One On One

This special Halloween episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick features OU Culinary Services Executive Pastry Chef Vicki Van Pelt and Southeast Ohio History Center Tour Guide George Eberts. In a “trick, then treat” style interview, we weave together local ghost stories with tempting treats from the bake shop. Athens, Ohio, has been acknowledged by ghost hunters as one of the most haunted places in the world. The folklore leads down some very spooky paths. Eberts is a skeptic, but he manages to still give us chills! And Van Pelt, a native of West Virginia, is sharing not only the sweet and savory treats from the dining team, but also her knowledge of a West Virginia legend, the Mothman! We also get into why and how local lore gets started and sticks, the way mental health and the fear of the unknown plays into it all as well. So get cozy with some hot cider and a donut and let's tell some spooky stories!

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, the guest, Chef Maira Nogueira shares with us her unique journey to the kitchen and what she's most excited about on campus this year. She has a few goals she's working toward, including a more humanized kitchen from a psychological standpoint to doing more with sustainability and community. We also get into ayurvedic eating, an interesting way of life with seemingly lots of culinary secrets to unlock for increasing our wellness and wellbeing.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we take a deep dive into the University of Nevada, Reno's fresh new updates to the Chartwells dining program, including later night hours, grab-and-go trends and concept makeovers. Executive Chef Jon Buchholtz takes us behind the scenes into how the planning process went for all the changes and how it's been going so far. With labor concerns ever-present, the dining team has found ways to offer more while working with less, essentially. We also get into the growing catering program and find out a little more about Buchholtz's culinary viewpoint.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we sit down with the man behind some of Cleveland's absolute best restaurants, Chef Douglas Katz. Way back in 2014, we featured Katz in FM; at that time, at the art museum, where he showed us some ceviche secrets. Later, we ran into him all the way in California at a sustainable foods institute at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and now our paths cross again in the onsite foodservice world, as Katz has signed on with the Cleveland Clinic and Morrison Healthcare for a partnership that's sure to be all about great food, great health and the hands-on spirit that has made Katz last so long as a hyper-competent, yet super humble Cleveland chef to be reckoned with.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we are zooming in on the Cura Comfort Cart at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Comfort Cart is proving to be a great way for the dining crew to help the nursing staff provide comfort to hospital visitors who have just received bad news. The reality of a hospital setting is: Death is part of life. And bad news can also come in the form of a move to hospice, a diagnosis or any jarring medical event, really. The professional caregivers have to walk a fine line between compassion and professionalism. Staying sane and filling their own cups means they can care for others more effectively. We talk with creator of the cart, Cura Hospitality's Jessica Kotuba, patient services manager, and Windy Flynn, dining services director. The two are experienced in the healthcare space, and have some interesting info to share about the carts and also how their skill sets help them practice compassion.

Morrison Healthcare's Senior Director of Culinary Innovation gives us a behind-the-scenes look into the way healthcare dining evolves, ultimately achieving the very real power to heal patients, staff, community.

Chef Abbie Gellman, MS, RD, CDN, is looking to bridge the gap between healthy food and delicious food. As a dietitian, she's got the knowledge about nutrients and plant-based foods, but since she was first a chef, she sees through a lens of flavor. Earlier this year at the UMass Chef's Conference, an annual learning mecca for college chefs, Gellman developed a workshop, sponsored by Kellogg's, called Kitchen & Culinary Nutrition Essentials for C&U Registered Dietitians.During the hands-on workshop, Gellman showed participants new ideas in plant-based and plant-forward meals, allergen-friendly meals and late-night ideas, always a hot topic for those who serve college students. On this episode, we go in-depth with Gellman, finding out more about her life and mission, and also her role as a consultant, cookbook author and mom to a picky eater. She shares some plant-based perspective and talks about the many different roles today's college dietitian can play.

As a former director at one of the nation's largest school districts, Kern Halls remembers what it's like to serve school lunch. As a former kid who grew up on school lunch, he also remembers what it's like to eat it. When Kern and the Ingenious Culinary Concepts team arrives at a school district, the consulting includes observing, listening and then collaborating for cafeteria solutions that turn a blah cafeteria into the coolest hangout spot in the school. Fresh paint is huge, but even bigger is the infectious enthusiasm that Halls brings to each job. Over the years, FM has featured Halls' work and also his personal experiences in life recently we caught up with him at the SNA show in Denver, and next thing you know he was recording a podcast, calling in from the airport on his way to a school in Idaho. He's full of energy, and hopefully listening to this fresh new podcast will help energize you for back to school.

