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The 16th Annual Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) — Amherst was the center of the higher-education culinary world from June 6–11, 2010. Nearly 200 attendees from 45 schools took part in this year's installment, themed “Home Cooking From Around the World.”

“It was a great conference judging by the feedback from the attendees,” said Ken Toong, conference chair and executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises. “The theme was timely and just what the doctor ordered. During this rustic revolution, everyone wants recipes/concepts that are simple to cook, with food that is freshly prepared, good for you and embraces sustainability. Our chefs seemed to enjoy this fun but intensive week. The conference built camaraderie and was a great way to network with peers.”

The event featured several knowledgeable speakers, an American Culinary Federation (ACF)-sanctioned culinary competition and hands-on sessions with small group production workshops.

When students at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles return to school for the fall semester, they will be able to enjoy the new Ronald Tutor Campus Center.

The 192,000-square-foot center replaces The Commons, which was torn down two years ago. “The Commons was an older building and it really didn't create the environment that the university was looking for as a gathering spot for the students,” said Kris Klinger, director of USC Hospitality. “The campus center design took all of those pieces into consideration in regard to creating a spot in the center of campus where students gather, whether it is at a food venue or a performance venue, or a meeting room. They created a space that again will bring everyone together, particularly the students, obviously, because they really are looking to create more of a residential feel and environment and keep folks on campus at night and during the weekend.”

Several food venues are available for the campus community to gather. Moreton Fig, an 8,000-square-foot sophisticated, yet approachable restaurant is named for the two towering century-old fig trees fronting the restaurant. “We are partnering with the Lark Creek Restaurant Group to provide a venue for a nice meal, whether students bring their parents on campus, students get together, a student group organization or staff and faculty gathering and/or that faculty entertaining or having a meeting on campus,” he said.

Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa. is doing a lot to make sure that its dining is sustainable. One of the big initiatives that the school implements is the “Focus on Five” program. “It is a spin-off of our farm source program,” said Michael Miduri, general manager of Dining Services at the university with Parkhurst Dining Services, the campus foodservice provider. “Focus on Five is really picking five items, what they are, who they are from and where they are from, as opposed to an umbrella of farm source.”

Each day, dining services focuses on five items that it considers local — 100-150 miles from campus. “Sometimes it may be something that we produce here like homemade pizza dough,” he said. “We make all of our dough from scratch. Unfortunately, we are not milling the flour or anything like that, but we are making the dough from scratch. We make our cookies from scratch. One of the five might be milk – I am not milking the cow, but we are getting our milk from about half-an-hour from us.”

The program is part of a Parkhurst corporate initiative. “The initiative was developed from that farm source program to break it down for our guests and our staff. The umbrella of farm source is so big and for our guests and our staff, we weren't getting anything from it. Now, my staff can tell you every day – they may not know exactly who the farmer is, but they know that it is local – it is either made here, it came from Blue Goose Farms, it came from Gallagher's Dairy. It is definitely a lot easier to remember those five things.”

Twelve kitchens within Culinary Services at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing were Green Certified by the Office of Campus Sustainability. The certified kitchens were recognized in a special Earth Day ceremony.

The certification program is designed to recognize, assist and promote campus departments that are taking steps toward reducing their environmental footprint through initiatives for communication and education, energy efficiency and conservation, waste reduction, recycling, water conservation and procurement.

“A main goal of the certification program is to ensure that people become more educated on sustainability in their area,” said Diane Barker, assistant director for Residential and Hospitality Services Sustainability. “We hope that they will continue to practice what they learned and teach others ways to be
more sustainable in their day-to-day activities.”

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) in Greensboro has launched Simply To Go, a grab 'n go program that has added a great deal of convenience to students' daily lives.

Simply To Go provides students, faculty and staff of NC A&T the opportunity to get a balanced, nutritious meal to-go with just a meal swipe off their school identifi cation card. For one meal redemption, customers are provided an entrée, side, drink and a dessert. Through the use of a numbering system, customers merely choose one item labeled with a 1 (entrée), a 2 (side), a 3 (drink) and a + (dessert).

“Looking at our program, it actually adds more value to the students' meal plans and gives them more flexibility and options,” said Angela Peterson, director of Auxiliary Services. “The available entrées range from hot, fresh-from-theoven pizza and daily rotating hot menu items to specialty salads and sandwiches that accommodate every dietary need,” said Todd Meiners, general manager with Sodexo, the campus foodservice provider.

