Chef/baker Rob Beaton, Chan Shun Dining Commons at Atlantic Union College

Rob Beaton pulls tasty, heart-healthy rolls hot out of the oven. His mission in life is to debunk the myth that good food tastes bad.

Rob Beaton, BST, a professional baker with 27 years of baking experience, is in charge of the bakery and will be developing an on-site bakery business for campus and public consumption.

Beaton holds a certificate in Baking and Science Technology (BST) from the American Institute of Baking at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. His experience includes eight years as a Navy cook aboard nuclear powered submarines based in San Diego, California, and Groton, Connecticut.

His professional bakery career began at Oasis Breads, the San Diego, California, bakery that produced flourless breads. In five years, his career bulleted to general manager. At Donatos Pizza Corporation in Columbus, Ohio, he was the commissary manager responsible for producing 10 million pizza doughs distributed to 137 stores in seven states annually. That figure rose to 12 million.  Later, as quality assurance manager for dough product development, he generated new dough recipes geared for existing bakery production lines. 

Within the last year, his family caravanned to the campus of Atlantic Union College from Weimar, California, where he served as the director of the Weimar NEWSTART® bakery, and was an instructor in the Weimar College Culinary Arts Program.