On this episode of On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we meet Executive Chef Jim Kellenberger, a recent winner of FM's Healthcare Recipe Contest in the Best Sustainable category with a seasonal stunner of a salad: Romaine lettuce, green beans and cherry tomatoes are topped with a blood orange vinaigrette and candied pumpkin seeds from last year's pumpkin carve. Kellenberger, a military veteran, has worked in many different settings, including New York/New Jersey fine dining, Vegas buffets and hot spots, and Knott's Berry Farm in California (known for its creative berry-themed food items). When he came to healthcare dining, he didn't realize what a positive impact it would have on his life or the fulfilling nature of the job. Lately, he's been working making sustainable meals that heal for thousands every day at the hospital. The education piece of healthcare dining is important to him too, and we get into that as well.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we are catching up with SDSU's Executive Chef Tiago Battastini, a longtime friend of FM who we happily ran into at this year's UMass Chefs Conference. This conversation features a recap of how the UMass Chefs' Conference played out this year for Battastini and his team, and the full-circle moment of attending this conference in a leadership role. We find out what's been going on with that dining team at SDSU, including hyper-local campus farming, world flavors, new projects and how Battastini gets inspired by his crew every day. Also, we talked off-air about a very cool new concept at SDSU that draws on some very fascinating historical cuisine that's not often explored, but college foodservice is actually an ideal place to execute it. Intrigued? We are too! Stay tuned for FM's next issue of our new digizine for more on that hint!

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we get to know HHS Director Trula Hepner, a real-deal healthcare foodservice professional with an unstoppable drive to nourish patients, staff and the community. Hepner is a winner of this year's FM Healthcare Recipe Contest, and her Fresh Fennel-stuffed Porchetta, which won the Best Roast category, blew us away with all the succulent flavor and of course, that crispy, crackly skin (she gives us her tips in the interview!) Hepner talks about fennel as an ingredient, both raw and cooked, and why she always looks for ingredients with lots of healing nutrients and weaves them into homey comfort food that heals the soul, too. Her many educational events and classes have made a difference to patients facing all kinds of health challenges, so they can create those nourishing meals at home, a whole new experience for lots of people.

FLIK Hospitality's Chef Will Pfeiffer learns from local beekeeper, spearheads amazing custom-built hive mind and honey-powered new menu items to IBM's Louis V. Gerstner Center for Learning.

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, it's Alaska or bust! An old friend of FM, we first met Chef Amy Foote of the ANTHC (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) back in 2016, when she shared with us the healing potential of traditional Alaskan foods and even shared some recipes for fiddlehead fern pizza, hatcher pass salad, wild nettle smoked salmon pesto linguine and herring egg salad.Now, we're catching up with Chef Amy on what she's been up to on the healthcare foodservice frontier, including her work with different Alaska Native groups and her efforts to extend the chilly climate's short growing season with growing technology for microgreens and more. Just living in Alaska sounds like an adventure, so we also get into everyday occurrences that sound wild to mainlanders, like seeing bears and even an angry mama moose (you really, really don't want to mess with Ms. Mama Moose, according to Chef Amy!)

Aramark Healthcare+ Senior Culinary and Wellness Director Josh Ingraham is back in the healthcare dining game after a few innings of ballpark experience and starting his own healthy food to-go business during the pandemic. He's now ready to delve into food as medicine from a scientific (and flavor-forward) standpoint.

Mike White has been at UConn since his undergrad days in the early ‘90s, when he started in the dishroom, learning all aspects of the dining program. Now, he's putting his own stamp on it.

The collaborative, hyper-local meat program at MSU includes the dining team, agriculture college, area ranchers and local 4-H groups. We talk to the program's coordinator and the chef to learn about the process from ranch to dining hall.

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Camilo Garavito studied business and hospitality in Costa Rica, got an MBA in Barcelona, and along the way worked in restaurants, making each experience a learning one. Now, he's helping Wisconsin school food professionals at Elior North America accounts, leading K-12 by Elior's new Chef on the Road Program.The name of the program says it all; Garavito is always on the go, and he's making the most of it. His inspiration comes from visiting the schools and meeting the foodservice teams and students. We talk about how a new perspective and fresh eyes can really add some zip to a school food program. He's bringing in cool new recipes, ingredients and a can-do attitude along with him. We also get into his extensive world travels and how each learning experience he had is serving him now as he applies his knowledge to the many unique challenges of school food.

