I read this morning that David Bouley has passed away at age 70. Bouley was an influential chef in New York city. A huge influence on the fine dining scene that has developed in the last few decades.

Why am I, a retired computer science teacher writing about a decorated chef? As fate had it, there are some connections between David Bouley and Stuyvesant High School, specifically the new building, where I spent most of my career. I started teaching during a teacher shortage, particularly in math. Actually, had there not been a shortage, I never would have been given an emergency license and who knows what career path I would have gone down. This meant that I was younger than most of the other teachers my departments. Somewhat at Seward and clearly at Stuy. There was me and Bill in our twenties and most of the rest of the department were in their upper forties or older. At some point that switched, and Bill and I were the old farts towards the later stages of my career.

I was always a foodie but was never exposed to fine dining. This was where Rich Geller came in. Rich taught calc and ran the math team. He was also big into fine dining. Bruce Winokur, another much more experienced math teacher had similar tastes. I don't remember when but we ended up going to Bouley's restaurant "Bouley" - just a couple of blocks form Stuy for a meal. It was a revelation.

It turned out that Rich was friends with David Bouley - I think it just started with him frequenting the restaurant and asking to speak to the chef and that turned into something of a Stuy math department connection. We had a biannual tradition - once during the January regents week and again in June of taking a long lunch at Bouley. Me, Rich, Bruce, Dawn and a rotating cast of others. And of course going with Rich meant we always got a few bonus deserts or maybe an extra course. It was a highlight of the week.

The Stuy/Bouley connection went further. Rich, as I mentioned ran Stuy's math team. In Spring '95 he arranged a special luncheon - Stuy's math team at Bouley. If I recall, the entire team was too large so it was only the seniors. Unfortunately I couldn't crash the party but now, many years later, I'm friends with a number of those team members and it was quite a memorable experience.

Fast forward to post 9/11. We had been displaced due to the attacks and had spent a month as guests at Brooklyn Tech. About a month afterwards, certainly before Halloween, we were back at Stuy. It was the evening of parent teacher conferences. Usually that evening, the parents association hosts a dinner for the teachers. It's cafeteria style and teachers come and go at various times as long as they make it to their room by the start of conferences. Usually it's mostly pot luck from the parents. Usually pretty tasty and certainly appreciated. This time, as I went down the line, I said to myself "Hey, I recognize that beef dish…" Yep, that meal was catered by David Bouley and we got many of his on the menu dishes - at least those that lent themselves to prior preparation and transport to the school. I don't know if this was part of his general recovery work (he did a lot to prepare food for the rescue/recovery workers), if this was a special arrangement made by Rich or something else but it was exceptional.

The years continued as did the regents week lunches. Unfortunately, we lost Rich to Cancer in the fall of 2011 (tribute post here). Shortly before his passing, David Bouley hosted a reception at Bouley for Rich, his wife Barbara, his friends, and former students. A touching tribute for a master teacher.

Why am I spending all this time about my friend Rich and David Bouley? Well, it's about community. Stuy isn't a neighborhood school. In a neighborhood or community school, teachers and students see each other in passing. Not so at Stuy. Only a handful of teachers live in Manhattan or even the five boroughs. The kids? Many have commutes well over an hour each way. Yet still, here we had this little foodie math community at Stuy. Mostly teachers, but students were touched as well. While we lost Rich over a decade ago, reading about David Bouley's death really brought me back.

I've had many fine dining experiences since Rich introduced me to Bouley's restaurants. I've had great food at Jean George, Daniel, and Park Avenue Cafe and many others but my meals at Bouley have been special - the best overall dining experiences. I also remember some particularly special meals - Rich's reception. The surprise lunch for a special graduating senior, when Devorah and I took Jim and Helen there to thank them for writing the kids college recs and a handful of others.

I think that in a lot of cultures there's a strong tie between food and community and in this weird little circle community was created between some CS people, Math people, a specialized high school, and a great chef.