Bravo 2017 - Volume 2 by Compass Group USA

2017 VOLUME 2 | 30TH ANNIVERSARY

THE

30TH AN N I VER SA RY ISSUE

BRAVO IS THE ALMOST QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF

BON APPÃ&#x2030;TIT MANAGEMENT COMPANY | A MEMBER OF THE COMPASS GROUP 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 400 Palo Alto, California 94301 650-798-8000 www.bamco.com LEARN HOW FOOD CHOICES AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNITY, AND YOUR WELL-BEING AT

www.cafebonappetit.com

17-6851

01 | BRAVO

INDEX

Abercrombie & Fitch 63, 116 Adobe 52, 59, 65 Albion College 54 Andrews University 79 Art Institute of Chicago 96-99 Best Buy 24, 71, 90, 113 Biola University 92 Blizzard Entertainment 74 Cambia Health Solutions 53 Capital Café 120 Carleton College 49, 95, 110, 119 Case Western Reserve University 38-39, 54, 91 CHG Healthcare 86 Citrix 25 Claremont McKenna College 51 Cleveland Botanical Garden 91 The College of Idaho 49 The Commissary 30-31 Denison University 26, 82-83, 107, 117 DePauw University 39, 75 Electronic Arts 46 Emmanuel College 42 Emory University 84-85 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 47, 93 Furman University 100, 120 Fuqua School of Business 111 Genentech 24, 25, 36-37, 49 George Fox University 47, 90, 109 The Getty 40-41 Goucher College 75 Grove City College 110 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens 60-61 Johns Hopkins University 70, 72, 88 Knox College 94, 107 Lafayette College 48, 89 Lesley University 71 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 58 Medtronic 117 Mentor Graphics 116 Milliken & Company 70-71

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 67 Mount Angel Abbey 58 Musical Instrument Museum 87 Nordstrom 48 Oberlin College 27, 32-33, 51 Oracle 55, 79, 117 Oregon Episcopal School 72, 90 Otterbein University 47, 66, 69, 121 Plantronics 70-71, 73 Public House 43 Regis University 50, 66, 118 Reinsurance Group of America 116, 118 Restaurant 356 114-115 Roger Williams University 73 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 73 Santa Clara University 54, 111 SAP 35, 70 SAS 31, 69 Seattle Art Museum 80, 106 Seattle University 54, 67 St. Edward’s University 106 St. Olaf College 27, 64, 93 St. Timothy’s School 87 Starbucks 53, 74, 102-103 State Auto Insurance 55 STEM Kitchen & Garden 26 Target 51, 77, 124 Tesla 101 The Thacher School 65 Turtle Creek Offices 68 Twitter 58, 72 University of Redlands 62-63, 93 University of San Francisco 26, 76-77, 94, 107 University of the Pacific 50 Washington University in St. Louis 27, 89 Westminster College 119 Wheaton College 34, 75, 107, 112 Whittier College 108 Willamette University 81 Yahoo 50, 89, 92

BRAVO WAS PRINTED ON PAPER MADE FROM 100% RECYCLED FIBER INCLUDING 75% POSTCONSUMER WASTE. THIS SAVED... 85 fully grown trees 39,060 gallons water 38 million BTUs energy 2,620 pounds solid waste 7,201 pounds greenhouse gases

IN THIS ISSUE

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, BON APPÉTIT!

02 04 06 08

Imagining Our Future

09 10 11 12 13 14 15

The Magic

BY FEDELE BAUCCIO

Strong Relationships BY MICHAEL BAUCCIO

Throwback Thirty BY LIZ BALDWIN

A Great People Culture, an Open-Source Mentality, and a Taste for Disrupting the Industry BY CARY WHEELAND

BY ROB KVITEK

The Premier Onsite Restaurant Company BY RANDY DE MERS

No Shortcuts

BY MARK LACHANCE

Growing People

BY MICHAEL VENCKUS

Je Ne Sais Quoi

BY ELAINE SMART

My Crazy Family

BY CARRIE BUCKLEY

What If...

BY MAISIE GANZLER

16 24 28 44 56 64 70

114

MILESTONES: A LOOK BACK BITS & BITES BRAVO BOOST: WELLNESS GOES ONLINE EARTH DAY 2017: REDUCE, RECOVER, UPCYCLE! BRAVO BOOST: COOKING IS AN ART AND A SCIENCE AWARDS & RECOGNITION

78 81 88 104 109 116

SAFETY WORKS BY STEVE SAMUELSON

REFLECTIONS BY ANDRÉ URIBE

EVENTS IN BRIEF CELEBRATING FARMWORKER AWARENESS WEEK COMMENCEMENT 2017 THANK YOU, BON APPÉTIT

FROM THE FELLOWS ON THE ROAD WITH HEALTHY KIDS IN THE BON APPÉTIT KITCHEN BY HANNAH SCHMUNK

01 | BRAVO

121

Two Days in the Life BY CLAIRE KELLOWAY

124

122

Farewell, Bon Appétit

BY AMANDA WAREHAM

BON APPÉTIT MVPS

The more Deziree Klema knows, the further she goes BY NORRIS MEI

30 YRS

FEDELE BAUCCIO, CEO AND COFOUNDER

IMAGINING OUR FUTURE “As we celebrate our 30 years, let’s remember there is so much more we have to achieve in order to continue our journey.”

remember so clearly Bon Appétit’s first office, in an old warehouse across from the San Francisco police station. I had a card table for a desk; no computers, just a yellow pad to keep my notes and thoughts. I was feeling alone and somewhat apprehensive. It was difficult leaving the security of corporate life, but I just knew the time was right to make my dream come true. I wanted to make a difference, to create a company with a sense of purpose — a new model that would disrupt the industry.

what we were doing was not only good for business, but necessary for community and the planet. Over the years I have been blessed to have such incredibly talented people who believe in our Dream. Yes, all of you are amazing! We have never lost focus. We have stayed true to our core values of great sustainable food and working hard every day to innovate for our clients. We have been obsessed with quality in everything we do.

Those first few years we struggled, always worrying if we could pay our bills and make the payroll, but we never gave up hope that we would somehow be successful. I had a wonderful partner in the late Ernie Collins, whose steady hand and calm demeanor enabled me hit the road to try and sell new business. We counterbalanced each other in the best of ways.

As we celebrate our 30 years, let’s remember there is so much more we have to achieve in order to continue our journey. We must continue to innovate with new ideas, to create new experiences, and to deliver on our promises. We have to do more to ensure that through our sourcing, we are building a new model of agriculture that will help future generations.

My imagination has always been active, able to drift and daydream, to see things differently and to create a path of determination. Founding Bon Appétit required total focus 24 hours a day, with a consistent message of quality, fresh, authentic food, cooked from scratch by talented chefs. It would be a restaurant company that would change the contract industry. Attracting talented chefs was not easy. The contract side of the industry was not known for great food and was certainly not as sexy as working in a restaurant. Giving chefs the opportunity to create custom menus, source locally to find the exact ingredients they wanted, was key to persuading them to join us. There would be no corporate recipes, I said, no menu cycles — just seasonal, fresh authentic food that they could be proud of. That was our formula for success. As we developed our sustainability initiatives, the Bon Appétit brand became stronger and it pushed us to new heights. We knew

The development of our associates is also key for our future. Helping them to see the Dream and believe in our values is an important first step. I have always believed that promotion from within is critical to maintaining our culture in the future. We should never forget that our focus is delivering great food made with simple, quality ingredients that bring out amazing flavors. Authentic, fresh, and flavorful food will continue to be vital as we continue to lead the industry. I am also grateful for being able to touch the lives of so many, not only with jobs, but with a new sense of caring to restore this Earth with justice, hope, and love. Your passion and actions are making a difference in helping nourish future generations toward a more sustainable future. I am as energized as ever for us to continue the Dream. Thank you for 30 unbelievable years of joy.

02 | BRAVO

30 YRS

Bon Appétit’s cofounders Fedele Bauccio and Ernie Collins

Early logo designs

Fedele has always been a truly hands-on CEO

03 | BRAVO

30 YRS

MICHAEL BAUCCIO, PRESIDENT

STRONG RELATIONSHIPS

“We had to deliver the quality we had promised, no matter what. If we went bankrupt, we went bankrupt.”

efore Bon Appétit Management Company was born, I had already been working in the contract food industry for years. Fedele and I both worked for Saga Corporation, a very successful food service company that was known for its people and its strong relationships. It also was like a family.

