Community High School

Man of the Century

Glaze was born in Ann Arbor, and attended Inkster High School. After that, he joined the Marines for three years. He was introduced to cooking in the service and went to Los Angeles Tech for three-and-a-half years.

“Most of my education came from learning from chefs in the Los Angeles/San Francisco area,” said Glaze. “As soon as I got education and background I changed jobs—even if they offered me a raise.”

In the sixties and seventies, Los Angeles was truly the place to be. Many movie stars, famous musicians, and athletes made it their home, to the point where it was normal to run into and get acquainted with celebrities.

“It was before there were body guards, so they were very accessible,” Glaze said. “I ran into Ray Charles at the drugstore or Ella [Fitzgerald] at Sears. You get a chance to meet your favorite people and converse with them.”

“I never asked for an autograph at the time because it was normal,” he said. “When they started making money they became less accessible.”

He recalled a job he held in Marina Del Ray. “I had a chance to meet quite a few of the musicians and actors—everybody loves to talk about food.”

Glaze worked for fifteen years in California, never keeping a single job for more than five years. He got involved with Interstate Host, which owns restaurants in major airports.

??!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/353881510_69adf1c4de.jpg! %Glaze, pictured here with his family.  After a stint in the military, Glaze attended culinary school.%??

He was promoted to be a manager within the organization and sent to manage a new restaurant in the Detroit airport modeled after the one he was working at in LA.

“It was nice because it was like coming home for me,” he said. After working for Interstate Host, Glaze cooked at other area restaurants, including Win Schuler’s in Jackson, Marshall, Fort Wayne, and Ann Arbor.

In 1993, he decided to pursue a more stable line of work: teaching. He started as a TA in the culinary program at Pioneer. After teaching there for many years, he was transferred to his current position.

As for restaurants in the area, Glaze recommends Four Seasons at the Sheridan Hotel, and the Red Hawk on State Street, which he considers to be very consistent.

To say that Richard Glaze is a major jazz fan is an understatement. He has seen and met just about every major jazz musician from his lifetime.

He was introduced to jazz by his older brothers. “At first it was trying to be sophisticated as a teenager,” he said.

In California, “Athletes and celebrities were always into jazz, I would notice,” he said. “If you hung out with that crowd it was always enjoyable.”

There he met many of his heroes. “[Jazz pianist] Erroll Garner and I used to hang out after the bars were closed,” he said. He also recalled a long conversation he had with jump blues legend Louis Jordan, who was elderly but active at the time.

Glaze was cooking at a venue where Sarah Vaughn was performing. “I saw [her] practicing-- it was better than the show,” he remembered.

“I saw the last performance of Duke Ellington at Pease in 1973,” he said. “I also saw Modern Jazz Quartet at Hill [Auditorium] right before John Lewis died.”

He explained that it pains him to see many great musicians now, because he got see them when they were at the zenith.

“My wife doesn’t like it-- she calls it noise,” he said. “My brothers and friends and I get together hours to listen to records; [she] doesn’t understand it.”

Richard Glaze has a very casual attitude about race. He avoided racism in LA: “many places at the time were racist, so we went to where jazz was played-- it was comfortable for blacks.”

“Quite often you would see jazz musicians as marchers,” he said, recalling the civil rights movement. “I got a chance to march with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.”

He has had little trouble working in predominantly white establishments. “[It’s okay] as long as you don’t come in with a busload of blacks,” he said. “One at a time...”

Glaze has held his current position since 1999. “I tell people I’m a volunteer to make conversation,” he said. “But that’s not true.”

In addition to his role as community assistant at CHS, he still pursues his culinary interests. He is currently developing special all-purpose seasoning that he might sell at some point.

“I used to call it Glaze’s Seasoning, but now I call it Everybody’s Anything Seasoning,” he said. He has given it out to the Community High staff and received generally positive feedback; he plans to do the same at Pioneer and Huron.

“I’m very interested in wines and cheeses; doing catering with special hors d’oeuvres,” he said.

“I found out there are five black winemakers in the country-- I would like to work for one of them,” he said. He added, “first and foremost I love wines!” It wouldn’t be for a while, as he is still researching the options.

Glaze asked that his age not be revealed, as it would detract attention from the story of the article. Suffice it to say that he does not look it in the least. He shows no signs of slowing down and plans never to retire.