Feature Articles - The National Association of College & University Food Services

Thank you so much for choosing me to go to the FSMI! I had a wonderful time and learned a lot. It was such a great networking experience. Upon our return from our first dinner Monday night, we were immediately split into groups to embark on our first project of the session. We were to create a retail operation based at a college in Southwest Indiana. We came up with our mission and vision statements and started laying out the physical space on paper. We drew up the organizational chart and went to bed to prepare for the next day’s journey into budgeting and food costing. Julaine was a great speaker and kept us wide awake through all of the pages of numbers. We truly enjoyed the Rich’s staff that was warm and welcoming. They kept it entertaining for us as well as informative. They catered some really nice meals for us. We split into different groups for the various exercises which enabled us to network and get to know people from all over the country. We shared a lot of ideas about different events we have at our respective colleges and universities. I think we all came away with several new things we wanted to implement at our units. We did an overview of marketing and learned it in theatrical terms which were highly entertaining. On Wednesday we created a concept restaurant based on BBQ and we named our place Barbie – Q. The project took us from developing a concept, to menu planning, ordering, marketing and cooking and presenting, food costing and budgeting. Thursday we fed 100 lucky people at Rich’s with the fruits of our labor. Friday morning we had a team member do a presentation of what we did in the exercise and how it worked out. We did lose money on our restaurant concept so it was very much like the real world. All week we worked on our big project for Friday. We created a power point presentation to present our ideas to the faux president of the college. We branded a concept we came up with for retail, grab and go unit which was centrally located to the academic buildings and administration building. We called our place Terre Haute Café. Terre Haute stands for high ground and our theme was locally grown, sustainable food. Terre Haute Café, fresh, local fast. We even had our very own herb garden and supported local farmers in the community. All in all our final presentation went very well and we each took away from it a sense of accomplishment and a good feeling of camaraderie that we will always remember and cherish. After our graduation we took a drive to Niagara Falls and had a much needed opportunity to decompress. It was a long week but we had a lot of fun and learned a lot in the process. Thank you to Rich’s and NACUFS for a wonderful enriching experience!

Entrées and desserts get the ‘small plate’ treatment at West Virginia University.

Desserts are undergoing dramatic changes at 29,000-student West Virginia University in Morgantown, with new sizing and ways of presentation reshaping the traditional image of dessert as a large piece of cake on a plate.

Desserts are more likely to take the form of “little trios,” particularly in the catering division, according to Eric Filburn, executive chef and assistant director of dining services.

One popular dessert is a trio of mousse variations on the banana split, including pineapple with toasted coconut, chocolate with banana chip and strawberry with pistachio crunch, served in mini martini glasses on a white rectangular plate, garnished with whipped cream and a cherry on the chocolate mousse.

Another example would be mini tarts, such as a blueberry lemon pound cake with vanilla crème anglaise.

Response to the smaller portions has been favorable, as has the added variety, and Filburn says the trend is here to stay. “Our customers want to be more healthy so they’re looking for desserts that are less heavy.”

It’s a matter of perception, he observes. The trio may have as many calories as a single large portion, but three tiny treats seem less fattening than an oversized piece of cake.

Presentation plays a large role. Filburn does a Bloody Mary shrimp shooter in shooter glasses for receptions and presents dessert items in mini martini glasses. “We’re seeing more glassware that lends itself to dramatic presentations.”

Selling to alums: Filburn’s colleague, Scott Spiker, executive chef at the Erickson Alumni Center, which hosts hundreds of alumni events each year, says he’s found “a niche doing catered events with small plates and wine pairings. Instead of one big entrée, we’ll do two or three little ones.”

For example, he’ll serve three different soups in shot glasses. Favorites include sweet potato crab cakes with bourbon butter sauce and a petite sirloin. The steak is four or five ounces instead of the usual 10 ounces and comes with Pennsylvania button mushrooms and bordelaise sauce with haricot verts.