In 1986, I was running Saga’s education business, their founding and largest business segment. Fedele had run the corporate side for years, but he had moved on to the restaurant lines, Black Angus, Velvet Turtle, and others; business & industry was going to roll up under my responsibilities. Then Saga was acquired in an unfriendly manner by a competitor, and everything changed. Fedele saw the chance to buy Bon Appétit Catering, with our Saga colleague Ernie Collins. It was just a matter of time before I would join them to open the private college and university market and launch our education business.

there was this new company that they’d have to be dealing with, the one that acquired Saga. They said, “We really would like to do business with people we know, and Michael, we know you and like you.” They decided to switch to Bon Appétit, and I promised them that I would personally make sure that everything we did was right for them. Not long after, another former Saga client, Biola University in La Mirada, CA, also brought us aboard. Silicon Valley was big for us on the corporate side, but our break in education was getting into the Pacific Northwest. We knew that if we could bring an account on there, many would follow. We had the reputation, and they knew us well. We invited Lewis & Clark College to be Bon Appétit’s first college outside of California, and they said yes. A couple of other schools were interested but wanted to wait and see how we did at Lewis & Clark. Sure enough, Seattle University, University of Portland, Willamette University — all still clients — soon joined us. We knew were on our way then.

My first desk at Bon Appétit was sharing that same card table with Fedele. I pulled up a It took us a few years to make bridge chair and sat at the end. our numbers work. Our chefdriven model had never been We were both on the phone a tried in college food service. lot, and we’re not exactly quiet Michael Bauccio with Santa Catalina Sisters Claire Barone, Christine Price, and the late Jean The old financial projections speakers, so I decided I really Gilbully in 1999 needed to go find my own place…except we had no money. So I were based on participation at all-you-can-eat dining halls, and got a membership at the United Red Carpet Club at San Francisco how many meals you could expect students to miss. When we airport, and that was perfect. They had phones and a copy started, we knew the industry was running on around 65 percent participation. We thought, “Well, we’re going to serve pretty good machine, and they said hello to me every day. food, we should probably price it at 72 percent.” When 90 perI knew we needed to quickly sign at least one education client cent showed up, we got killed on food costs. The chefs who were that we could build on. So I went to the sisters at Santa Catalina bringing in such wonderful food and giving us the opportunity School, a Catholic high school in Monterey, CA. They had been to please clients and parents, and retain students, were costing my client for years at Saga and were troubled by the fact that us a fortune. So we did have to go back and reprice the business.

04 | BRAVO

30 YRS

We eventually figured it out, and then Fedele and I could finally cash our own paychecks, which had been piling up in a drawer — though we never once missed payroll for employees. We had to deliver the quality we had promised, no matter what. If we went bankrupt, we went bankrupt. But we knew that if we misstepped and didn’t deliver, then quickly our clients would say, “These guys don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have an engine behind them.” But it wasn’t hard to show them that our food really was great. The food was important, but the relationships were equally so. I told our new clients and those clients who followed me from Saga that “you’re buying a relationship; you’re not buying a salesperson. I will be here to make sure this happens.” And we were there. We washed the windows. We mopped the floors. They never saw a company do that. (Back then we couldn’t afford anyone to wash windows, but they didn’t know that!) In addition to those previously mentioned, we added Marylhurst College, University of Redlands, Santa Clara University, George Fox University, and many more we are still so proud to be working with.

Michael with the late Regional Vice President John Engstrom

They trusted us, they still do, and I am still so honored by that. As I travel around visiting our accounts, the thing that impresses me more than anything, that has fueled who we are and how successful we’ve become, is how often our clients thank us for delivering on our promises. They say that they’re so glad they made the decision to enter this relationship with Bon Appétit. Our people in the field are responsible for this. All of you deliver, day in and day out. It’s because of you that we are here, and your relationships with our clients, with our guests and our farmers and everyone else, are the engine that will keep us going. Our reputation for delivering is what leads to all those referrals and gives us the best retention rate in our industry. Thank you all for 30 wonderful years.

Michael and Fedele in the early days

05 | BRAVO

30 YRS

LIZ BALDWIN, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

THROWBACK THIRTY “The last 30 years have passed in an instant. The new challenges we face are hard. But it’s still crazy fun.”

know “Throwback Thursday” (#TBT) is a big thing on Facebook. Although I’ve never posted anything myself, I enjoy seeing pictures and comments people have from the past.

As I was collecting my thoughts about Bon Appétit’s 30th birthday, I thought it might be fun to review our Bon Appétit beginnings as kind of a Throwback Thirty. Since I’ve had the good fortune to be part of Bon Appétit Management since inception, the growth and changes are all part of the landscape for me. I have been here through each new achievement, each major change, the growth in numbers of employees, each new piece of business and each new territory. It’s just part of what I know as Bon Appétit. I will date myself a bit, but this is a sampling of what things looked like 30 years ago… Ronald Reagan was president A gallon of gas was 96 cents A stamp cost 22 cents The minimum wage was $3.33 The Cosby Show was the most popular thing on television

time catering staff) and a lot of vendors who wondered if the new guys were going to make it. What I got was the opportunity of a lifetime. As Fedele’s dream unfolded, we followed, wanting to be part of something better, something exciting, something game-changing. It was hard work, crazy fun, and very rewarding. Everyone felt that they mattered, that what they were doing mattered, and we were told we mattered. Many things were different in 1987, and we could not have foreseen the changes of the past 30 years. Our 1987 revenue was $2.5 million. Today our revenue is well over a billion dollars. In 1987, we had 9 full-time people. Today we have close to 17,000 employees. Then, we operated only in the San Francisco Bay Area and California. Today we are in 33 states. We have spearheaded numerous initiatives that have changed the face of the food service industry. But what hasn’t changed is the heart of Bon Appétit: the passion for the business, the passion in our people for what they do every day. The heartbeat of our company has only grown stronger. I don’t often get to tour visitors, but recently I totally lucked out with some really lovely people from various parts of the U.S. and the U.K. As we discussed our culture and history, watching our guests’ experience helped me see the current Bon Appétit through the eyes of others.

The Dow hit 2,000 for the first time Aretha Franklin was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cell phones looked (and felt) like large bricks We used paper maps and phone books to find people and places

So, what did Bon Appétit look like 30 years ago?

I think we’re walking our talk, I think we’re passionate and inspired, I think we’re the absolute best at what we do, but I did wonder, What I would find when our people were put to the test? I could not have been prouder of what we saw and heard.

When Fedele and Ernie purchased Bon Appétit Catering, what they got was office space above a meat-packing plant in San Francisco, with a view of the city jail. Furnishings were limited, and Fedele used an old card table for a desk. Included in the sale was a warehouse full of catering décor, which included plastic lobsters and faux reindeer, a mobile kitchen, 115 employees (106 of them part

Everyone was so enthusiastic about their jobs and contributions. I was struck by how young so many of our people are, some had not even been born or were very young when Bon Appétit began in 1987. During the tours, folks who had been with us just a few short years as well as our 15-, 20-, 25-year veterans spoke of what we do and how we do it, with the same passion for food, the same

Google would not be founded for another 11 years, and There was no Internet!

06 | BRAVO

30 YRS

cherished entrepreneurial spirit, the same drive to be ever better. Everyone we spoke with embodied the founding philosophy. I came away confident that our culture, our beliefs, and the Bon Appétit passion are alive and well. This was not just my impression; it was seen, heard, and experienced by each person on our tour. I believe the correct term would be “they were blown away.” In May, we had a long overdue senior staff meeting. Our operators had been opening so much business last year it had been impossible to pull away, even for something we need to do. It was one of the best senior staff meetings in memory, more like a family reunion in some ways, perhaps because we hadn’t been together for some time and needed to see each other. It made me think of our first staff meetings. An early one was in a small conference room off the kitchen at Embassy Suites in Santa Clara. It lasted about three hours, and I believe the attendees totaled nine. The most recent meeting was a getaway in Arizona, lasted three days, and we needed the ballroom space for our meetings. There were rows and rows of chairs to accommodate the 70 people in attendance…a far cry from our humble beginnings. The last 30 years have passed in an instant. The new challenges we face are hard. But it’s still crazy fun. And it’s ever more rewarding as we grow the company and grow opportunities now for thousands of our Bon Appétit family members. As in all families, there are good times and problems. We celebrate the joyful times in each other’s lives and support each other in times of loss and sadness. We are there for each other when it really matters.

