Robert Corle Jr., CEC, CCE

Chef Robert Corle Jr., CEC, CCE, has been in the food industry for 40 years. Corle gained valuable experience at the Mission Hotel on Mackinac Island out of high school, and before the year was out, he was enrolled at the prestigious Hotel Hershey apprenticeship program, where he completed the program and became the saucier of the circular dining room. Corle moved on after nine years of service at the hotel and worked as a sous chef at a free-standing restaurant and the Hershey Country Club. Corle’s growing family had him seeking a more balanced work life schedule, and he landed a job with the Hershey Chocolate Company at their corporate building. Corle’s true calling came a couple of months after starting at the Hershey Company. An opportunity to teach culinary arts at the Lebanon County Career and Technology Center in Lebanon Pa., would check all the boxes. Now, 29 years later Corle has trained many future chefs, won numerous awards from the American Culinary Federation (ACF) and became certified through the ACF. Corle’s past students have made their mark in the foodservice industry, and he is in the process of training an alumnus to replace him when he retires in 2026.