“We might do barbecued shrimp and pecan-crusted scallops on seven-inch side plates instead of one big serving. Sides are one and a half ounce servings of starches and vegetables, where we used to make them four and a half or five ounces. It’s more labor intensive, but the food cost ends up being pretty much the same. You get more flavor, and the perception is you’ve had a taste of this and that.”

To give an accurate overview of the FSMI in Buffalo, I need to start with the application process. I’m very lucky to have a boss that encouraged all her employees to apply for any of the institutes. I found out at the institute, this isn’t always the case with employers at universities. My boss, Crissy, always encourages us to be better and work out of our comfort zone to learn more. Applying for this institute was out of my comfort zone because I’m an assistant manager and most of the participants were directors and managers. At first I must confess, I was a little intimidated but that quickly disappeared.

The 1st day I arrived at the hotel, which was beautiful and the staff was most friendly. That night we all went to dinner together at a local restaurant and got to know each other. I was in awe of the large prestigious universities that were represented, Michigan State, Harvard, Perdue and Texas A&M to mention a few. My college is small and not well known, what an opportunity for me. We returned to the hotel and we had a group meeting. We were instructed as to our upcoming week and given an overview what to expect and what was expected from us. We then were divided into 3 groups of 7 and given our project to do as a team. Ours was to develop a catering operation in a University outside Boston Mass.

Next day, we gathered at 7:45am for our daily trek to the Rich’s Corporation. We were treated like kings and queens at Rich’s, what wonderful hosts. Each day at Rich’s we were given small informal seminars on information we needed to achieve our goal of our team project. The seminar presenters were our team mentors that had immense knowledge on a particular subject. The subjects included were, cost control, HACCP, reading financial reports and budgets, quality assurance and merchandising and marketing. All these subjects were spread out over 4 days and they would involve group exercises to make sure we understood the content presented to us. We used all the information in our projects, so if you still weren’t sure, by using it in practical application, the information became clearer.

The entire week was geared towards the last day for the presentation of our group projects by the use of power point and teamwork. It was fun and challenging and I found myself as equals to the managers and directors in my ideas and abilities as a contributing member of my team. This was awesome; it gave me a new found confidence and showed me not to be afraid of a challenge. I could do this….and I did!! The networking this week provided was priceless. We all became like family to each other and we’ve been emailing each other since we came home. I have a vast array of professionals, all over the USA I can email anytime for an idea or opinion.

In the middle of preparing feverishly for our final presentations, they threw us a curve ball (such is life). In the middle of the week, they gave us a mini project- operating a small pizza facility, developing a menu, purchasing product and feeding 120 of Rich’s employees the very next day. We also had to show food cost and a profit, if any, and actually cook the food ourselves. Our team was very successful, had a great product and made a profit. This exercise showed us twists in the road that occur and the show must go on.

To summarize my week, I have a new confidence and I will contribute more to my college. This entire week was so informative. The Rich’s Corporation is so professional and committed to producing an excellent product. The fact they were willing to share knowledge and experience with us was exemplary. I would like to thank NACUFS for giving me this learning opportunity and a wonderful week.

It was off to Omaha, Nebraska for six days of crunching numbers and budgeting, budgeting, budgeting. The institute began with a welcome reception and dinner at Sullivan’s Steak House that offered the group an opportunity to renew old friendships and make new contacts.

Work began in earnest the next morning with a special thank you to Helene Clark and Marti DeMoss for making it possible to convene at ConAgra’s main headquarters where we learned new concepts and exchanged ideas in the exploration of financial theories and analysis on the impact of revenue sources and pricing structures in catering, convenience stores, meal plans and retail operations.

Cam Schauf, David May, Rich Neumann, and Ray Schmidgall made dry, inanimate numbers come to life through humorous storytelling in the processes of conducting cost/benefit analysis, auditing and the reporting of financial data.

One of the highlights of the week was the ConAgra presentation and tour by Helene and Marti. We had the opportunity to tour ConAgra’s culinary kitchen and for lunch we experienced a sampling of new and developing products.

Our Institute came to a close with group case study presentations touching on all aspects of collegiate food service financials.