Teton Waters Ranch has focused on K-12 and developed products for kids—including blended beef hot dogs with veggies—working with Loveland's Thompson School District to fine tune the recipes and get real-time, honest kid feedback.

Back in January, we had BGSU Dining by Chartwells' marketing guy on the podcast. Now, it's the chef's turn to share his side of the dining story on the BGSU Dining by Chartwells foodservice team at Bowling Green State University, which sits on the flat plains of eastern Ohio, perfect grounds for robots to roam. Executive Chef Eric Yung tells us all about the progression of the robot food delivery program, which has been in place since 2020, when robots became a bigger reality in lots of places, college campuses in the forefront. We also talk about Yung's culinary inspirations from a passion for zero-waste to the vast diversity found in Ohio foodways (Cuban cuisine in Toledo, goetta in Cincinnati) and his plans for the year ahead. Also, we found out that the chef's son has decided to attend culinary school at his dad's alma mater, The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY. As a dad, he's sure to be proud, and as a chef, he's got a unique set of advice to offer. We wish his son the best!

Chef Danny Concepcion has been featured in FM many times. He's always ready with cool new culinary ideas and projects. As Executive Chef at Table 29 at Sam's Club Home Office in Arkansas, Concepcion makes every meal out of the ordinary. Recently, an old school steak pop-up got everyone at Sam's talking (and eating). A family man, Concepcion takes leadership very seriously, and shares his own weight-lifting journey on social media and gets his family involved with exercise, too. Teamwork is a part of so many aspects of his life! He's very inspiring to talk to, and we get into several culinary topics, along with the dry-aged steak. Concepcion's life has taken him from Puerto Rico to NYC to Vegas and now Arkansas, and along the way he's absorbed many different cultural flavors. We talk about his connection to Puerto Rico, and how a themed day ended up having healing powers.

Chef Mario Reyes, director of culinary and innovation at TRIO Community Meals, lends his expertise as a master recipe developer to menus and interactions that help a very vulnerable part of our population stave off bad nutrition and loneliness.

An expert from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) helps deconstruct picky eating, feeding and swallowing disorders and more, as we look at new findings and actual help beyond “try it, you’ll like it.”

On this episode of Food Management’s podcast, FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, our guest is Devra Shiba RD, CSG, LDN, CDP, CMDCP, senior manager of clinical services-area support for Sodexo. As a dietitian in a leadership role, she’s currently focused on a new dementia-focused program called B Integrated, a holistic approach for residents with cognitive disabilities. While dementia has historically been viewed by the medical community—and the general public—as a sad but unavoidable fact of life about getting old, new research keeps pointing to the fact that dementia can be prevented, or at least slowed. In short, it doesn’t have to be the norm when people age. Part of that emerging viewpoint, not surprisingly, is nutrition. Sodexo Senior dietitians have pooled their expertise in a white paper that breaks down lasting change in dementia care into three pillars: therapeutic hospitality (making dining easy to navigate and social), adapted wellness in culinary (using health-promoting ingredients) and integrated dementia care dining training (operationalizing person-centered care). Shiba breaks down these pillars for us, sharing real-life examples and how to put these philosophies into practice. It’s exciting to think that advances are being made in the area of dementia, something that our senior dining readers experience on a daily basis.

Bowling Green University’s Office of Sustainability joins forces with BGSU Dining by Chartwells for big steps in sustainability. Marketing Director Jon Zachrich takes us behind the scenes of how the compost (and corresponding marketing copy) is made.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we get the scoop on a longstanding relationship between food marketing students at Niagara University (NU) and food marketing pros at Rich Products, a neighbor of the school in Western New York State. More than 40 former students have taken jobs with Rich’s, and even more have completed food-related MBA programs through the school. We’re talking with Jamie McKeon, SVP of Demand Creation at Rich’s. As a member of the NU Food Marketing Center of Excellence’s advisory board, McKeon has a front-row seat for finding out about what makes Gen Z go for different menu trends, which we talk about as the year wraps up and we try to look ahead for which trends will be big on campus next year. This symbiotic relationship is an interesting one, and could work in other settings, too, since securing a job after college is obviously top-of-mind for today’s college students.