“But what hasn’t changed is the heart of Bon Appétit: the passion for the business, the passion in our people for what they do every day. The heartbeat of our company has only grown stronger.”

This was never more clear to me than over the past year. There are friends among us who have endured heartbreaking losses and I have watched the support and love that surrounded them. I have been personally supported during a very difficult time, by relationships formed within Bon Appétit. We are more than a company and more than just great teams. This is an enterprise built on love for what we do, and love for each other. We are truly a family.

07 | BRAVO

30 YRS

CARY WHEELAND, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

A GREAT PEOPLE CULTURE, AN OPEN-SOURCE MENTALITY, AND A TASTE FOR DISRUPTING THE INDUSTRY “Many a competitor has watched and waited for our entrepreneurial, unit-level focus to change, but it hasn’t.”

t started with a belief in people — and that hasn’t changed. stance that “We have nothing to hide from the competition. Let From the very early years, when Fedele, Michael, and I visit- them copy us! If they do, the industry will be better for it.” And ed prospective accounts together in California (the one state the industry, indeed, has been better for it. where we operated), to today, when you’ll likely find Fedele in Chicago or Atlanta and Michael in St. Louis or Boston on any given As I see it, we’ve retained an enviable, and remarkable, position in day, we have built a culture based on a sincere belief in people, the marketplace: Many companies in our industry want to be like and most importantly, in our Bon Appétit, but Bon Appétit doesn’t aspire to be like any people making good decisions. other company. We’ve never focused on the competition; Many a competitor has watched instead, our focus has really and waited for our entrepreneurial, unit-level focus to change, always been on how to take but it hasn’t. That’s because of better care of the customer and Fedele’s and Michael’s fervent make a difference in the world. belief in people, and their drive to promote local decisions by As we sail past our 30th birthday, local operators. Bon Appétit was I am thankful, and blessed, to built on an incredible foundation have joined an organization led of trust in people, and that funby Fedele, Michael, and Liz back damental value is a big part of in 1988. Our growth continues what makes us who we are today. unabated as we build on a very special niche of clients who have One of the signs of the vibrancy proudly selected Bon Appétit of our culture is the mark left on Deb and Cary Wheeland at the Ivy Awards in 1992 as their food service partner. staff members who move on. We have “alumni” across America Fedele continues on a tear to “disrupt” the industry. Michael conwho have an affinity for Bon Appétit; many have their very own tinues to assemble an operations team that, without question, Fedele or Michael story. I was heartened recently when I attended represents the best of the best. And Liz continues to be the glue a bidder’s meeting and ran into a Bon Appétit alum who cofound- that holds everything together. ed his own food service firm. He fondly reflected on his years with Bon Appétit, and we shared some great memories of his tenure Sincere thanks to the 17,000 employees who make it happen for with us. our clients and guests every day.

Bon Appétit’s open-source approach became clear to me back in 1989 when we were opening at Stanford University. Fedele took a competitor by the arm and led him through our kitchen and walk-ins to show what we were doing with fresh produce and “real” stock that was on our stoves. Fedele has always taken the

As I’ve written many times over these past three decades: Onward and upward!

08 | BRAVO

30 YRS

ROB KVITEK, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

THE MAGIC “Fedele has turned a small catering company into an industry-leading juggernaut that works hard to do good for its clients, customers, associates, and community.…No manuals, no recipes — just passionate restaurant and hospitality types who tapped into Fedele’s dream.”

’m writing this note the day after wrapping our 2017 Bon Appétit Senior Staff meeting. I find myself reflecting on some key milestones and the people who got us to where we are today.

You all know by now Fedele started the Bon Appétit journey 30 years ago. I’ve had the personal pleasure of working with Fedele for over 35 years. I will never forget the day he charged passionately into the Velvet Turtle Restaurant I was managing in 1982. It was part of a classy fine-dining restaurant chain founded by Wally Botello that had been acquired by Saga Corp., where Fedele was the president of the business & industry group (corporate dining). A dyed-in-the-wool restaurateur, Fedele had just taken over Saga’s specialty restaurant group, which held brands including the Velvet Turtle, Larry Mindell’s Spectrum Group restaurants, Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus, Spoons Bar & Grill, and others.

In the early days we often spoke of the “magic” of Bon Appétit. Most observers and competitors could not understand how we managed to execute Fedele’s vision, which was revolutionary. He was a true disruptor long before being one was cool. No manuals, no recipes — just passionate restaurant and hospitality types who tapped into Fedele’s dream. Damn the critics; full-speed ahead we ran.

It became apparent to me very early on the magic lives in our people. Fedele dreams it, and we find some way to deliver it. Led by Fedele’s brother Michael, our president and a remarkable leader in his own right, our operators and associates continue to deliver on the dream today as they have done for 30 years. Despite constantly evolving and the ever-increasing demands of the business, these committed hospitality warriors put on their chef coats, cut Rob Kvitek and his mother, Alice, around 1992 gloves, safety shoes, and passionate smiles I knew Fedele was coming to visit, but I had no idea what to expect. to fend off any obstacles that stand between them and delivering I had never met such a passionate and energetic person. He greeted on the Dream, day in and day out. They are the real heroes and every single hourly associate, the chefs, and the catering manager the foundation of our success. and tasted several items by the time I emerged from taking inventory in the walk-in cooler. I have achieved a couple personal milestones recently. Last night I celebrated my 25th anniversary at Bon Appétit with the 70 memHe said, “You must be Rob. I’ve reviewed your numbers, met your bers of our senior staff. I was really moved as Fedele and Michael staff, looked at your facility, and you have one hell of an operation. recognized folks who have been with Bon Appétit from 5 to 30 If we can just bottle what you are doing here we can turn this years, many of whom have grown up through the ranks. It’s amazwhole damn chain around. I’ve got my eye on you! Gotta go now.” ing how we still function as a professional family despite all of our growth. Great leadership combined with common goals and All of this in just 15 minutes. passion is a powerful recipe for success. Thirty-five years later he has not slowed down a bit. Driven by a vision and fueled by passion, Fedele has turned a small catering We also announced my plan to retire. I cannot express my feelings company into an industry-leading juggernaut that works hard to do in words — I can only say it was the most difficult announcement I have ever made. At age 65, it is just my time. good for its clients, customers, associates, and community. Kvitek continued on page 12

09 | BRAVO

30 YRS

RANDY DE MERS, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

THE PREMIER ONSITE RESTAURANT COMPANY “We have all witnessed the transformation of staff when we take over an account; clients comment on the change in attitudes – they have been awakened from their complacency.”

hen speaking with a Bon Appétit family member, inevitably we ask, “How are you doing?” A common reply, delivered with a smile, is “Living the Dream.”

Of course, we mean our Dream. There is so much behind the Dream statement, I find myself going back to it often. It stirs a passion in me. Do I want to be the best? Who doesn’t? The reality is, the Dream points us in a direction and the complacency of the world does its damnedest to knock us off course. Living the Dream is exasperating, thrilling, and a source for passionate commitment to excellence. We are the best brand in the United States. Many others believe they are part of the best brand: the reality is, they’re living in a complacency nightmare. Making great food, delivering great service, being committed to socially responsible practices, and providing a safe work environment is not for the complacent. We have all witnessed the transformation of staff when we take over an account; clients comment on the change in attitudes – they have been awakened from their complacency. Those that fail to embrace the commitment move back into the complacency nightmare.

the East Coast” — Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami? They told me Grove City, PA. Well, to those of us who live in western Pennsylvania, that’s not “East Coast.” My conclusion 22 years ago: The Bauccios know food, they are geographically challenged, and Grove City College sounded like a great career step. Fedele, Michael, and Liz have always challenged us to do what was right by our partners. In the last five years, the challenge has increasingly focused on creating “experiences” for our guests. Whether at an education, corporate, or specialty operation, the challenge has been to execute the delivery of the Dream in exceptional ways; beyond the scope of day-to-day operations. Food trucks, Dub Boxes, pop-up restaurants, dueling dessert events — take the experience up a notch, however we can. There are many exceptional stories I can share that reflect a commitment to excellence. One example: the way our teams at Savannah College of Art and Design and Emory University executed service for our 1,000-plus students and staff that evacuated Savannah to Atlanta during Hurricane Matthew. We could have delivered commodity service with packaged meals and bottled water. Instead, they provided service that was over the top for 48 hours around the clock! Seafood extravaganzas, carving stations, cooked-to-order omelets, and boxed lunches to and from the Savannah campus were a few of the above-and-beyond efforts. And they did it all with 12 hours’ notice and little sleep.