And one for the road: I’m a better person and employee for the experience! Thank you!!

The Food Service Management Institute held in Buffalo, NY from May 31 – June 5 is one of the most career enhancing opportunities afforded me.

Our class of twenty-one represented every NACUFS region, a wide range of university sizes and positions within their university.

The week focused on teaching us how to build a food service business from the group up. Our classes centered on writing mission statements, putting together an organization chart, how to prepare budgets, building a menu and marketing the business.

We worked as a team. The facilitators divided us into three groups representing the three main focuses of campus dining; residential, retail and catering. My team of seven was assigned to develop a new retail location.

There were many late nights as we worked to build our dream location. We developed a basic floor-plan, built and costed menus and even built a marketing campaign to drive customers to our location. Just like any day at work, there were some additional projects that required immediate attention. Some time was spent trying to identify each team members strengths for the group. We even had some technical issues with computers and printers.

All of the components made for a perfect week. The facilitators and mentors set up a very “normal” week for us. We were given a task that seemed all encompassing and yet had “real-life” situations to handle too.

We worked very hard. However, the skills I developed and practiced have already transferred back to my daily responsibilities. I practiced team work, learned many new ideas about marketing, budgeting and menu development and I networked with my peers.

It was a great honor and privilege to be the first ever foodservice chef chosen to be a Chef Ambassador. This program connects some of the best chefs in the nation with Wisconsin Cheese – some of the best cheese in the nation. The WMMB Chef Ambassador program taps the culinary creativity of talented chefs to develop exciting new menu applications. In addition to developing recipes, chef ambassadors also spend the year spreading the word about Wisconsin Cheese through a special chef-invitee event in their restaurants or institutions, making media appearances and appearing at food events and conferences.

As such I will be promoting Wisconsin cheese at a variety of events on and off campus, the first took place in Princeton at our Mid-Atlantic/Northwestern Regional Conference. Over 20 people joined us in our Mid-Atlantic Hospitality suite to sample some of the best cheese Wisconsin has every produced.

We started with a flight of Cheddar’s from Hook’s and Carr Valley, then moved into some Bellavitano Merlot and then onto Aged Gouda and rounded out the tasting with some Cranberry Cheddar. We discussed the aging process, along with the various flavor profiles of younger and more mature cheese. WMMB provided us with cheese tasting tips, storage and handling recipe cards and a variety of assorted literature on the uses for Wisconsin cheese within our foodservice venues.

Shortly after the conference I attended our Chef Ambassador Kick off Tour in Madison Wisconsin where myself and 10 other chefs spent the week meeting Cheese Makers and sampling their delicious varieties of cheese. We toured the plants, large and small and after it was all said and done, tasted over 90 cheeses in 4 days. Each Cheese Maker went the distance in showing us why Wisconsin Cheese is certainly some of the best cheese made in America. I enjoyed them all, even the Limburger and my personal favorites were the Aged Brick Cheese from Widmer’s Cheese Cellars, Les Frères from the Crave Brothers Farmstead, Moody Blue from Emmi-Roth Kase and Pepato from BelGioioso Cheese.

If you are interested in checking out what Wisconsin Cheese has to offer then go to www.eatwisconsincheese.com.

Penn State Food Services gets into the “Madness”
Dining commons offer games, prizes to students

For over five years the event has been held at Penn State, and has always taken place during the NCAA tournament. Many sponsors came together for the event including: Pepsi, Snyder’s of Hanover, Frito Lay, Dr. Pepper, Snyder’s of Berlin, Jack and Jill Ice Cream, Weis Markets, Herr’s, Tastykake, Pepperidge Farm, and Little Debbie. Some of the prizes for the winners included an Apple iPod, Nintendo DSi, Canon Digital Camera, Mountain Bike, and Playstation 3. The mini-hoop used for the event was donated by Dr. Pepper, and provided for some intense competition.

Why, use them as the ocean surrounding your 40 foot pirate ship, of course! And then send students diving into the sea”foam” as they participate in the “Plunder Down Under,” looking for pieces of a treasure map and hoping to win a pizza party for their dorm!