“The sides are designed to perfectly accompany any entrée choice and include chips, fruit, pasta salad, yogurt, a side salad and more. Finally, for dessert, an array of cookies, jello or pudding will satisfy any sweet tooth or craving.”

North Carolina State University (NC State) in Raleigh, recently launched its own branded line of freshly made grab 'n go items.

“In looking at our operations, we felt that we had a real opportunity to push a line of freshly made sandwiches, pitas and salads and push those to the non-traditional food outlets,” said Randy Lait, director of Dining Services. “We started with our coffee shops where we had some sandwiches and salads, but we needed to develop a special line that fit directly in with the pricepoint that we were looking for, and to introduce a new line of options for food to sell through our coffee shops.”

Wolfpack-to-Go, which is named after the school's nickname, features 52 varieties of sandwiches, salads, wraps, pitas and yogurt parfaits made daily on campus and deployed to campus restaurants carrying the brand. The line was launched in May.

Baked Herb Chicken

Ingredients:

Preparation:
Rinse chicken and coat with oil. Combine the herbs and seasonings except salt to make the herb seasoning. Combine kosher salt and pepper and season chicken evenly, then season with herb seasoning.

Lay out evenly on sheet pans, then place in 350-degree-Fahrenheit oven for 35 minutes and ensure that the internal temperature is 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place chicken in 4-inch hotel pan, garnish with chopped seasonal herbs.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 pounds Tyson Cut & Ready 100% All-Natural Diced Chicken Breast Meat, 15% Marination, Uncooked
• 3 ounces light olive oil
• 6 tablespoons Sante Fe-style chili, cumin and garlic seasoning, commercially prepared
• 24 12-inch Original Wraps White Tortillas
• 6 ounces Tyson Bacon Pieces, 3/4-inch
• 4 1/2 pounds scrambled eggs
  
• 24 ounces hash-brown potatoes, diced and seasoned
• 3 pounds Pepper-Jack cheese sauce, commercially prepared
• 4 ounces melted butter
• 48 ounces roasted tomato salsa

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and seasoning and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Transfer to another container. Cover and hold above 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

To assemble a single serving:

Place tortilla on a flat work surface. Arrange 3 ounces of the scrambled eggs across the center of the wrap, top with 1 ounce of hash-brown potatoes and 2 ounces of the Pepper-Jack cheese sauce. Top with 2 ounces of Santa Fe-seasoned chicken breast and 1/4 ounce of bacon pieces.

Fold the tortilla around ingredients and roll burrito-style. Brush the outer surface lightly with 1 teaspoon of melted butter.

Grill-press the burrito in a preheated panini grill at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 30 seconds, or until the wrap is golden brown.

Slice the burrito in half diagonally.

Serve with 2 ounces of salsa portioned in a ramekin.

Yield: 24 servings

Three months after becoming vice president of Student Services at San Juan College in Farmington, N.M., in 2005, Dave Eppich gained oversight of the school's underperforming dining services operation after it was transferred to his department.

“It was a self-op at that point in time,” he said. “The facility was dated. A combination of lack of ability, not through lack of trying, within our self-operating staff and management and the facility itself really compounded the problem. In trying to create a retail market, we were never successful with that. That lack of expertise was a large factor. The college had already determined prior to that that we would be putting in a new dining facility – complete dining room, kitchen, etc. That was being planned.”

At Rice University in Houston, when you talk about healthy eating, it is all about reducing the three S's – sodium, saturated fat and sugar.

The idea to lower the amounts of these elements came about after David McDonald, residential dining director, began reading reports in the media. “I started noticing it when I started reading about the potential sodium reduction laws in New York,” he said. “Then I started reading about some data where we are seeing that 80 percent of sodium intake is coming from processed foods. At about the same time – early last year – the obesity reports were coming out and the diabetes reports and the hypertension reports. Houston was high up there on the list for all the categories. I started thinking about menus and health and wellness, but that is not my expertise; that's when I went to go see my chefs and get down to the nitty-gritty about it.”

He continued, “Earlier this year, I was talking with my senior operations manager and my senior executive chef about the article that came out with Pepsi saying it was going to reduce its sugar, saturated fat and sodium by 25 percent over the next 10 years across all of their brands. That was exciting for me because a lot of times it takes a big player to get the ball rolling. Of course we have been watching first lady Michelle Obama's initiatives as well.”

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