For me it all started in 1995 with a call from Cary Wheeland and Michael Bauccio. They were just “checking in” to see how I was doing. I had worked with Michael at Saga in the late ’70s and ’80s; he was my vice president in Colorado and California. Michael and I agreed to meet when he, Fedele, and [the late Regional Vice President] John Engstrom were in Pittsburgh for some meetings. We The one thing I want new and old Bon Appétit family members to were going to discuss opportunities on the “East Coast.” After be- remember is that complacency is our enemy. Our biggest threat ing cornered in a booth for an intensive two-hour Bauccio session is the loss of our passion as complacency creeps in. Our commitabout Bon Appétit, they asked me what I thought. I told Fedele ment to delivering exceptional guest experiences every day gives that his Dream sounded amazing if it were true. I asked what city me great hope that the next 30 years will be a continuation of our they were considering when they referred to an “opportunity on Dream and this amazing and historic company.

10 | BRAVO

30 MARK LACHANCE, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

NO SHORTCUTS “Do good food, do it right, don’t take shortcuts, take good care of your people, and everything else will work.”

wenty-one years ago I joined a very special small company called Bon Appétit Management Company. I was recruited away from a chef career in large hotels and casinos on the promise of a better quality of life and the freedom to be able to write my own recipes and menus. I was told that I could have holidays off and quality time for family vacations in the summer months — something very sacred for folks that live in the state of Minnesota. I was even told that this will be the closest thing to running your own restaurant without having to invest any of your own money to get in on the action. It all sounded too good to be true, so I signed up and began my career as an executive chef at a medium-size liberal arts college in Northfield, MN, called St. Olaf College. Bon Appétit had just been awarded the contract and the school was already in the middle of the transition from a 120-year-old self-operated program to this new contract-management company when I started.

My first impression of the company was very special: the district manager showed up and spent the entire day with me doing my orientation, while the regional vice president even stopped in to impart some words of wisdom on me at one point. It was all quite simple back then: Buy great ingredients, as much from local farmers and artisan producers as you can, because they taste better. Cook everything from scratch, don’t take any shortcuts with the food. Take great care of your people, as “you are going to need them to make this happen,” I was told. I remember leaving for home that evening feeling pretty special that these important people would take that much time out of their busy schedules to tell me all about the company and its beliefs and philosophies. This was not something I was used to, coming from large hotels and casinos. The next day, I met several more people who’d been with the company for varying amounts of time. Some were local to Min-

nesota and some had traveled from other parts of the country to help open the account, but all of them had similar stories to tell about the company. They all had a great deal of admiration for Bon Appétit, and the pride and passion for what they were doing was obvious. It didn’t seem to bother them that they were away from their own units, employees, and families to be here in Minnesota helping me get my account off the ground. They all worked tirelessly well into the late evenings, for weeks on end, alongside me and my new team, until everything was running as it should. Little by little, they began to fade away. Pleasantries were exchanged as they left, and I remember saying to them, “I hope I will be able to return the favor someday.” It didn’t take long for me to get that opportunity. Within the first six months of working for the company, I was tapped to go out and help some of the very same people who’d helped me and who’d since been promoted into new roles get their new accounts off the ground. I became the person with the stories, welcoming new people into the company, and helping them get their footings. Fast-forward 21 years, and I can recount hundreds of account openings and thousands of new employees welcomed into the company in the very same fashion as I was back in 1996. Looking back on it now, I realize what is the most special part of this company is the people who work for us. We are a passionate group of storytellers who have embraced a very simple message, handed down from previous generations of storytellers. The thing I am most proud of working for Bon Appétit is that even as we have grown tremendously as an organization, we have been able to maintain a very simple philosophy that hasn’t changed since the beginning. “Do good food, do it right, don’t take shortcuts, take good care of your people, and everything else will work.”

11 | BRAVO

YRS

30 YRS

MICHAEL VENCKUS, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

GROWING PEOPLE “It makes me so happy to look around me and see so many folks who’ve grown with me in their positions — people who were hourly cooks and are now executive chefs for us, a catering manager who is now a district manager.”

joined Bon Appétit 19 years ago, in May 1998, as the general successful is that we really mean it when we tell our operators, manager at Concordia University. We’ve grown so much since “We want you to go into an account, get to know our clients, and then, and one of the things I’m most proud of is how we build that program based on your community — not what the have used our company growth to really promote our people. It corporate leadership says it should be.” Serving great food, undermakes me so happy to look around me and see so many folks standing our clients, and understanding the community we work who’ve grown with me in their positions — people who were in might sound like basic stuff, but it’s made us who we are. hourly cooks and are now executive chefs for us, That and our commitments to environmental a catering manager who is now a district manager. Selling new business is necessary, of course, and social responsibility, and to wellness. We but what I really, really love is meeting with my were ahead of the curve on all of those things, district managers and talking about how we and I know I am not alone in being proud of that. position our people for future leadership roles: Our competitors may finally talk about those Where is this person going to be in five years? things now, but we’ve been doing it longest. I love making predictions and helping foster Sure, we’re not perfect, but we really try to walk careers, helping them achieve the best they’re our talk. capable of. I’m so proud and grateful to have worked with Despite the times changing, and trends changMichael and Fedele. They’ve been the architects ing — so many companies are now trying to do of a company that comes along once in a generation in an industry. I really believe that Fedele is what we’ve been doing for a long time! — I still feel like our culture is the same. Yes, we focus the Steve Jobs of the contract catering business. more on safety, and that’s important, to get our people home safe His leadership, his innovation, has changed the landscape for all of every day. These and our other professional programs have made us and for everyone we touch. I can’t wait to see what he’s going us a better company. But the core of our culture is still the same. to come up with next. We’re still an entrepreneurial company. The reason we’ve been so

Kvitek continued...

It has been a terrific run filled with so many memories. So many Our team is united by a belief in delivering the Dream and congreat people and a hell of a lot of wonderful food. To say there tinuously strengthening our brand. Our team is that good. Not were challenges is an understatement, but I always found strength perfect, but absolutely wonderful! in our leadership team and all of our associates. There is nothing they cannot overcome. I have worked in several other organiza- I plan to be around through the end of the year and I hope to tions over the years, and in comparison I can honestly say our thank as many of our staff and clients as I can. You all have meant sometimes crazy family of gifted professionals is truly extraordi- so much to me. nary. Yes we may bicker internally from time to time, but I dare anyone to try to come between us. They do not stand a chance. Thanks for a great ride!

12 | BRAVO

30 YRS

ELAINE SMART, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

JE NE SAIS QUOI “I had always had a passion for great food, outstanding customer service, and treating associates with compassion and respect, but I had never found an organization that embodied all those basic tenets until I joined Bon Appétit.”

ow time flies! Eighteen years ago I took a leap of faith, joined Bon Appétit, moved to Philadelphia, and started a new chapter of my life. I still consider it one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I had always had a passion for great food, outstanding customer service, and treating associates with compassion and respect, but I had never found an organization that embodied all those basic tenets until I joined Bon Appétit.

I feel very blessed to work alongside some of the very best people in the business. Strangely enough, some of the most challenging circumstances bring out the absolute best in our folks. The war stories (particularly during openings) are legendary; but suffice it to say that the creativity, tenacity, dedication, and passion of our folks inspire me every day. Knowing that someone always has your back and that you are supported by some extraordinary people has always made even the most difficult challenges surmountable.