On Wednesday, February 24th, the Elizabethtown College Dining Services team, in conjunction with the John Gross and Company, presented “Pirate Fest 2010”, the annual food show and themed dinner. The John Gross and Company is the primary vendor and food supplier for Elizabethtown College, and both have enjoyed a very successful relationship for over six years.

First of all, to welcome all who dared enter the Brossman Commons building was a chef-hat wearing skull and cross bones ice carving with glowing red eyes – which mimicked the specially designed logo which was also printed on t-shirts that the staff wore for the evening. Lit Tiki torches led students up the steps into the building, towards the Marketplace, where the festivities would begin.

WVU Tech’s Dining Services hosted a “Fat Tuesday - Top Chefs of Tech” dinner on Tuesday, February 16th, at the Bears Den dining hall on the Tech campus. This fun event provided students a “taste” of the Louisiana holiday with authentic Cajun food and entertainment.

The event also provided another opportunity for the “Top Chefs of Tech” (WVU Tech’s executive staff) to don chef’s jackets, do some cookin’, and interact with students.

The featured menu included items typically found on menus in the French Quarter. The Top Chef’s of Tech prepared and dished-up such Louisianan favorites as red beans ‘n’ rice, Cajun-style catfish, jambalaya, oven fried chicken, cornbread, dirty rice and king cake! Bartenders were also on hand to mix traditional “mock Hurricanes.”

The dining hall was decorated with a Bourbon Street backdrop, flowers, street lights, and balloons. Display cooking stations were staffed by Deans and Directors dressed in chef coats, beads and Mardi Gras headwear.

Students and other campus guests were given Mardi Gras beads and had the opportunity to win prizes. One lucky student who found

the “baby” in the “KING CAKE” won the grand prize -- an iPod Nano.

More than 300 students participated in the celebration. Students and staff alike gave the event great praise for the high-energy and campus-buzz generated by “Fat-Tuesday.” Laissez le bon temps rouler!

Dining Services had a very busy Fall semester including the inauguration of our 14th President, Janet Morgan Riggs; opening of a new outlet, The Dive; and a new point of service, a self-serve hot bar.

We are very excited about our new President. President Riggs is a graduate of Gettysburg College, a member of the Faculty, and previously held the positions of Assistant to the President and Provost. Inauguration events were held the weekend of September 12, 2009. Although the weather didn’t cooperate, approximately 2,000 guests enjoyed the ceremony, followed by a tent reception and evening activities of the Inaugural Ball. Private receptions and luncheons were also held. Dining Services catered all of the events throughout the weekend.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a NACUFS Institute on Customer Service . What a awesome learning adventure. It will be looked back on as a spectacular experience for a long time to come. Expectations were high as I arrived at the Institute and the expectations were met, and truly exceeded. The facilitators were very knowledgeable, and the net working has proved very valuable, as the emails from the other participants continually arrive.

I went with the goal of archiving tools to help facilitate a better Customer service program, and will strive to develop and apply a personal service philosophy that is appropriate for The dinning services here at Tyler’s grill and University of Richmond. The teaching included many different Customer service programs. This will help in the development of our own Customer service program. The books By TJ Shier, and the Ritz Carlton Philosophy will also be invaluable tools to reach that goal. The institute gave me the steps and the tools needed to begin development of our own program.

I would like to again take this time to thank you for such a valuable experience. I look forward to attending many more NACUFS advents.

Virginia Tech Executive Chef Mark Bratton participates in farmers market chef roulette

BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 20, 2009—On Oct. 14, the Blacksburg Farmers Market hosted a “chef roulette” event, featuring three local chefs. Each chef prepared a course using foods and produce available at the farmers market, and free samples were provided. The event was free and open to the community.

The event was set up in a cooking show format, and each chef was outfitted with a headset microphone broadcast over a PA system, so they could explain the cooking process to the audience while preparing their dishes. The roulette was held outdoors under a large tent, and generators were brought in to run the stove and cook-top.

