A UWC-USA cook known for his fresh-made omelets and soups is retiring.
Victor Trujillo’s last day will be on Jan. 17. He has worked in the kitchen on the Montezuma campus for 10 years. Victor’s retirement also will mean the end of a nearly 45-year career in food service.
He won’t miss getting up at 4 a.m., but will miss his co-workers and the students, who have no qualms with standing in long lines for his omelets.
“They’re fun and they give me energy with their silliness,” the 59-year-old said.
Victor makes two types of soups daily. Some of the more popular are carrot-ginger, roasted tomato and New England clam chowder.
Victor grew up in remote Vaughan, N.M., 85 miles south of Las Vegas. It was in Vaughan – a town of 445 — that he started his restaurant career, washing dishes at his aunt’s restaurant. He aspired to become a disc jockey. A few years after high school, he found himself back at his aunt’s place working as a cook.
Victor then moved to Albuquerque, where he lived for most of the 1980s. He worked as the prep manager at Monroe’s Mexican Restaurant. While living in The Duke City, Victor met Tom Snyder. After being together for 31 years, the couple married this past New Year’s Eve.
Victor and Tom left Albuquerque and moved to Phoenix for Tom’s engineering job with U.S. West, a former telephone company. While there, Victor cooked for a retirement community.
Tom was then transferred to Denver, where the couple remained for 13 years. During that time, Victor worked for Holiday Inn Express next to Mile High Stadium, Gunther Tooties, Hot Cakes Diner and the sports bar, ESPN Zone.
At age 45, Victor returned to his native New Mexico with plans to retire. Five years later, he accepted a position with Sodexo, cooking for UWC-USA.
Victor and Tom own a 100-year-old home in Montezuma, which they plan to continue working on. They will be taking a three-week trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and traveling to Utah in their Airstream. They also would like to go to Europe next year.