I am very proud of the growth of the company and more specifically the East Coast region. The late, great John Engstrom started the region with a handful of accounts. Over the years, we have worked hard to create our niche and represent the Bon Appétit brand as it exemplifies the best in the industry. Our clients are arguably some of the most prestigious institutions in the world; but they are all unique, and our promise to them to create customized cafés and programs echoes this uniqueness. I’m proud of the many opportunities for growth and advancement that have been created with additional new business. So many stories of the grill cook becoming a controller, the catering supervisor becoming a general manager, the catering chef becoming a regional manager, all achieved through hard work, dedication, and the belief that an individual can make a difference. During my time, Bon Appétit has grown in so many ways, and yet it still retains the core values of doing what’s right for our customers, our clients, and our associates. Whether pioneering the sustainability movement, promoting local sourcing, or introducing holistic wellness programs, Bon Appétit continues to be the industry leader setting the trends and the pace for all others. I’m so proud to be part of such a wonderful organization and look forward to the future with excitement and enthusiasm.

Elaine and the late District Manager Lisa Haag

The sense of belonging and family is a basic part of the Bon Appétit ethos. The care and empathy exhibited during the tough times, both professionally and personally, has never wavered and may it always continue. Account openings, weddings, funerals, commencements, babies, sales proposals, illness, have all been a part of this crazy soup; and like any good soup in Bon Appétit, it is made with passion, love, and just a hint of “je ne sais quoi”!

13 | BRAVO

30 YRS

CARRIE BUCKLEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF IMAGE AND STYLE

MY CRAZY FAMILY “I knew I had found my dream job… and I still feel that way today.”

y first “real” day with Bon Appétit was in 1989. I was a student at St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga, CA. Scott Bauccio, Fedele’s son and Michael’s nephew, was (and still is) one of my dearest friends. He told his group of friends about how we could make some extra cash by working an off-site event for his dad’s company…we were on board! How hard could it be?

I loved every minute of those 60-plus hours a week. We catered hundreds of weddings and fed thousands of meals to the students at a Northern California university. I knew I had found my dream job…and I still feel that way today.

HARD!

I stayed there for about eight years and then left Bon Appétit to open a restaurant in San Francisco for a friend of mine. On opening night, a bouquet of roses arrived with a note from Bon Appétit that said, “You will be back.” I lasted less than 45 days.

It was the company picnic for an early corporate account. We were each given a station to “manage” A position was available at Stanford University as director of catering. and spent the day literally running I interviewed and got the job. I around in golf carts schlepping remember then–Director of Retail food from one end of campus to Operations Dick Calbow asking me the next. I thought to myself that to join him on the loading dock. He day, I’ve never worked so hard in said to me, “Kid, you just made the my life. Well, I caught the catering worst decision of your life” — with bug. The sense of teamwork, the Carrie and Michael Bauccio circa mid-1990s look on customers’ faces as they ate our fabulous food, and the a wink. I think of Dick and the team at Stanford (including Dannie Stanton, now director of catering at University of San Francisco, endless energy it took to pull this thing off — I loved it. and Michael Brinkmann, now executive chef at Santa Clara UniverWe graduated from St. Mary’s, and I went to work for the Ritz sity). I think of all of the hard work these people have done for us Carlton hotel company in Southern California. Scott was working over the years, and I’m proud to say I’m part of such an amazing for Bon Appétit at Biola University, and we both wanted to get tenured team. back to the Bay Area. He recommended that I talk to a “Mr. Cary Wheeland” about catering. I met Cary and he gave me the job When people hear how long I’ve been with the company, they’re description, $10K a year for 60 hours a week. I was in! (I’m kidding... always so surprised. I can’t imagine any place I would rather be. It’s home, and my “family” is crazy and perfect. sort of!)

14 | BRAVO

30 MAISIE GANZLER, CHIEF STRATEGY AND BRAND OFFICER

WHAT IF... “We’ve set a new standard in food service again and again. We’ve respected people, animals, and the environment. And we’ve done it while growing profitably.”

hen I joined Bon Appétit Management Company in 1994, I was just a year out of college and already feeling a little beaten up by the “real world.” Coming to the Sand Hill Road offices, I was greeted with warmth, a clear mandate that the people in the field were the most important part of the business, and a fun touch of family-like dysfunction. Having previously worked for a large restaurant company where I felt there was too much bureaucracy to make a significant impact, and that, as a unit-level manager, I was a second-class citizen — this was a refreshing change. I knew I’d found a special place. I knew I’d found home.

I said to Fedele and Marc, “What if we could be that same seminal experience for our diners and our staff? What if we could be that catalyst for education and change?” As I said it, I was aware of how lofty that sounded. That Bon Appétit could put ourselves in the same category as the most celebrated and influential restaurants in the country. But I also knew we touched more people than either of those high-end restaurants ever could. We had the power to change the view for millions of people. Fedele agreed and set to making that change with a level of commitment that is extremely rare. Fedele has always seen driving revenues as the path to success. He knew that if we delivered truly special food experiences people would come more often, and that that was key. If cutting costs meant cutting quality, it was a price too high to pay. And, he had a secret weapon — Michael and his yellow pads of paper.

I attached myself to Bon Appétit, its people, and its ethos with a deep respect and pride I had never felt for any other employer. A decade later, in 2004, the company took a turn that I consider the most important event of my career, and I think of many other people’s as well. Fedele had challenged me and Marc Zammit (then director of culinary support and development) to overhaul a program called Circle of Health. It was originally intended to focus on nutrition education, but Fedele wanted it to be more. We’d already started buying locally and suggesting chefs follow the Seafood Watch guidelines, but those ideas were peripheral to our core message of “custom onsite restaurants.” Publicly we again and again preached “made from scratch” and “fresh,” but we didn’t talk about sourcing to our clients or guests. At the same time, the food scene was changing. Top chefs were starting to talk about small farmers and sustainability, about many of the things we were quietly doing. Every new name in the culinary world had the same story. They had been going along trying to prove their culinary chops through complicated French techniques or using the rarest of ingredients found only in far-off lands and then — dun-ta-dun — they ate at/staged at/interacted somehow with either Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, or Moosewood in Ithaca, NY. And everything changed. They started looking to their own backyards, sometimes literally, for ingredients. They started treating farmers as if they were to be venerated, not talked down to the lowest price possible. They started thinking of the health of the oceans and the land, not just the reliability of the delivery truck.

While Fedele has been out ahead of the industry setting an incredible vision for us, Michael has been scribbling away, playing with the business model, coaching our people, and ensuring the bottom line is as healthy as the oceans we talk so much about. They are the yin and yang, balancing, pushing, protecting each other. We are all the great beneficiaries of that duality. From them I have learned both to be disciplined and take wild leaps of faith, both to lay out multiple paths and to charge ahead with abandon, both to mind the pennies and to see the larger picture. The one thing they are similarly unwavering about, though, is caring for our people. I’ve seen Fedele and Michael (and our co-founder Ernie Collins) stop everything to listen to someone’s ideas or challenges. They care about our lives outside of Bon Appétit, and our families. All 17,000 of us are considered family. That’s not corporate-speak. It’s the truth. We’ve set a new standard in food service again and again. We’ve respected people, animals, and the environment. And we’ve done it while growing profitably. I couldn’t be more proud of our path or more inspired by our leaders. Bon Appétit Management Company is about more than custom onsite restaurants — it’s about changing the world.

15 | BRAVO

YRS

30 YRS

16 | BRAVO

30 YRS

Saga Corp. veterans Fedele Bauccio and Ernie Collins buy Bon Appétit Catering on Seventh Street in San Francisco — complete with an accounting employee named Liz Baldwin, now Chief Administrative Officer — and re-launch the business as Bon Appétit Management Company

1987

1988

Michael Bauccio, now President, joins the company and three months later Cary Wheeland, now Senior Vice President, joins Bon Appétit, selling business by day and working as a graveyard supervisor at night Bravo newsletter is born

Cofounders Fedele Bauccio and Ernie Collins

Bon Appétit opens its first education account — the Santa Catalina School in Monterey, CA, followed by its first higher-education account, Biola University in La Mirada, CA

1989

The very first issue of our “almost-quarterly” newsletter

Revenues hit $15 million

17 | BRAVO

30 YRS

IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

Director of Audit Masa Sasaki joins Bon Appétit as a student employee at Biola University The first wave of the Silicon Valley corporate food arms race begins, with the opening of Oracle in Redwood Shores, CA ‘I used to think we’d get to the $50 million or $60 million mark and then growth would slow,’ says Bauccio. ‘I don’t think that way any more. The market is calling for what we do.’ — Restaurants and Institutions, September 1990

1990

1991

1992

Director of Finance J.P. Dozier joins as the Bon Appétit office manager at the Santa Catalina School

Revenues reach $55 million

Headquarters move to the famous Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, known for being home to many of the venture capitalists who have shaped Silicon Valley

1993

Vice President of Image and Style Carrie Buckley joins Bon Appétit as director of catering at a Northern California college

The sign for the Sand Hill Road office, with the old Bon Appétit logo

Senior Director of Information Technology Marcos Uechi comes on board as a student manager at Seattle University

Bon Appétit wins the prestigious Ivy Award from Restaurants & Institutions Magazine Regional Vice President Rob Kvitek joins Bon Appétit as a special projects manager to help open Willamette University and a corporate account code-named “Construction Circus”

A short-lived venture into the world of Indian casinos

1994

Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler joins as employee services coordinator Bon Appétit makes cover of San Francisco Chronicle food section

The much-beloved late Regional Vice President John Nelson at an Indian gaming convention

Bon Appétit hits the East Coast, with openings at Emmanuel College, MA; Grove City College, PA; and Hamilton College, NY

Bon Appétit acquires Consul Restaurant Corp., entering the Midwestern market (hello, Target Corp!)