Andy Mettert, foodservice director at University of Dubuque is a busy guy, and tough to pin down for a podcast! Dozens of emails passed between us but he managed to find the time recently to get us caught up on what’s happening with the dining program at the University of Dubuque. We also get into Project Rooted a community-based culinary collaboration with the goal of bringing nutritious food and farm-to-table experiences to kids in food deserts and everywhere else. He’s been working with Project Rooted since before the pandemic, when suddenly the project went from “nice to have” to “serving a real need,” serving thousands of meals when schools were closed. On the culinary side, Mettert muses on Midwestern cuisine and why the ‘meat and potatoes’ vibe in this part of the country doesn’t have to mean plant-forward food moves to the back burner. And if you’re a roller coaster enthusiast, stay tuned because we talk about Cedar Point, a childhood memory for both of us, complete with historic coasters like the Blue Streak and Gemini.

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, special guest Chef Carrie Richardson spins the yarns that come from researching recipes in dusty corners of school offices and cracking open cookbooks that hold secrets to the next hot LTO. Wait, what? That’s right, an old recipe from the 1970s that fell out of favor and almost became lost to time was revived by Richardson. She recreated and adapted the legendary Western Burger, a kind of Texas-style kolache (doughy Eastern European hot pocket), a few years ago. It’s been welcomed back big time, and just this year was featured among mostly new menu items for back to school “first day hoorays” from Chartwells. It's time to catch up with Texas-based Richardson, as she’s taken on a new role as regional chef for Chartwells School Dining Services, working with different teams and doing a lot of driving on the Texas prairie. If you also have a lot of drive time, be sure to listen to these podcasts to make the time fly by.

Renee Christoff’s job is to keep employees across the world engaged and enjoying the workplace—and what that looks like is still taking shape. She shares her perspective on working with T. Rowe Price’s foodservice contract company, CulinArt, and what B&I foodservice teams can do to engage with the ever-evolving workforce in a meaningful, useful way.

Getting the scoop on the harvest, the students and farm-fresh menus with Ron Jones and Andrew Evans, two foodservice operators who quite literally go from farm to school every day.

A frequent visitor to the U.S. via events like Menus of Change and NACUFS conferences, Head of Bars and Dining at the University of Reading Matt Tebbit shares his impressions on college dining here vs. there and reflects on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the country’s mourning period, which coincides with the start of the school year.

Chef and GM Michael Cleary has taken a deep dive into fermentation at St. John’s College in Annapolis, experimenting with housemade hot sauce, pickled mushrooms from the Noma cookbook and plenty of student engagement with a blog and the new Kimchi Club.

A new line of plant-based, sustainable (and wildly creative) bowls is the result of back-and-forth recipe development between Chef Jason Patel of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and HHS (Healthcare Housekeeping Systems) Chef Marta Hernandez.

Tuesdays through Thursdays are the best bet for business dining. That’s just one little nugget of B&I intel Jon Pye shared with us in the latest podcast. We talk about what corporate dining looks like now and how Pye sees it shaping up for the rest of the year, as new accounts open for American Dining Creations across the country. “It used to be, ‘What’s tomorrow going to bring?’ and we’d look at the weather [i.e. more business diners would stay in for lunch when it’s raining], but the way things are now, there’s just no way to forecast it.” Pye has been keeping up with changing times and labor costs with menus that do more with less, and pop-ups and limited-time offers that keep things interesting in a B&I setting. Also, since Pye is from England, we get into many questions about the food culture, the colonialism that brought curry mania and dishes that confuse us, including toad in a hole!

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we get into a great conversation with K-12 Chef to Watch Andre James, who, along with the Maschio’s Food Service team, is currently feeding kids over the summer. We talk about students returning to school to find more scratch-made menu items, gradually phased into a dozen schools. James walks us through the process of reuniting 80 employees and getting everyone on the same page for feeding not just kids, but the community, too, as tough times continue and families are food insecure even as the world opens back up. He offers actionable advice about reaching out to local organizations to help make a difference in your community and he has some really good tips on collecting items for food banks. Also, an interesting thing about James: He started a special-needs program that provides education and job readiness, and his inspiration is his brother. We talk about that, too.

When a burger is smashed into a screamin’ hot griddle, the lacy, almost-burnt edges are the delicious result. Take that same burger, make it grassfed and blend it with mushrooms…the result is a healthier—yet still amazing—result. The foodservice team at San Francisco’s UCSF Health has been making burgers this way for a few years and has just recently got recognition from a local food/tech writer, Thomas Smith, of The Bold Italic. Longtime friend of FM and healthcare foodservice thought leader Dan Henroid, MS, RD, director of nutrition and food services at UCSF Health, is our guest in this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick. We talk specifics about smashburgers and blended burgers and also about the tendency of mainstream food writers and local news reporters to automatically assume hospital food will be bad! I let out a bit of emotion/sass about this topic, not gonna lie.

