A 40-year career in medical research took Tim Dondero around the world, but his next chapter brought him closer to home and around the kitchen with his family.
Donderos’ Kitchen, the breakfast and lunch cafe on Milledge Avenue, is owned by Tim Dondero, his daughter, Anna Dondero, and her husband. Dondero spent years working as an international medical researcher before becoming a chef and food writer in Athens.
Dondero’s career reflects how two different passions can shape a person’s life and lead to unexpected opportunities. While he pursued a career at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for 40 years, his love for cooking never went away after beginning at a young age with his family.
“My grandmother lived with us. I was about 6, and she taught me to make pancakes and my family would let me use the stove, so I started from there and moved on,” Dondero said.
His passion for cooking continued to grow, but Dondero pursued a different path professionally. He studied biochemistry in college, attended medical school and completed pathology training before doing postdoctoral fellowship work in Southeast Asia.
Dondero went overseas to experience life beyond his small Connecticut hometown, a community of about 3,000 people that he described as largely divided along Protestant and Catholic lines.
I was interested in seeing the world. So I figured I’d get into some sort of profession that would get me out of there, also got away from the cold too, so I wound up in tropical medicine,” Dondero said.
After spending many years overseas and at the CDC, Dondero reached a point in his career when he felt it was time to move on and shift his focus to the restaurant.
“In the meantime, I was cooking on the weekends, or you know, one day a week when I’d come over here for the family, and we had the restaurant already, so then I was able to do it full time when I retired from CDC,” Dondero said.
For Dondero, owning and working at the cafe serves as both relaxation and a source of enjoyment. It also allows him to share new foods the Athens community may not have been exposed to before. His time overseas allowed him to learn different cuisines and cooking techniques, which continue to influence the food he prepares today.
After spending 40 years in medicine, Dondero now has the opportunity to fully pursue a passion that began when he was six years old. Cooking was never something he had to leave behind. It remained part of his life until he finally had the time to pursue it full time.
His restaurant allows him to bring together the food he grew up making and the techniques he learned while traveling overseas.
