Joliet Junior College alumna is the first full-time female chef instructor

Katey Sopko graduated from Joliet Junior College’s culinary arts program in 2008, but she didn’t want to leave JJC.

On graduation day, Sopko said she told her chef instructor Kyle Richardson, “I want to come back. I want to be involved in some way. ... I want to teach.” And Richardson encouraged her to get the experience she needed, she said.

Fourteen years later, when Richardson retired at the end of May, Sopko stepped into his shoes. She is the first full-time female chef instructor at JJC, and Richardson couldn’t be prouder of her.

“She subbed for me a lot of times over the years, and I just knew she’d be a great teacher,” Richardson said. “She’s so caring, and [the students] are so comfortable around her. “I got to see her in the professional setting when she worked for the [Autobahn) Country Club. We’ve become really good friends.”

Richardson said slightly more than half of the student body in JJC’s culinary arts program are female, and that Sopko will be a “great role model” for them. Michael McGreal, culinary arts department chair, agreed, but said Sopko’s role is beneficial to the male students, too.

A changing industry

Culinary is no longer “just a man’s industry” and the days of “screaming and yelling and disrespect in the kitchen” is not the industry of today, McGreal said. Male and female students alike will look up to her, respect her knowledge and say, “Yes, chef,” to her, he said.

McGreal said JJC’s culinary program is one of the best in the U.S. In fact, all chef instructors – except for Ken Thompson but including McGreal and the recently retired Richardson – are JJC alumni, he said. But the program has taken a giant step forward.

“To have her be a role model for male and female students, I think that is a game-changer for our industry,” McGreal said. “Katey makes us even better now. She brings a whole different component to the program we did not have the day before she started.”

Sopko earned a Bachelor of Arts in organizational leadership from Lewis University in Romeoville. Sopko is certified as an executive chef, culinary educator and culinary administrator from the American Culinary Federation and certified as a hospitality educator from the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute.

From job to passion

When Sopko started working at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet at age 18, a culinary career wasn’t on her mind, even though she loved her grandmother’s elaborate Sunday dinners and marveled at how powerfully food brought people together, Sopko said.

In fact, working at the Autobahn Country Club is a popular summer job for teens and young adults, according to Peggy Gerdes, a JJC alumna and the country club’s executive chef. Sopko said she knew nothing about cooking when she started working at Autobahn. She simply needed a job.

But Sopko said Gerdes encouraged and guided her and even recommended JJC’s culinary arts program, for which Sopko is thankful.

“I finally found something I was good at, something I enjoyed doing,” Sopko said. “To learn the proper way to go about doing things, it was like I was finally in my element.”

Gerdes and Sopko worked together for 14 years. Gerdes said they explored restaurants and attended trade shows together and grew the “teeny kitchen” at the country club into a “big operation.”

“I knew teaching was her end goal,” Gerdes said. “She’s incredibly talented, and I’m so glad JJC has her.”

Sopko said she taught at JJC as an adjunct from 2016 to 2019, where she blossomed under Thompson’s mentorship. For three years starting in 2019, Sopko taught the advanced culinary classes at Elgin High School, Sopko said.

She praised her husband, Gregory Sopko, for encouraging her to keep pursuing her dream no matter what. Sopko also is the mother of Evelyn Sing, 10, and twins Jake and Luke, 3.

Sopko said “each step has been so rewarding” and she can’t wait to tell her students, “I was there. I was you once.” She wants to give back to JJC by guiding her students and making their culinary career dreams come true, too, she said.

“I won the lottery getting hired at JJC,” Sopko said.