Vince Zangardi

Details

Dining Room Supervisor, WindsorMeade
Williamsburg, VA
Age: 29
Education: Bachelor of arts from James Madison University
Years at organization: 1

Why Selected?

According to Kevin Early, director of dining and catering, Vince has made a difference by:

Get to know

Q. What has been your proudest accomplishment?

To come into the successful organization that I’m with and find ways to make us even better. I respect the people I work for, and to hear them and the residents of the community I serve tell me sincerely how service and quality have improved makes me happy.

Q. What would you say you excel at over more seasoned colleagues?

People skills. I learned a lot about how to talk to people by watching my dad. Knowing how to effectively communicate with co-workers, staff and patrons is integral to our success and can be hard to teach.

Q. What's the best career advice you've been given?

As a lead server during one of those grueling New York City brunch services where nothing seemed to be going right, my GM told me, “It’s only lunch.” What he meant was, that while the small problems happening are important, you can’t get bogged down by minutiae. Look for bigger solutions to big problems and many of the small ones will go away too.

Q. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?

Learning how to manage people older and with more experience. It can be a tricky proposition giving direction to someone who thinks you’re not qualified because of your age. But if I lead by example, I can prove why my ideas are valid and that we can all improve together. 

Q. What's been your most rewarding moment?

Working in a continuing care community provides me with lots of rewarding moments. If my hospitality can brighten one of our residents’ day or give them a memorable dining experience in our restaurant, then I feel accomplished.

Q. What's been your funniest on-the-job disaster?

I worked at a short-order burger stand in our local mall. One evening my cousin, who worked with me, and I threw a cup of ice into the deep fryer out of mischievous curiosity. It went nuts and started spewing hot oil. The ensuing commotion brought all the surrounding store owners out to see what was going on.  

Q. What can you look back at now and laugh at?

I wasn’t exactly an adventurous eater growing up. When I moved to New York, my friend at the time laughed at me because I thought shiitake mushrooms were exotic food. I’m much more eager to try things now that I know so much more about food and dining.

What would you like to accomplish in your career short term?

To further educate my staff on different varieties of food and what makes a good menu. I want to continue working toward making our dining program the best in the area.