The kitchen, sadly, has often been marred by verbal abuse from chefs who thought that was the thing to do. Chefs like Stanford Dining’s Christina Betondo have risen to leadership positions through listening to employees rather than screaming at them.

In this earthy episode of FM On Demand, we break up the big topic of food waste into actionable bites with Lexie Raczka, Aramark’s sustainability director for higher education. At Boston University (BU), BU Dining has set an ambitious goal of reducing food waste by 50% by the summer of 2023 (which is closer than you might think!) We talk about everything from policy menu planning to cutting boards in the back, serving styles in the front and composting at a farm outside of Boston. BU’s Weigh the Waste event has been a valuable way to engage with students, and Raczka walks us through what all-you-care-to-eat setups can do to reduce wasted food. A big part is research into the “why” of food waste. “There’s so many different reasons why students may have more food in a dining hall that’s all-you-care-to-eat, but at these events, we can get to more nuanced information: like if an item is too big of a portion or if that item was prepared differently that day,” she says.

Chef Don McIntosh started out managing a KFC and is now getting kids to try new things at Westmont Hilltop School District in Johnstown, Pa., including cool noodle bowls and smoky barbecue made with USDA ingredients.

Talking with HHS (Hospital Housekeeping Systems) Chef Brittney Horn about her award-winning kielbasa recipe, her creative process for healthcare dining’s many aspects, what it takes to run the business side of a foodservice operation and her culinary roots in Southern Illinois, the home of deep-pan pizza.

Aladdin Campus Dining Executive Chef Eric Credle is sparking excitement for healthy eating at Bowie State University in Maryland. He’s got lots of good ideas, and a winning philosophy for leadership.

Founder/CEO Jeff Grass of office catering firm HUNGRY talks about how the company’s new café & coffee bar service is designed to operate in the new business dining environment .

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) is a sprawling 120-acre complex engaging in collaborative research, clinical care and education activities among member institutions, but like just about every workplace it found that changing work habits combined with the need for fresh, healthier, more appealing options challenged the resources of the onsite dining program, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Enter high-tech solutions, in this case a series of “smart fridge” units from vendor Byte Technology that can be placed in just about any location where there are sufficient numbers of customers seeking high-quality options conveniently offered round the clock. In addition, the team at BNMC was able to forge relationships with local suppliers and producers so that not only do the onsite customers benefit but so does the local economy. The result is that the staff working at BNMC now have fresh, healthy meal and snack options in easily and conveniently accessible service outlets round the clock. In this One On One With podcast segment, Elizabeth Machnica, director of community well-being, and Marla Guarino, farm-to-institution program coordinator, talk about why the Byte fridges were deployed, how they are managed, what they stock and what value they bring to both the onsite and offsite communities.

Increasing the number of meatless menu options has been a priority in a variety of onsite dining venues, from colleges, where vegetarian and vegan students often form a powerful interest group, to healthcare facilities where the reported health benefits of eating less animal protein are putting more focus on plant-based dining. Meanwhile, K-12 schools already have a mandate to serve a certain amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grains while limiting the meat portion if they participate in federal school meal reimbursement programs like the National School Lunch Program and National School Breakfast Program. That being said, few if any schools have made as binding a commitment to plant-based dining as Richfield High School in the Richfield Public Schools ISD in Minnesota, as Richfield High recently became the first high school in the country to sign the Forward Food pledge that commits it to increasing its plant-based options by specific amounts by certain target dates. In this FM One on One With podcast segment, Michael Manning, director of food & nutrition for Richfield Public Schools, talks about this commitment, why it was made and how he plans to implement it.

In this One on One podcast, Aramark’s Executive Chef Brittani Ratcliff of Morehouse State University talks about the challenges (staffing) and the joys (great food and teamwork) of bringing campus back to life this semester. As one of FM’s Chefs to Watch, Brittani Ratcliff regularly shares with us special behind-the-scenes stories of what it’s really like to lead a campus dining program. Ratcliff has been doing what she can to build a strong culinary team, and she has lots of ideas to implement as the semester at Morehouse State University turns into fall and winter. A Halloween fanatic, Ratcliff has exciting personal news: At the end of October, she’s getting married in a cemetery (complete with fog machine for a spookily romantic day!). We also talk about the ongoing quest to dismantle the patriarchal vibe still found in some kitchens and the ways Ratcliff is raising consciousness about inclusivity in the industry.