1995

Regional Vice President Randy De Mers joins Bon Appétit as regional manager at Grove City College

The sleek 300 Market [at Oracle] is the latest in employee lunchrooms — in this case, for the exclusive use of the workers and guests of software giant Oracle Corp. In its resemblance to some of the Bay Area’s most fashionable Italian restaurants, Oracle’s new mess hall exemplifies several hot trends in corporate caféterias… Call it a café, call it a restaurant, but don’t call it that awful word that suggests plastic trays and stainless steel steam tables. — “Company Fare,” San Francisco Chronicle

Bon Appétit wins the Mind to Menu Visionary Award

18 | BRAVO

30 YRS

IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

Regional Vice President Mark LaChance joins Bon Appétit as executive chef at St. Olaf College

1996

First specialty venue opens: The Getty Center

1997

1998

Bon Appétit turns 10!

100 accounts in operation Regional Vice President Michael Venckus joins Bon Appétit as general manager at Concordia University Bon Appétit receives the Golden Chain Award from Nation’s Restaurant News

1999

The new Getty Center was on the cover of Food Management after opening

More than 6,000 employees in 18 states

Great Expectations standards program launched

2000

Regional Vice President Elaine Smart joins Bon Appétit as director of residential dining at the University of Pennsylvania Farm to Fork program launches: From now on, chefs are required to purchase at least 20 percent of their ingredients from small, owner-operated farms and artisans within a 150-mile radius of their kitchen

2001

Bon Appétit begins using disposables made from renewable resources

Bon Appétit becomes first food service provider to adopt Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch standards for sustainable seafood…and the first to switch to rBGH-free milk

2002

Compass Group PLC acquires Bon Appétit Management Company

Executive Chef Kimberly Triplett (now at Emory University) and farmer Brett Grohsgal of Even’ Star Organic Farm, who took some convincing to become one of our first Farm to Fork vendors

I think the whole of Compass benefits from the ‘halo effect’ of having Bon Appétit as partners. Your portfolio of clients is second to none. When we’re selling our sectors, the names of your clients come into that sell a lot. — Gary Green, CEO of Compass Group North America

19 | BRAVO

30 YRS

IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

We vow to buy chicken never treated with non-therapeutic antibiotics (turkey, hamburger, and pork get added to this commitment later)

2003

2004

We commit to buying only oils and baked goods free of trans fat City of San Francisco bestows Golden Dumpster Award William D. Littleford Award for Corporate Public Service

2005 Partnership with chef Tony Mantuano begins, at Terzo Piano at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation is born

Circle of Responsibility sustainability education program launches

Bon Appétit wins Humane Society of the United States Award for Excellence in Food Service and Food Alliance Keeper of the Vision Award

Bon Appétit becomes the first food service company to switch to cage-free shell eggs

Eat Local Challenge: A fun companywide tradition begins! Chefs prepare a meal made entirely from local ingredients sourced within 150 miles, the only exception is salt

2006

CEO Fedele Bauccio named Executive of the Year by Restaurants and Institutions

Bon Appétit is loath to characterize what it runs in any way, shape or form as ‘cafeterias.’ ‘That word is banned in our company,’ founder and chief executive Fedele Bauccio says, half in jest. ‘We approach our cafés as restaurants.’ — “The Un-Cafeteria,” San Jose Mercury News

Bon Appétit turns 20!

2007

Healthy Cooking: More than 25 new guidelines designed to ensure healthy offerings are available throughout our cafés CEO Fedele Bauccio named Seafood Champion by Seafood Choices Alliance

20 | BRAVO

Low Carbon Diet: We launched the first national program to educate consumers about the impact food has on climate change and to take steps to reduce the food service sector’s contribution to the problem. We set a goal to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, created by the highest impact areas of our business, by 25%.

30 IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

Partnership with Traci Des Jardins begins, at Acme Chophouse (now Public House)

2008

Low Carbon Calculator: We launch an interactive tool that allows eaters to determine how their meals are contributing to global warming Low Carbon Diet Day: To highlight our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon “foodprint,” our cafés are transformed into climate-change learning centers while our chefs work to create a meal from planet-friendly ingredients

2009

CIW Agreement: We partner with The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a farmworker organization spearheading the fight for more humane farm labor standards in Florida, to create a Code of Conduct that frames acceptable working conditions

CEO Fedele Bauccio with Bon Appétit chef-partner Traci Des Jardins, currently at Public House, The Commissary, Arguello, and Transit Café

The Regional Operations Support team is born

2010

Bon Appétit Foragers program launched

CEO Fedele Bauccio talks with Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers about the terrible working conditions tomato pickers face in Florida

Food Waste Reduction campaign: We reduced food waste generated in our cafés by 20% Bon Appétit Fellows program launched: Spreading awareness about where our food comes from, and why our choices matter Best Sustainability Initiative for Low Carbon Diet, from Food Management Growing Green Award from Natural Resources Defense Council Industry Leader in Innovations Review by Environmental Defense Fund

Southern California Forager Marc Powers (now executive chef at The Huntington) with locally caught fish

21 | BRAVO

YRS

30 YRS

IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

Bon Appétit hosts TEDxFruitvale, a high-profile farmlabor conference Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler opens TEDxFruitvale, the farm labor conference hosted at Mills College in Oakland, CA

2011

2012

Crate-free pork, cage-free eggs: We make the industry’s first and most extensive commitment to humanely raised pork and liquid eggs

The Inventory of Farmworker Issues and Protections in the United States was published by the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation and United Farm Workers of America, with support from Oxfam America Fish to Fork program launches: We commit to supporting small-scale and local fisheries with our seafood purchases Mid-size, Humane Meat commitment: We open up our Farm to Fork program to include the endangered midsize producer, buying from farms that are bigger than our traditional Farm to Fork producer that have strict, independently certified animal welfare standards Fedele wins an inaugural Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation, is named a Sustainability Pathfinder by Chefs Collaborative, and is recognized by California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. for commitment to shining a light on unfair treatment to farmworkers

Bon Appétit switches to third-party-certified-humane ground beef and patties Fedele wins the IACP’s Lifetime Achievement Award

2013

Food Recovery Network partnership to recover excess edible food on our campuses Campus Farmers network launched

CEO Fedele Bauccio at the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards

Sodium Reduction Campaign We enroll our thousandth Farm to Fork Supplier Partnership with chef Rick Bayless at University of Pennsylvania begins

Wheaton College takes top honors for Best College Food from the Princeton Review

22 | BRAVO

30 IMPORTANT (AND NOT SO IMPORTANT) MILESTONES

Locally Crafted program launched: Working with local artisans to support socially and environmentally responsible practices through community entrepreneurship

2014

Bon Appétit Management Company CEO Fedele Bauccio named the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2014 National Retail and Consumer Products Award winner, for redefining the food service industry and pioneering environmental and local sourcing policies

Compass Group USA and Bon Appétit launch Imperfectly Delicious Produce program: More than 3 million pounds of cosmetically imperfect, under- or over-sized but perfectly edible produce has since been rescued from going to waste on farms and during distribution

The Garden at AT&T Park launched in partnership with the San Francisco Giants

Food Standards Dashboard launched: Bringing greater transparency and accountability to our companywide commitments

2015 Broccoli “fines” now recovered from processors as part of the Imperfectly Delicious Produce program

FAD-free tuna commitment: We are proud to serve tuna that comes with a signed statement that no fish aggregating device (FAD) was used

2016

Bon Appétit partners with chefs Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, and Kajsa Alger at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Named to USDA, EPA List of U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions Acterra Award for Sustainability Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen goes nationwide: Hands-on cooking classes empower kids to make healthy food choices

Companywide food recovery commitment: At least 80% of accounts to be Food Recovery Verified by 2018 Fair Trade tea commitment Low Carbon Lifestyle program launched: Updating and measuring our efforts to reduce the climate-changing impacts of our food choices

Executive Chef Brian West leads a Healthy Kids class at Adobe - San Jose

Bon Appétit turns 30!

