best interest at heart.”
Daniel emailed Cindy Parker, the Vice President of online degree programs at JWU. “A phenomenal person, Cindy embodies what I believe leadership at a university is intended to be — and what a leader actually is at JWU. She was gracious in agreeing to talk with me. Pleasant and welcoming, she listened to my story about how I had applied to JWU almost 20 years ago and said, ‘I can’t speak to what happened in the past. But you’re here now, and Johnson & Wales is where you need to be.’”
Daniel also contacted Chef Michael Makuch, Department Chair of the College of Food Innovation & Technology on the Providence Campus. “His role is to support already-enrolled students and to teach and create course curriculum, so I appreciate that he made the time for us to talk. Leadership’s responsiveness to my questions and concerns clinched my decision to apply to the Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship program.”
This time Daniel’s grades and experience met the entrance requirements. Better able to utilize his “superpowers” — multitasking and knowing how to ask for help — he enrolled in the online Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship bachelor’s degree program. In December 2024, Daniel completed his bachelor’s degree Magna Cum Laude with a 3.8 GPA and will walk during the May 2025 commencement ceremony. Daniel plans to begin an MBA program in March 2025.
What is it like to learn online at JWU?
JWU offers a supportive online community.
“Throughout the program, JWU staff and faculty have provided the same level of understanding and support that leadership provided to me before I enrolled. Because I had difficulty learning while growing up, I recognize that as an adult, I have to ask for help. Most professors have understood that I have learning challenges and have been phenomenal. So, I appreciate that at JWU, I have been able to reach out to my professors when having difficulty in a class.”
Repetition is key to coping with learning challenges.
Recognizing that certain subjects continue to challenge him, Daniel related, “Personally, I can crush the game in the culinary classes but learning math is more difficult for me — I need lots of repetition.
“Professor Chiaro, who taught the financial math class, took time to explain the problems. Each week, he held a long Zoom session, in which he showed us examples. He also posted videos that went line by line through problems so that we would know how to do each one. I could watch and then rewind the videos to review the material as many times as I needed.
“Because of Professor Chiaro’s efforts, I ended with a ‘B’ instead of a ‘C’ and maintained my record of straight of A’s and B’s. When you are able to balance your profits and losses on a balance sheet — down to the last number — you get excited! Once, I get it, I can teach it to other people. That’s become another superpower for me.”
Creating A Business Plan
“What I love most about the Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship program is that you leave with a business plan. Individual professors in different business classes teach various ways to craft the plan, so that as you graduate, you have multiple versions of your marketing and business plans.
“As an entrepreneur, the goals I want to accomplish require investors. Without a solid business plan, there’s little benefit in having contact with the most powerful — and richest — appetites in the world, because they care less about my celebrity than in knowing what their return on investment will be.
“Even as a successful celebrity chef, not enough people know me. I’m not yet ready to go into grocery stores with my new brand — I don’t yet have a platform from which to generate sufficient revenue to be in national markets across the country, where people could get to know my product line.
“And not as many people are going to the grocery store anymore, because they’re utilizing e-commerce and having food brought to their homes. That’s where learning about microeconomics at JWU has been helpful — you have to know your business, who your competitors are, what they did right and where they made mistakes.
“A major focus in my marketing plan is to figure out why anyone would pick up my new products when they’re accustomed to other products. I hope to evolve a plan that won’t even require that I place my product lines into grocery stores.
“You get so much amazing information at JWU. It’s like the video games I played when I was young, in which you would get a ‘cheat code’ that allowed you to skip levels. What you learn at Johnson & Wales is like a secret code that will accelerate your business knowledge.”
The business classes — and all of the online classes at JWU — will elevate you above the curve compared with everybody else.
“You can also build professional relationships online with your professors at JWU. My professors have confirmed that my plans are on the right track. Because my business plans are already being implemented, I am immediately putting to use what I’ve learned in the program.
“Angelo Pitassi, the Director of Corporate Relationships for JWU went a step further – he is a rock star! Angelo offered, ‘Let me introduce you to some people we do business with and who know JWU; they can give you more information to develop your plan.’
“The professors are truly invested in the outcomes of their students and want to help them succeed — often they are willing to help students after they graduate. We pay our tuition to learn from the faculty while in school, so having continued help from professors is the icing on the cake.
Elements of the Business Plan
TV Show
“When you go to a doctor, they can tell you to ‘eat this, don’t eat that.’ As a culinarian, it is powerful to be knowledgeable about nutrition and also know how to make food taste amazing. I will have a television show in which I can share the entertainment side of food as medicine.”
Cookbooks
“I plan to create 10 more cookbooks, each having different stories. The full line of cookbooks and the video vignettes I plan to film with celebrities and politicians will help viewers understand and be excited about food as medicine.”
Products
“Building on the excitement generated by the TV show, I will launch my line of food as medicine products so people will feel empowered and say, ‘Wow, now I can do this.’ Hospitals can have multiple items in their repertoire to benefit their patients.”
Manufacturing
“I am working toward building an 800,000 square foot manufacturing plant not only for my own brand but to help small business owners who haven’t been able to get their brands on the market. I am partnering with leaders of major food and product manufacturers, who are willing to donate time to teach people to be business owners. Once these brands are launched, we’ll bring in a new cohort of businesses.
“Young people will be welcome to come to our manufacturing plant to play basketball, but I want to teach them how to actually build a basketball — to not just learn to hit a golf ball but build a golf ball, and also create the Astro turf that they play on every day. The manufacturing plant will function as an education center, where we’ll offer internships and even give the young people a job.”
Moving Forward
“I think about what my legacy would be if I were to pass away today. No matter how many amazing people I cook for or how much money I make, success for me is not about being a celebrity or cooking and serving the world’s most powerful appetites. I measure my success in how many people I’m able to help have a healthier lifestyle – and on the way to the top, making sure that I am I also sending the elevator back down to lift others up.”
Johnson & Wales offers an enormous wealth of information.
“I talk to people almost daily about what’s next for them and about going to college — people I’ve met who are in low-paying jobs. I can see their potential but maybe they are in a slump. I tell them, ‘Do your research about school.’ I ask them, ‘Have you ever thought about Johnson & Wales? I tell them that while learning online, they can continue earning a living. ‘While you’re sitting here at this computer waiting for a customer to come in, you could be doing some homework.’
“I suggest that they consider life to be like a personal GPS. The GPS won’t start talking to you until you start moving forward. Once you move forward, then the GPS will guide you to turn left or turn right. You never know what’s going to happen in life. By moving forward you’ll start figuring everything else out as you go.”
The first step is to make contact and have a conversation with an admissions advisor.
“At JWU, they understand how to deliver online education. if you take the first step, they will walk with you and they will even hold your hand. They will be there as a resource after you graduate. What you get out of school — and life — is what you put into it.
“So, please, take that first step and start moving forward. I came to the program with 2.9 GPA from my previous college. I can now say that at JWU, I have graduated with a 3.82/4.0. It is not always where you start, but it is your choice about how you finish.
“In your book called ‘life’ you can say that you had a rough few chapters. In your life, you can always choose to turn the page and start writing your new chapter. So, start writing your next chapter at Johnson & Wales University.”
I want to give special thanks to some of the amazing JWU online leadership and faculty who supported me.
Cindy Parker, Vice President
Michael Makuch, Department Chair / Associate Professor
Benjamin Zamzow (Microeconomics)
Kimberly Laliberte (Disease and Culture)
David Pagano (Entrepreneurship Seminar)
John Chiaro (Food and Beverage Cost Control)