Shane Lynch, vice president of culinary excellence for management company Thomas Cuisine, discusses the firm’s commitment to its scratch-cooking focus and how that is maintained in the face of the challenges posed by the COVID and post-COVID environments.

Recently, Canteen Vending Services announced a partnership with Le Bread Xpress to install and manage Bake Xpress robotic bakery vending machines throughout North America. Bake Xpress is a sophisticated vending solution that offers a selection of pastries, pizza and artisan sandwiches that are freshly baked at time of order. Canteen has been piloting Bake Xpress machines at corporate and university sites in the San Francisco Bay Area since late 2019 and it was the success of these tests that led to the extended sales agreement to deploy Bake Xpress machines into additional markets nationwide, including into healthcare, hospitality, entertainment and transportation sites. In this One On One interview, Michael Coffey, Canteen’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, talks about the rollout, how it enhances his company’s service capabilities to clients and what the deployment of such cutting-edge technology means for onsite dining as a whole going forward.

NYU's Chef Tati helped students through the pandemic boredom with her fun Tuesdays with Tati social media series, in which she demonstrated food “hacks” that could be easily done with dining hall items. Now, as summer heats up and New York City begins to come back to life after a long 18 months, Tatiana Ortiz prepares for innovative future menus, even as uncertainty still plays a role, especially on the catering side of things. Ortiz describes early life in Columbia, her NYC roots and how flavors from around the world can combine into entirely something new depending on the chef. When Ortiz first came to live in New York as a teen, her persistence got her started in catering jobs which led to her current position at NYU. Preferring to go the extra mile on the job, Ortiz is optimistic about the rest of year, but cautiously so. She's waiting to see what happens next, honing her culinary skills to nourish the campus community no matter what the future may hold.

NYU’s Chef Tati helped students through the pandemic boredom with her fun Tuesdays with Tati social media series, in which she demonstrated food “hacks” that could be easily done with dining hall items. Now, as summer heats up and New York City begins to come back to life after a long 18 months, Tatiana Ortiz prepares for innovative future menus, even as uncertainty still plays a role, especially on the catering side of things. Ortiz describes early life in Columbia, her NYC roots and how flavors from around the world can combine into entirely something new depending on the chef. When Ortiz first came to live in New York as a teen, her persistence got her started in catering jobs which led to her current position at NYU. Preferring to go the extra mile on the job, Ortiz is optimistic about the rest of year, but cautiously so. She’s waiting to see what happens next, honing her culinary skills to nourish the campus community no matter what the future may hold.

Students at Indian Creek High School in Indiana's Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp. district have been raising a number of beef cattle given to the school by the Creek Cattle Co. When they reach maturity this summer, Creek Cattle will process them into meat that the school meal program will then serve to students. The initiative thus has both an educational component for not only the students involved with taking care of the animals but others who will benefit from the experience to learn more about where food comes from while also knowing that the meat they are eating is from cows that were well cared for during their lives. In this FM One On One podcast interview, Carol Schaaf, director of food service for the district, talks about the school-raised beef program, how she plans to use the resultant product and the benefits in general of this and related farm-to-school initiatives.

Students at Indian Creek High School in Indiana's Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp. district have been raising a number of beef cattle given to the school by the Creek Cattle Co. When they reach maturity this summer, Creek Cattle will process them into meat that the school meal program will then serve to students. The initiative thus has both an educational component for not only the students involved with taking care of the animals but others who will benefit from the experience to learn more about where food comes from while also knowing that the meat they are eating is from cows that were well cared for during their lives. In this FM One On One podcast interview, Carol Schaaf, director of food service for the district, talks about the school-raised beef program, how she plans to use the resultant product and the benefits in general of this and related farm-to-school initiatives.

Pennsylvania-based Kendal, which operates over a dozen CCRCs around the country, is in the process of developing Enso Village, a $300 million continuing care retirement community in Healdsburg, California, in conjunction with Greenbrier Development and the San Francisco Zen Center. The company describes Enso Village as “a zen-inspired life plan community [that will] focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults 60+”. As part of that focus, Kendal is partnering with Greens, a landmark vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco’s Fort Mason district. Greens will work with Kendal on recipe development and fostering and expanding relationships with area growers as a big focus of the dining program will be on locally sourced, fresh product. In this FM One On One podcast interview, Ben Butler, Kendal’s vice president of culinary services, talks about Enso Village and the plans for its dining component. He notes that as planning for the community proceeds, he will be looking for an executive chef with the experience and expertise to manage its very specialized dining program.