2017 23 | BRAVO

YRS

BITS & BITES

BEST BUY EMPLOYEE GETS FREE MILKSHAKE THROUGH THE POWER OF TWITTER When a Twitter user tweeted to @bamco, the company’s main Twitter handle, asking when a beloved malted-milkshake special was going to start up again at his café, he probably wasn’t expecting it would result in vanilla and chocolate shakes delivered to his cubicle by General Manager Susan Davis! — Submitted by Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications

Executive Chef Todd Terwey, Manager Alma Valadez, and Sous Chef Steve Marquez proudly show off the finished ice cream

GENENTECH - SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO WOWS GUESTS WITH SUPER COOL SOUS VIDE DEMO Did you know you could sous vide...ice cream? Executive Chef Todd Terwey recently offered a one-hour demo at Genentech in South San Francisco, CA, showing guests how to do just that. As Genentech helps promote these events — part of a series of cooking classes held every other month — and encourages guests to sign up through Cafebonappetit.com, word spread quickly and the class soon filled to capacity. Todd explained the principles of sous vide (cooking slowly in a water bath) and taught the 20 guests how to cook the custard using an immersion circulator and freeze it using dry ice. This method creates a truer form of frozen custard with a thicker, creamier consistency than ice cream made using more traditional methods. Guests happily enjoyed samples of the vanilla bean ice cream during class. — Submitted by Jenem Martin, Executive Chef

24 | BRAVO

BITS

CITRIX - RALEIGH DOESN’T LET A FLAT TIRE DEFLATE ITALIAN BEEF DREAMS When the Citrix team in Raleigh, NC, hosted a recent Chicagostyle Italian beef sandwich pop-up, Customer Care Representative Christina Ritter missed it. The reason? A flat tire prevented her from reaching the café before closing. No provolone and mozzarella cheeses, no house-made giardiniera and sweet peppers, no saucy jus on her favorite Chicago sandwich. Christina was devastated. When she told Catering Attendant Treisha Hall that she was from Chicago and hadn’t had one of these sandwiches in 11 years, Treisha took it upon herself to go back and ask Executive Chef Toby Pace if there was anything the team could do for Christina. Toby was willing to accommodate, but only after a bit of fun. Turns out Toby is a wanna-be Chicagoan, has visited the Windy City many times, and is a diehard Cubs fan. He walked out from the kitchen and quizzed Christina about her baseball allegiance: Was she a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan? Christina admitted that when she was growing up on the South Side, her dad took her to Comiskey Park — but she preferred games at Wrigley Field. Having received a satisfactory answer, Toby promised to make a fresh, hot Italian beef the next day just for her. The next day Christina arrived promptly at the café. Treisha was waiting for her with a box marked “Go Cubs Go!” Inside sat a piping hot Italian beef with a classic side of fries. Now THAT’s going beyond the call of duty! Catering Director Bill Allen took a picture and texted it to Christina; she promptly sent it to her folks back in Chicago. She followed up with a kind note thanking Toby and Treisha for making her the happiest girl in Raleigh. — Submitted by Bill Allen, Catering Director

Catering Attendant Treisha Hall presents Customer Care Representative Christina Ritter with her Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich

CARE FOR SOME FOOD FOR YOUR WELL-BEING? Despite having a small staff, the team at Genentech in Hillsboro, OR, manages to accomplish an enormous amount, including pulling off a great antioxidant-themed Food for Your Well-Being event. Cashier Alexander Pinkard (pictured) worked the register, refilled sodas, and restocked condiments as he engaged guests about making healthy choices. As Alexander says: “You are what you eat, so make every meal an investment in yourself.” — Submitted by Jenem Martin, Executive Chef, and Anthony Kallianis, Chef/Manager

25 | BRAVO

BITS

STEM Executive Chef Brian Bowen stars in a bus and billboard advertisement

STEM CHEF GOES GARDEN-TO-TABLE-TO-BILLBOARD WITH YELP RESERVATIONS

Operations Manager Jay Trainer and Café Manager Catherine Stuck post-pigout

DENISON COMMUNITY GOES BANANAS FOR SWEET COMPETITION Hot-dog eating contests are so yesterday. At Denison University in Granville, OH, it’s all about the banana split. On a warm spring afternoon, Operations Manager Jay Trainer and Café Manager Catherine Stuck went up against 18 students and 35 professors, faculty members, and even family members of faculty in a bananasplit eating competition. The students asked Jay and Catherine to participate. “Here at Denison, students develop close relationships with managers and staff of Bon Appétit. It is always cool [for students] to have their favorite managers and workers go up against them,” said Alexandria Nickles, one of the competition’s student coordinators.

When the review behemoth Yelp’s San Francisco creative agency reached out to STEM Kitchen & Garden about an exclusive citywide advertising campaign promoting Yelp Reservations, the STEM Bon Appétit team jumped at the opportunity. As one of six restaurants invited to represent the breadth of restaurant offerings available on Yelp Reservations, it was a terrific opportunity to reach potential new guests through billboards and bus shelters — for free. The concept was to feature each chef with a signature ingredient symbolizing the ethos of their restaurant, posed against bright, eye-catching backdrops in a bold color palette. STEM’s new executive chef, Brian Bowen, chose seasonal greens picked fresh from STEM’s on-site garden, with green kale complementing the fuchsia Swiss chard stems. The team chose to leave the roots intact to tie in the visual of the garden. The tagline the agency chose for him was apt: “Fiercely. Fresh. Produce.”

Before the event, Catherine was nervous due to a pretty tough-looking group of competitors. But she and Jay gave it their all, downing the local Whit’s frozen custard and banana “It’s exciting to be a part of a campaign that raises awareness about split accoutrements with the best of them. In the end, though, the restaurant while highlighting our garden-to-table component!” students who finished their banana splits in less than 5 minutes said District Manager Alison Harper. — Submitted by Waverley Aufmuth, were victorious. Winners earned custom Whit’s Custard, while Public Restaurant PR & Marketing Manager all participants who successfully finished received a Denison t-shirt. — Submitted by Kaity Vorbroker, Human Resources Administrative Assistant

USF’S GUACAMOLE DEMO A SLAM DUNK With spirits already high during basketball season, the University of San Francisco team furthered the excitement by adding a How to Make Guacamole promotion to the mix. Supervisor Trent Williams, who started as a grill cook in 2013, offered a demonstration using convenience store products to introduce students to the best way to make fresh guacamole. And the team sold 30 avocados during the demo! — Submitted by Sarah Gill, General Manager

Supervisor Trent Williams cheffing it up

26 | BRAVO

BITS

Winning student Kenny Wang with his sandwich creation

OBERLIN STUDENT WINS SANDWICH-CREATING JACKPOT

Tick tock, it’s Cogsworth the clock!

Even Mrs. Potts and her teacup “son” Chip were represented!

