By Anna Bedell

By his own admission, ESPN Chef Owen dos Santos was a restless youth who could have become a band roadie.

In 1998, while working at a warehouse, dos Santos contemplated the direction his life was headed.

“I was following a band around the country, you know, getting crazy,” said dos Santos. “Right after high school, I went to school for communications,” said dos Santos. “And I got kicked out.”

Dos Santos said it was a kind of kick in the ass. He needed to get himself in gear and that’s when he started thinking about his future.

“I was going down the wrong path, I wasn’t really doing anything productive for myself at all,” said dos Santos.  

Dos Santos, who grew Attenborough, Massachusetts, is the the Food Service Director at the ESPN’s cafeteria. He got his culinary training at Johnson & Wales University, Rhode Island.  

From someone who wanted to record music, school was a culture shock for him, he said. He was required to have clean, pressed uniforms, clean nails, shave and be on time.

He did have some experience working in a kitchen, though.

“I was 15, working at a pizza place, not too far from my house,” said dos Santos. “A pizza-sub shop, under the table,” said dos Santos as he chuckles. 

And of course, he comes from a background that cherishes family and food, except that the food part skipped a generation.

“My mom was a single mom, you know, and I looked up to her,” said dos Santos. “She worked hard to provide for my brother and I but she couldn’t cook.”

Dos Santos said his mom tried her best every single day.

“The funny part is when I was in culinary school, I apologized to her,” said dos Santos. “Because I would ask, “ma, what’s for dinner?’ and she would always say, ‘sit down.’”

He said he never realized how hard it was for her to go to work every day, come home, and make sure there was food on the table.

“My grandmother, my father’s mom, was amazing and everything that she ever made us always tasted great,” said dos Santos.

He grew up eating her shepherd’s pie and pot roast, which might be considered slightly off beat for someone who is Portuguese.

In 2006, dos Santos began working the evening shift as a prep guy at the ESPN cafeteria, here in Bristol. Although he worked his way up to his current position, he never lost his rebellious streak and sense of humor.    

Dos Santos said he likes celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain’s “don’t give a shit attitude.”

He may not have a specific dish that he prefers cooking the most, but dos Santos likes the variety of working at ESPN’s cafeteria. They run daily specials and the entrees change every single day. (Note: I work there and have sampled the food.) 

“It all depends on what I feel like, you know,” said dos Santos. “For example, today I’m making fried chicken sandwiches with collard greens and cheddar cheese on them.”

Dos Santos’ creative free-style cooking is evident in the following menus:

Dos Santos gives credit to his creative staff for the success of the 5-star cafeteria, he said. Each person brings something to the table.

“We make a pretty good team,” he said.

The best part is working with a bunch of different people with different backgrounds – all coming together for the same purpose – making sure that they provide good food for people, dos Santos said.

An example is Chef James Thompson, who said working with dos Santos is an adventure.

“I mean, he’s a very interesting individual, he’s very unique, he’s very diverse,” said Thompson. “But it’s fun, to put one word on it it’s definitely fun, and I enjoy it.”

Thompson said that although it may sound bad, he sometimes has to channel dos Santos’s more confrontational side.

“So, you know, he’s an asshole in his own way,” said Thompson. “And it teaches you that in this business you kind of have to have that.” 

Growing up in Hartford, Connecticut, Thompson said his love for cooking began when he took a lot of cooking classes in middle school and high school. He is a graduate of the Center for Preliminary Arts.

Thompson’s favorite thing to cook is barbecue ribs.

“I like to dry rub them, I smoke them for about three hours and cover them for a couple hours.” said Thompson. “Then I like to make my own little signature barbecue sauce.”

Dos Santos and his team have faced the challenges of working during the coronavirus pandemic. 

“The most challenging thing was looking people in the face and letting them know they have to be furloughed,” said dos Santos. “And having to call them six months later and let them know that they’ve been laid off.”

Dos Santos said he would bring them in his office and he explained the situation the best way he could.  

“No one really knew what was going to happen,” said dos Santos. “You know, to look the person in the eye and it’s devastating, and I lost sleep thinking about it.:

Dos Santos said he would rather look somebody in the eye; it’s a little more respectable.  

But as time went on, dos Santos said he had to give them their final notice over the phone.

“It just left a bad taste in my mouth,” said dos Santos.

Both Dos and his wife Kim, 44, who teaches at a residential hospital for kids, have adjusted to life during the coronavirus pandemic.

“He was cooking so much at work that he stopped doing it at home,” said Kim, in a phone interview. “And that changed with the pandemic, he’s been cooking all the time and he’s super excited… it’s awesome.”

Kim said both of them support local farms by buying their produce at farmers markets.

“He’s been doing some cool things like getting into foraging more and cooking what he forages,” said Kim. “I do think he’s really creative.”  

Kim said being married to a chef means – eating great food all the time. She credits her husband for having a great sense of humor, which has helped relieve stress during the pandemic.  

Dos Santos hopes to see his staff come back when business picks up, although isn’t sure who would want to come back. In the meantime, he continues to have fun at work.

“Nobody knows what the future is, very uncertain for everybody,” said dos Santos.