“The purpose of the chef roulette was to help highlight the farmers market and produce from the market,” says Elizabeth Gilboy, director of the community design assistance center. “Oftentimes, although there is fabulous, fresh produce available at the farmers market, people may be unsure of how to prepare it.”

The chef roulette began with an appetizer of corn chowder prepared by Randall Spencer of Blue Ridge Mountain Catering. Next, Bobby Bonds, the catering manager for Foster’s Restaurant in Blacksburg, prepared a main course of pesto-stuffed chicken with roasted potatoes and onions. The roulette ended with Mark Bratton, the executive chef for Virginia Tech’s West End Market, preparing an apple torte with fresh locally grown apples.

“As a chef, I did not have to do a lot to make the produce taste good, since the fresh flavor and nutritional integrity was there,” says Bratton. “That meant I had the freedom to focus on my favorite aspect of cooking, which is being creative.”

Before joining the Virginia Tech culinary team in 2000, Bratton trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and served as sous-chef at the Buckhead Diner in Atlanta, Ga. He later worked as the executive chef at the Heron Park Grille in South Carolina and the Bistro Savannah in Georgia.

Chef roulette was part of Virginia Tech’s 2009 sustainability week, which ran from October 11-17, and featured other entertaining and educational programs focused around the development of a sustainable model of consumption. For more information on sustainability week, visit the Virginia Tech sustainability week website (http://www.recycle.vt.edu/sustain/).

For more information on the chef roulette event, contact Elizabeth Gilboy at egilboy@vt.edu.

Virginia Tech’s Dining Services is a department within the Division of Student Affairs (www.dsa.vt.edu). The Division of Student Affairs at Virginia Tech encompasses departments dedicated to providing a rich co-curricular experience and essential student services. Virtually every aspect of a student's life outside the classroom is represented through the division's departments.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech (www.vt.edu) is the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is among the top research universities in the nation. Today, Virginia Tech’s nine colleges are dedicated to quality, innovation, and results through teaching, research, and outreach activities. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Southside, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

This June I was given the opportunity to attend the NACUFS Foodservice Management Institute in Buffalo NY. This institutes promises to delve into budgeting, marketing, food cost, sanitation, etc…and they deliver. This was one of the most fulfilling educational institutes I have attended; FSMI discusses every facet of a food service operation and brings it full circle. I really enjoyed learning new aspects of the industry as well as reviewing familiar subjects. It was very insightful and informative. I would highly recommend any manager to take advantage of this wonderful learning opportunity. I left with a greater understanding of how a foodservice operation works.

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (July 2009)—Thirty foodservice management professionals recently attended The National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) Leadership Institute sponsored by Tyson Food Service. The Leadership Institute was held June 20–25 at the Tyson® Discovery Center™, the company’s state-of-the-art research and development facility located in Springdale, Arkansas, at the Tyson World Headquarters.

The Leadership Institute focused on helping participants analyze their personal leadership styles, including how to recognize and apply basic leadership principles, demonstrate effective team building and manage group dynamics. Tyson Food Service has sponsored the Leadership Institute since it started in 1985.

The Tyson Food Service culinary team prepared a custom menu for the institute’s meal functions, demonstrating how Tyson Food Service products may be menued in many different college and university menu applications. The “Mini Day” menu highlighted the value trend of bite-sized/mini menu items, such as “BYO Caesar” made with Tyson® Chicken Twists™ Product and “Shaved Steak Taco” made with Tyson® Shaved Steak® Beef. The “Pizza Day” menu featured an assortment of pizzas, sandwiches and a wing station, all utilizing Bonici® pizzaproducts from Tyson Food Service.

Participants were also given a tour of a company poultry plant and the Tyson Discovery Center, which features 19 research kitchens, a sensory lab, a pilot production plant and a packaging concept lab.

NACUFS has developed eight institutes, each of which maps to core competencies needed for effective foodservice management. The institutes are comprised of three Foundation Institutes and five Capstone Institutes.