Twenty years ago Chris Gagnon and Aaron Willis were freshman classmates at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York. Today they play key roles in St. John’s Stone Terrace and The Fish Trap restaurants, which have achieved national acclaim.
     Gagnon, who acts as restaurant manager for both restaurants, completed a cyclic journey with his return to St. John last year.
     He first visited the island when he and Aaron Willis were still in culinary school. Gagnon was set to begin an externship in New York, when he and Willis landed positions as externs at St. John’s Caneel Bay Resort. The property did not have an externship program back then, but Willis and Gagnon agreed to work for minimum wage, and didn’t need accommodations, since Willis’s family lived on St. John.
 “ It was certainly different from the city job I had lined up,” recalls Gagnon.
    Lonnie Willis, who with her husband Albert, supervises the Willis enterprises, which now include Stone Terrace and The Fish Trap restaurants, says she was flabbergasted when her son Aaron and Gagnon announced they both had jobs at Caneel Bay. “ I told them Caneel didn’t do that,” she recalls, still obviously pleased by their chutzpah in securing the plum positions.
    Gagnon’s externship in the 1980’s expanded, resulting in his spending three and half years in St. John. He progressed to increasing roles of responsibility at Caneel and also worked at its related corporate properties, which at the time included Little Dix Resort in Virgin Gorda and Carambola in St.Croix.
    Looking back Gagnon says his experience in the Virgin Islands created a firm foundation for a two decade long professional career that has included incarnations as owner of his own catering service, corporate executive chef, food and beverage director, restaurant manager, general manager, culinary consultant and staff trainer.
    “I’ve worked at hotels, resorts, theme restaurants, chain restaurants, in about 19 locations,” says Gagnon.
    Gagnon, whom Lonnie Willis refer to as a " wizard” says he has a “ passion for food, service and hospitality” that he traces to his youth “ It started with apple pies,” he laughs, noting that as a young child, he drove his mother crazy baking pies. Gagnon’s first job in food service was as a pot washer when he was 14 years old.

                       
                                   Photo courtesy of www.virginvoices.com

    Now, in addition to running the St. John restaurants, he’s a certified food service trainer for food handling, and sanitation and safety standards.

    During the past two decades Willis and Gagnon have stayed in touch, and often discussed working together again. Last July Gagnon agreed to take on the role of restaurants manager for the Willis owned properties, to free up Aaron Willis’s time to act as executive chef.

    Gagnon, who was born in Indiana, and reared in Long Island, has traveled extensively over the years. About a year ago, during what he refers to as one midlife crisis, he decided to “go someplace I’d never been.” A tip to Thailand resulted in his meeting his wife, Nun, who plans to move to St. John this October. This will ease Gagnon’s killer commute, which has included about five transcontinental trips since meeting Nun.

    Gagnon hopes he and Nun will settle in St.John for at least the next ten years. Meanwhile, he says he enjoys being back and applying his knowledge and experience to two restaurants he loves for a company that is like  a family to him.

    Gagnon’s credos are many, but he says   “ lead by example” and “ practice what you preach” are   two that he tries to act upon. He says he strives to create a really positive experience at both restaurants that guests won’t forget.  He acknowledges  the restaurant business isn’t easy and says “The customer is not always right.”  But he adds with a tinge of humor, “the customer is always the customer.”