As the voice of the Dodgers for 65 years, Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully has enjoyed a lot of meals across America and in Canada. But there is one particular dining spot that he visits more than any other with a chef that he considers to be the best in the business. The dining spot is the media dining room at Dodger Stadium and the chef is soon-to-be 75-year-old Dave Pearson.

But there is more to this culinary love affair, a lot more; and it all began in Brooklyn a very long time ago.

When Dave Pearson was a young boy he lived in Brooklyn and, as you might imagine, he was a huge Brooklyn Dodgers fan. If he wasn’t sneaking under the fence at Ebbets Field to watch the Boys of Summer play in person, he was at home glued to his parents’ radio listening to the games.

“I grew up a Dodger fan,” recalls Pearson fondly. “I had six brothers and we grew up listening to Vin Scully and Red Barber back in those days when they were in Brooklyn.”

Little did Pearson know that a half-century later he would be preparing dinner for that very same Vin Scully every night at Dodger Stadium.

“Besides being a wonderful cook his personality is remarkable,” said Vin Scully of Pearson during a recent interview. “When you realize that there are so many demands on his time and trying to serve so many people coming and going, and yet he never appears upset, never appears short-tempered or grouchy, always everything is fine. He’s always smiling and that’s the key. He is a great gift to us besides the food that he cooks, oh yeah.”

Chef Dave Pearson has been serving Vin Scully dinner at Dodger Stadium since 1988. Vin and Dave are seen here with Vin’s wife Sandy and longtime Dodgers team travel advisor Billy DeLury.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Pearson moved to Southern California with his mother when he was 16 years old to be with his sister. He took on a job as a busboy at a small restaurant in Boyle Heights named Swally’s.

“I started out as a busboy at Swally’s and worked my way up to carhop,” said Pearson. “I got caught messing around in the kitchen by the chef whose name was Chico Hernandez and he said ‘Dave, y’all are messing around in my kitchen,’ and I said ‘Yeah, well I gotta eat.’ He said ‘You got a point, would you like to learn how to cook?’ I said ‘Sure, why not, it couldn’t hurt.’ He said ‘I’ll tell you what, you keep your mouth quiet and your ears open and I’ll teach you how to cook.’ And so that’s how I learned how to cook.”

After working at Swally’s for 15 years, Pearson was introduced to Duane Dugan, the sous chef at Dodger Stadium, who asked Pearson if he would like to help with the cooking duties for the upcoming 1963 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees. Pearson agreed to help out and was put in charge of the cafeteria. After the series Dugan asked Pearson if he would like to stay on permanently, which Pearson declined because he had worked his way up to sous chef at Swally’s and didn’t want to leave that position. Pearson finally agreed to work at Dodger Stadium part time after Dugan said to him “I’ll take you any way I can get you.”

When Swally’s closed their doors for good, Pearson went to work in L.A.’s downtown garment district and eventually accepted the sous chef job at Dodger Stadium when Dugan retired.

“I ran the Stadium Club, I ran the press box, I ran everything in the whole stadium for 25 years before I came in here [to the press box dining room] permanently in 1988,” said Pearson. “That’s how it all came about.”

As soon as Pearson began working full time in the press box he and Scully became instant friends.

“Certainly for the last 20 years I’ve know Dave and his wife and his granddaughters,” said the Hall of Fame broadcaster.

So close were they that when the Dodgers officially honored Scully by renaming the Dodger Stadium press box The Vin Scully Press Box, the media dining room was also renamed ‘Dave’s Diner’ and given an actual old-fashioned diner ambience.

Dave’s Diner, as the media dining room at Dodger Stadium is affectionately known, is decorated as an actual old-fashioned diner. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As with all food concessions at Dodger Stadium, Dave’s Diner is under contractual agreement with Levy Restaurants and Pearson is actually a Levy employee. As such, the daily menu items in Dave’s Diner are set by Levy executive chef Jason Tingley. But this doesn’t stop Dave Pearson from going the extra mile for his two favorite customers – Vin and Sandy Scully.

“A lot of times he would go downtown and buy at the market,” said Scully of Pearson. “Now maybe the chief chef sets the menu but Dave told me that he goes down and buys things all the time.

“I must tell you this,” Scully continued. “One of the things I really enjoy, and my wife could tell you, I love applesauce. And you know as a kid, in my house, if you had pork you had applesauce, if you had ham you had pineapple. I guess it’s the way I was raised. I got so that I was taking applesauce on my tacos, I mean, it didn’t make any difference. And Dave, bless his heart, will always … always bring a small dish of applesauce for me no matter what the menu is. In fact, the other night we had salmon, and the salmon was delicious, and I had a little dish of applesauce to go right along with it.”

So what is Vin Scully’s favorite menu item at Dave’s Diner? This is one question that the man voted as the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time had a difficult time answering.

“It varies because you don’t get the same thing every day,” Scully said. “I love everything. I mean he’ll have salmon, he’ll have steak, I love the steak, the other night he had meatloaf, I loved the meatloaf, not too long ago he had a delicious pork chop. And naturally he feels good when you say to him ‘Dave, everything was so good’ and he smiles.

“The one thing I always love is sliced tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, and he does wondrous things for little appetizers,” added Scully.

Of course the Scullys aren’t Chef Dave Pearson’s only regular customers. In addition to members of the media, television crews, on-air personalities, baseball scouts and front office employees, beloved longtime Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley and her husband Bill have a corner table reserved for them every night in Dave’s Diner.

“We’ve known Dave for 27 years,” said Nancy Bea. “Everybody loves Dave. You can go up to him and say ‘how ya doing’ and he always says ‘Oh I’m great.’ He always has a positive attitude.”

Like the Scullys, Nancy Bea and Bill Hefley enjoy dinner every night at Dodger Stadium.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the Hefleys, there is no doubt what their favorite menu items are.

“I think our favorite is the tri-tip and the roast, we’re beef fans,” said Nancy Bea. “We’re not into all the turkey they’re doing now but this is not Dave’s doing, Dave only cooks what they tell him to cook.”

With Dodger Stadium a frequent destination for celebrities from all walks of life, Pearson has cooked for many of them during his 50 years as a chef at Dodger Stadium as well.

“I’ve prepared food for Danny Kaye, I’ve prepared food for Frank Sinatra when he was here with Tommy Lasorda,” said Pearson. “I’ve even prepared food for President Nixon when he was in office and here with Peter O’Malley. I also prepared food for ‘The Three Tenors’ [Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti] when they did a concert here at Dodger Stadium in 1994. I made a special chicken soup for them that would smooth their voice.”

Even Yasiel Puig is a fan of Chef Dave – and vice versa.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Scully was quick to point out that Pearson has an incredible knack for staying calm under pressure regardless of who is in the diner.

“I do admire him because of his ability not to get overwhelmed,” said Scully. “He just keeps a calm flow no matter what.”

When informed that Chef Dave’s favorite non-baseball moment at Dodger Stadium was The Three Tenors concert, Scully smiled and said that although he wasn’t at that concert, he is a huge Three Tenors fan himself and has an album of theirs at home that he listens to frequently. He then turned to Sandy, his wife of 41 years, and asked her what her favorite non-baseball moment was.

“Elton John was awfully good,” Sandy answered. “I think the Pope was here too.”

Without missing a beat and in true Vin Scully style, the Hall of Fame broadcaster replied “Ya, but he didn’t sing well.”

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Author’s Note:

Chef Dave Pearson will be featured in an upcoming episode on the ‘Cooking Channel‘ in September but the exact air date is not yet known. Filming for the program took place at Dodger Stadium and at Pearson’s home.