Photos by Ava Kitzi

Long gone are the days of cardboard pizza and sloppy green mush served on plastic trays for lunch … at least, that’s the case for Atelier Primary and Elementary Schools in Columbia.

In 2021, the private school brought on Chef Adam Horton, a world-renowned Michelin-starred chef who was looking for a change of pace. Now, students expect sauce with every meal — a distinctly French, fine-dining occurrence — and eat their meals on glass plates.

Horton attended Le Cordon Bleu’s California School of Culinary Arts in 2000. After graduating, he found work at renowned Los Angeles restaurant Saddle Peak Lodge, which became his on-again-off-again home for the next 20-odd years. Horton says that early on he struggled in the kitchen, but a year of learning sent him skyrocketing through the ranks of his peers. When Saddle Peak Lodge’s executive chef, Warren Schwartz (who Horton says is still his biggest mentor to this day) left, Horton followed, going on a world industry tour to hone his skills.

Over the course of 15 years, Horton staged in France, worked at Gordon Ramsay’s three-Michelin-star restaurant in London and was a part of the massive machine of Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Las Vegas. Horton also went on to work in Thailand, where he got his first practice at cooking for children at a monastery orphanage with over 1,000 residents.

“It was crazy,” Horton says of his many culinary encounters over the years. He remembers the week an executive chef brought in a Boeing executive to teach him the ins-and-outs of managing a big team. “It’s just experiences you’re not supposed to have happen.”

In the middle of his travels and growth as a chef, Horton came back to Saddle Peak Lodge as a sous chef. When the position of chef de cuisine opened up, he took the initiative to talk the owners into giving him a chance. When he took the reins, Horton led the restaurant to a Michelin Star. He stayed in this role for seven years before pivoting to manage the front-of-house operations.

COVID-19 hit the restaurant industry hard, as did the autoimmune disease that Horton was diagnosed with around the same time. He knew the restaurant lifestyle — which had him working nearly 100 hours a week and missing 18 family Thanksgivings — was no longer the right path for him.

“I knew I didn’t want to do restaurants again,” he says. “It’s too much on the body and the soul.”

This need for a change of pace coincided with Horton’s wife’s search for a medical school program. Columbia felt like a great fit for the pair. After nearly 20 years of working almost exclusively in Michelin-starred restaurants, the very peak of dining service, Horton’s peers warned him that he wouldn’t fit in small-town Missouri. There were no big opportunities or outlets for his creativity and skill level. Then, he found Atelier.

The school combines the Montessori Method with other teaching philosophies for students aged two through seventh grade… and they happened to be hiring a chef. Horton says he emailed a two-page letter to the school’s founder, Kara Hook, asking her to give him a shot, despite his over-qualifications.

“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to imagine doing this,” he says. “Now I can’t imagine not doing this.”

In the three years since Horton started working at Atelier, he has developed a trust with his students that flows both ways. Horton trusts their opinions, feedback and taste buds; the students trust him to serve tasty food.

Horton works hard to ensure the food he serves to 200 students and faculty isn’t too “chef-y,” while still maintaining a level of diversity. Students can expect a wide array of worldwide flavors they aren’t likely to get at home. There are a few staples, like teriyaki chicken and bulgogi bowls, that parents say their children beg for at home, though nothing from the grocery store can replicate what they get at school.

Prominent on his to-do list is the optimization of daily nutrition to ensure the best possible learning environment and experience for the students. Horton has studied clinical nutrition and knows that getting the right ratio of protein and vitamins in his meals can have a huge effect on the students’ days.

Nevertheless, there are still some things that even a Michelin-starred chef can’t convince a kid to eat.

“I had a lot of dreams of getting (the students) to eat a million vegetables, and they only eat steamed vegetables to this day,” Horton says.

Meals are served to students in big pans, family style. School Director Holly Linneman says this is an integral part of the community-first nature of the school, allowing students and staff to connect over food. Horton has drawn ideas from the best restaurants in the world, but reflects on the family meals he ate and prepared at Saddle Peak Lodge for inspiration. These meals were often eclectic and diverse, and Horton says that is exactly what he goes for at Atelier.

“This is how you should feed people,” Horton says.

Despite the obvious differences between cooking in world-renowned restaurants versus a school cafeteria, Horton says many of the same principles have carried over. Getting a meal out on time is just as important — if not more so — when serving a horde of hungry second graders as it is in an upscale restaurant.

The slower pace and fewer hours associated with the job have allowed Horton to finally develop hobbies and breathe in his personal life. He says he’s “able to live now,” as opposed to the survival-mode he was stuck in amid the stress of the fine-dining world. For example, he paints to continue his artistic expression now that his cooking is more streamlined. Horton says when he thinks about work on his time off, it’s because he wants to.

Regarding the effort he puts into the school, Horton says he works because he cares about the students and he knows he’s reaping the benefits, too. “Being here is important to me,” he says.

Where his sleepless nights used to be filled with dread about high-stress management decisions, Horton can now think about his kitchen in a positive light, excited to discover the ways he can make the school a better place.

Passing the Torch

Steve Tetzlaff was initially hesitant about cooking for children. Moving back to Columbia and joining the Atelier staff as Adam Horton’s apprentice was a brand new venture for the highly experienced chef.

Tetzlaff spends his mornings prepping food and cooking with Horton, and is responsible for transporting the meals to the various Atelier schools, doing prep work and facilitating balanced snacks for the students. Horton says that having someone to inherit his skills and knowledge is an important part of his work process.

“I’ve earned this skill set through blood, sweat and tears,” Horton says. “For it to just die with me seems crazy.”

Tetzlaff says that this job and the mentorship from Horton has given him the confidence and technique to know his career is promising. He remembers when he first made meatloaf with Horton, saying it was the first time he really got to get his hands dirty and be involved in every step of the process.

Tetzlaff says it was at this moment he realized, “I could do this on my own one day.”

Chef-Talk: Learn the Insider Terms of the Restaurant Industry

Michelin Star: The most prestigious award in the culinary world. As opposed to the ‘five-star ratings’ you may find adorning gourmet restaurants, Michelin Stars are awarded in increments of one, two or three. Any restaurant can be awarded stars — and can have them removed if the Michelin Guide decides their food has fallen below the mark.

Chef de Cuisine: The head chef who leads the back-ofhouse team. The chef de cuisine oversees day-to-day occurrences, not to be confused with the chef patron, often the culinary visionary and may have ownership over the restaurant.

All Day: The total number of orders for a dish the kitchen must fulfill at a certain time.

Staging: An unpaid fellowship where a chef works in another, often more experienced, chef’s kitchen. Here, they gain experience, learn techniques and build relationships within the industry. (It’s pronounced stahj-ing.)

Corner/Behind: Directory interjections to announce when stepping around a corner of the restaurant or walking behind another chef to avoid spills and accidents in a bustling, active kitchen.

Front-of-House: The staff that work outside of the kitchen (servers, hosts, bartenders). They are responsible for maintaining the image and impression of the restaurant, and fielding any issues that may arise with customers.

86: Shorthand signaling that the kitchen is out of a specific ingredient or dish.

Family Meal: A meal provided for the staff before or after service each day. The meals are often creative and diverse, allowing the chef who prepares it to stretch their culinary skills and try new ideas for their peers.