The Academy Dining experience: Chef Adam Rubino celebrated and praised for the Cuisine

Student content by: Elijah Godbolt ‘25, Carissa Lia ‘25, Ben Dalto ‘25

Here at Albany Academy, it’s not just the students that make a good school, but the employees as well. One of the most respected employees on campus is Chef Adam Rubino. Chef Adam is known for his great personality and his ability to hold a conversation with anyone. He is a very kind man who not only makes great meals but makes connections with the kids and gets them excited for lunch. He credits his mother and grandmother with introducing him to cooking. “My grandma moved in with us, and she, as well as my mother, did a great job making delicious meals,” he said. Chef then went on to explain how, when he started to cook on his own, he didn’t have a plan—he just grabbed the ingredients he had access to and got to work. This shows how creative and talented the chef really is.

Although the chef got great lessons from his mother and grandmother, he also went to culinary school to learn the fundamentals of cooking. He went on to train other chefs when he was in the restaurant business. He was tired of working all those long hours in the restaurant business. “I was tired every night and burned out,” he said. He chose Albany Academy because he wanted the freedom of having weekends and holidays off.

In recent years, Chef Adam and his staff have added two new meals that are crowd favorites. “The Puerto Rican pork shoulder and the jerk chicken are the perfect combination of seasonings that makes the food so good,” Albany Academy senior Johner Soe said. Chef Adam gives credit to his staff and their maximization of ingredients to ensure that there are hot, delicious meals every day. They utilize the fact that there is no school on weekends to restock for the following week if need be.

Chef Adam’s favorite part of working here is the appreciation he gets from the students. He feels food can bring people together. “Growing up with food in the house, I felt it always made people happy and brought us together,” he said. He explains how seeing the students and teachers happy about the food brightens his day and brings back personal memories for him when he was growing up. Chef Adam just got married, and lucky for us, he has no plans of going anywhere. His goal is to stay and continue to improve the dining experience at Albany Academy.

Students at Academy really love and respect how Chef Adam represents different cultures in his food. Well-respected senior Johner Soe said, “Chef Adam has really cooked this year. Him experimenting with different cultures and backgrounds in his cooking has brought people together.” Johner then goes on to explain how it’s not only Chef and his staff’s food that makes a great dining experience, but also their humor and overall great personality that the students can’t get enough of. Chef and his staff give you the best of both worlds with great food and great people that give everyone in school something to look forward to every day and is one of the reasons why Academy is so successful.