Dining Services reshuffles chefs' kitchen assignments

The staffing changes began when Larry Frazer, who oversaw Graduate College dining and Princeton Catering through last year, left to become director of culinary arts at the Eden Institute, a nonprofit school for autistic children on U.S. Route 1. Doug Stehle, who had been the unit chef for Rockefeller and Mathey colleges, took Frazer’s position, and Michael Gattis, the former unit chef at Whitman College, stepped into Stehle’s position.

One outside hire completed the chain: Ryan Kehoe, who spent the last decade at Cornell, took Gattis’ previous position at Whitman.

This pattern of hiring from within is typical of Princeton’s Dining Services, though not typical of the industry as a whole, Dining Services director Stu Orefice said in an e-mail. Orefice said the Dining Services turnover rate for managers is “in the single digits,” while the industry-wide turnover rate for managers is 58 percent.

While new menus are instituted annually at the dining halls, the new chefs have also attempted to incorporate greater variety and expand healthy options.

At Rocky-Mathey, a renovated “half moon” extension to the salad bar has served as “a creative outlet for my talented staff to produce innovative salads using local produce,” Gattis said in an e-mail. He emphasized the salad bar’s dynamic role in the kitchen, saying it “lends itself as a platform to freelance ideas.” Gattis noted that he has also attempted to use fresh vegetables and local state produce.

The Whitman kitchen’s changes have emphasized customer interaction and choice, including a wider variety of ready-made and cooked-to-order items.

“To give the students the feeling that a dish was made just for them, we put in place more custom-made bars and individual restaurant-style dishes,” Kehoe said in an e-mail, adding that the college has also introduced more international dishes.

Whitman chef manager Dan Slobodien explained in an e-mail that this greater variety included more fish and seafood items, and more sandwiches and grab-and-go items at lunch.

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Changes in the Butler-Wilson kitchen centered on healthier hot food options while maintaining the current culinary style.

“While we love to experiment with different cuisines, we veer away from anything too formal or exotic,” Butler-Wilson operations chef manager Brad Ortega said in an e-mail. This philosophy of careful experimentation guided the addition of new Mediterranean options to Butler-Wilson’s pizza station.

“We work to create a culinary atmosphere that’s straightforward and abundant — lots of fresh foods with big flavors,” Ortega explained. “It’s our hope that the look and flavors of our product create an energy that supports an enjoyable social experience.”

At Forbes, as at Rocky-Mathey, changes in the physical layout of the gallery have inspired changes in menu offerings.

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“Now that everyone enters through the dining room door after checking in, we are able to utilize our chef’s table,” Forbes unit chef Alex Trimble explained in an e-mail. “We are featuring sandwiches and wraps made to order on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and we have added burritos [and] gyros prepared to order as part of our menu rotation.”

To increase healthy options, Forbes has added fruit smoothies and granola parfaits to its weekday breakfast and added more Conscious Cuisine entrees to its lunch and dinner menus. The Conscious Cuisine initiative emphasizes reduced fat, more whole grains, lower calories and local seasonal ingredients.

Despite the changes, most sophomores interviewed said they had not noticed any difference from last year’s menus.

“I’ve noticed some new things, but nothing really shocking,” Rockefeller resident Emily Trost ’13 said. “But I guess they don’t want to shock.”

In addition to menu changes, colleges have also focused on sustainability measures. Rocky-Mathey introduced trayless dining this fall, which means that the policy has now been implemented at every residential college except Whitman. Trayless dining may reduce food waste by up to 30 percent, lower water and energy costs by $4,000 a year and save up to $120,000 in food purchases, according to the University’s 2009 sustainability report. Dining Services plans to spread trayless dining in Whitman and the Graduate College by 2012.