Rain on a Red Sox home game day tends to fill the fans with dread and yet it fills the kitchen employees of Fenway Park with a nervous sort of energy. “For us, the worst possible thing to happen on game day is rain delay,” said Steve “Nookie” Postal, executive sous chef at Fenway. “When it rains, everyone wants to eat, which means we get slammed.” On this particular rainy day in April, the fans outside the park weren’t the only people with concerned expressions on their faces; Nookie’s kitchen staff was in for a busy night indeed.

Nookie has been the executive sous chef at Fenway Park since May 2006. He and Executive Chef Ron Abell are in charge of the service for the exclusive EMC Club, the State Street Pavilion, the Absolut Clubhouse, luxury suites, in-seat service, and the owners, wives, media, and the front-office staff during home games. With more than 100 people working prep, line, and sauté stations, Nookie and crew serve about a ton of food during home games. “And that doesn’t even include non-game days,” he said. According to Nookie, Fenway does a tremendous catering business during away games and the off-season. The park rents the private suites, clubhouses, and Pavilion for wedding receptions, business meetings, private parties, and the like, serving everything from crudité and cheese plate stations, passed hors d’oeuvres, action-style buffets, to sit down dinners. “We operate Fenway Park like an enormous restaurant/function facility,” he said.

This is not your regular concession stand food. The menu in the EMC Club features Fresh Ricotta Ravioli with Short Ribs, Roasted Porterhouse Veal Chops and Semolina Gnocchi, and Grilled Striped Bass; although it changes for each ‘home stand.’ The notable thing about the menu is that it includes dishes with local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients. “It is really important to us to provide local and seasonal. The fish is from Captain Marden’s, the produce from Ward’s Berry Farm and Nesenkeag, and the meats are from Williams & Co. We buy local and seasonal as much as we can. The owners and team are on board and are behind us all the way. The park just started a compost and biodegradable program to deal with waste. We are very conscious of our contribution to the sustainable movement.”

Nookie’s philosophy to use local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients has been a part of his cooking repertoire since he attended The CSCA. After graduating from the Professional Chef’s Program in 1999, he began working at Casablanca with Ana Sortun, with whom he eventually worked at her restaurant, Oleana, before working at Fenway. He also worked at Icarus, where he first met Ron Abell, and then at Chez Henri. In between his Oleana and Fenway Park gigs, he traveled to Spain, northern Africa, and Italy for a year. Earlier in his career, he lived and worked in Umbria, Italy, making fresh pastas daily. Working with a half-dozen of Boston’s and Cambridge’s best chefs, Nookie’s cooking career is admirable and enviable to someone just starting out in culinary school. “I remember my first day at The CSCA," Nookie reminisces. “I made cream puff swans and thought it was the coolestthing ever. I remember watching the Frugal Gourmet andYan Can Cook on TV and loved it. I graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio with a degree in economics. I just knew I didn’t want to wear a suit and sit behind a deskat a bank. So I enrolled at The CSCA. Going there was a great experience,” he said.

“I recommend to anyone who is just starting out in their career or well into their career to ask questions, keep your ears open, focus, read, and never stop learning. We never stop pushing to do better here at Fenway. We push to do more and to do it better. It’s a cool place to work with great people. Just look at the view!”