ST. OLAF COLLEGE DELIGHTS IN “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST” FEAST Bakers and pastry chefs wow with their creativity and the stories they tell with butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. It’s no surprise, really. It’s a tale as old as time.... Pastry Chef Richard Hays and his Bon Appétit colleagues at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, had some extra whimsical fun hosting a Beauty and the Beast–themed night in Stav Hall just prior to the release of the latest Disney adaptation. In line with the film’s spectacular dining scenes, the offerings were varied and impressive: a dinner featuring Forest Beast meatloaf and Gaston gastrique, and more — a large dessert display with a colorful array of opulent sweets and a playful cake in the shape of Cogsworth, the film’s singing and dancing mantel clock. — Submitted by Traci Quinnell, General Manager

Cha-ching! When Oberlin College’s Residential Education staff were planning a casino night for students on the Oberlin, OH, campus, they wanted to offer some unique prizes — so they reached out to the Bon Appétit team to collaborate. Together, the groups decided that the winner would have a chance to work with Café Chef Daron Frederick to create a new sandwich that would be featured at the DeCafé convenience store for the week before spring recess. Student Kenny Wang was the big winner: His pastrami Reuben on marble rye with sauerkraut, house-made Thousand Island dressing, and Middlefield Original Cheese Co-Op’s flagship Swiss turned out great! — Submitted by Eric Pecherkiewicz, Dietitian/ Marketing Manager

WASHU CERTIFIES FIRST CLASS OF LEADERS Some people may be “born leaders,” but even they can benefit from skills-based training. Recently 26 Bon Appétit leads and supervisors from Washington University in St. Louis became certified leaders upon graduating from the Leadership Certification Training Program. This alpha class was the first to complete a 13-module training program that includes topics such as coaching and counseling, conflict management, team building, delegation, and effective communications. The training, conducted over 6 months, includes classroom lectures and activities, homework assignments, and in-unit projects. These new leaders now have a solid foundation to build successful management careers with Bon Appétit. — Submitted by Denise Massey, HR Employee Engagement Manager Proud graduates of the Leadership Certification Training class

27 | BRAVO

WELLNESS GOES ONLINE Wellness @ Bon Appétit is our suite of new and refreshed wellness education materials and activities, which includes a robust new online presence that’s already driven 26 percent more guests to our wellness pages on Cafebonappetit.com! Want to know how to fuel for your best performance, or shift to more plant-based proteins? Visit our digital Wellness Library for an in-depth look at both traditional and contemporary nutrition topics. Curious whether a shot of apple cider vinegar a day will keep the doctor away? Or if chia seeds are really the superfood of your dreams? The Buzz is a series of short articles written by our national team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists that uncovers what’s solid science and what’s dubious hearsay about trending topics in nutrition. And don’t forget the recipes! An expanded library of delectable, trend-forward recipes created specifically with wellness in mind make meal planning fun. We’re proud of our new wellness pages at Cafebonappetit.com, which we hope our guests (and our own teams) will use for practical guidance and inspiration for everyday well-being for years to come.

CURING CAVIAR FROM WATER TO TABLE AT THE COMMISSARY

Rogelio’s hand-packed caviar

EXECUTIVE CHEF ROGELIO GARCIA of caviar eggs varied by fish, with some fish’s The Commissary restaurant in the Presidio eggs taking on a black color and larger size. of San Francisco is no stranger to cooking with caviar. In December, he invited three After the chefs successfully harvested their guest chefs and California Caviar Company eggs, they traveled to California Caviar The Commissary Executive Chef Rogelio Garcia with the founder Deborah Keane to join him in pre- Company’s headquarters across the Golden sturgeon from which he harvested eggs for caviar paring a four-course caviar-focused dinner Gate Bridge in Sausalito, where the eggs Kitchen dinners, such as a spring pea–foas part of his Open Kitchen series. (Held on were rinsed and passed through a strainer cused dinner in which Rogelio created a the first Monday of the month, a different to remove extraneous tissue. Each chef dish of American sturgeon topped with seasonal ingredient forms the foundation placed the eggs in a bowl with salt and a English peas, trumpet mushrooms, and his of a prix-fixe menu created by local and small amount of saline solution to reduce freshly cured caviar. The caviar turned out “firm and beautiful, not mushy or musky,” visiting culinary luminaries.) This particular bacteria and begin the curing process. he said. Open Kitchen dinner sparked a deeper exploration into the process of curing caviar, Rogelio hand-packed his caviar into tins, when Deborah invited Rogelio to make his which had to be flipped every 24 hours Now that he has the basics under his own caviar for The Commissary. to ensure even curing. After one week, he belt, Rogelio is excited to apply what he’s returned to Sausalito to taste his freshly learned and begin to experiment with difRogelio joined a group of local chefs at cured caviar. He learned that caviar is ferent approaches and flavors. “There are San Francisco’s Pier 45, where fishing boats ready to be served as early as one week so many different salts you could use. I’ve from fish purveyor Water 2 Table were just after packing, but can cure for up to a year, seen some chefs cure it for a couple days arriving with fresh-caught sturgeon. Each which increases its intensity and saltiness. and smoke it in banana leaves or grill it, chef selected his or her own fish and be- Once the tins are open, exposure to air which gives the caviar a smoky flavor,” he gan the process of harvesting caviar eggs. breaks down the caviar, so it’s best eaten said. “You can manipulate every step of a Rogelio chose a 200-pound sturgeon, when at its freshest (no more than four traditional caviar by using different salts or which he drained, cleaned, and harvested weeks after opening). infusions.” Lucky guests at The Commissary in a process that took two hours. The sturare sure to enjoy what he comes up with! geon yielded 15 pounds of dark-blue eggs. The Commissary’s house-made caviar has Submitted by Waverley Aufmuth, Public Restaurant PR & MarRogelio noted that the color and size of been gracing dishes of more recent Open keting Manager

30 | BRAVO

CREATIVE DISHES FOR CREATIVE FOOD

At The Commissary in the Presidio of San Francisco, General Manager Tessa Vitale’s talents include more than hospitality: She is also a budding ceramicist. After enrolling in a ceramics class at San Francisco’s Fort Mason, Tessa learned to throw dishes on a pottery wheel and then dry, trim, glaze, and fire them in a kiln. Now more than a dozen of her one-of-a-kind pieces grace The Commissary’s tables. While some of the smaller bowls are used in the kitchen as salt cellars or as vessels for finishing sauces, many of her larger dishes are used for plating menu items, including the tuna ceviche and seasonal sorbets. “When I complete a piece, I think a dish looks fine, but when the chefs plate beautiful food on them, suddenly I’m amazed by how much prettier they look,” says Tessa. Judging from the oohs and aahs that often accompany the arrival of the plates to a table, guests at The Commissary agree. — Submitted by Waverley Aufmuth, Public Restaurant PR & Marketing Manager

SAS INFUSES HEALTHY FATS PROMOTION WITH BIG FLAVOR AS SUMMER UNFOLDED, GUESTS at SAS’s Marketplace Café in Cary, NC, naturally gravitated toward lighter, more healthful menu items. Bon Appétiters capitalized on this trend by implementing the Healthy Fats theme in the Food for Your Well-Being series and plucking fresh herbs from the on-site garden to create house-made infused olive oils. Guests Blackberry-ginger and lemon-basil oils elevate raved as they dipped house- salads beautifully made breads (including some made without gluten-containing ingredients) into tarragon-citrus, lemon-basil, and chili-garlic oils. Executive Chef William Ashford Jr. enjoyed chatting with guests perusing the educational materials at the display table about how easy it is to make infused oils at home. Whether or not they DIY the oils themselves, guests can enjoy a daily fix at SAS. (The Bon Appétit team will make such oils — think chili oil or blackberry-ginger oil — available daily.) It’s the best kind of twofer: being able to satisfy adventurous palates while also boosting heart health! Submitted by Courtney Botbyl, Café Manager

Hand-made ceramic pieces by The Commissary’s General Manager Tessa Vitale are used for special dishes SAS’s Food for Your Well-Being display table featuring healthy fats

31 | BRAVO

OBERLIN’S NEW DINING COMMITTEE FEEDS ENGAGEMENT OBERLIN COLLEGE IN OBERLIN, OH, has recently undergone some dramatic and exciting shifts in its leadership, with a new president, new vice president of finance, new dean of students, and yes, even a new director of dining services. “I’d like to see a dining program that students cannot wait to become a part of,” said Meredith Raimondo, the new dean of students. Inspired by that directive, the Oberlin Bon Appétit team brought back the dining advisory committee to better connect campus dining services with the larger college community. The new 15-member committee comprises student leaders, athletics representatives, faculty and staff members, and facilities employees who will convene weekly to discuss menus, nutrition, programming, and educational topics. Meredith expressed confidence that the group is well-positioned to provide a “holistic, all-encompassing dining program that can teach life skills along with the practical aspect of meal service.”

Director of Catering Bill Bolton and Catering Administrative Assistant Bethany Greenawalt offer a platter of cardamom brownies for Dining Committee members to taste

The committee has already led community-building efforts such as introducing late-night meal service at the Rathskeller in conjunction with evening entertainment; showing students where their food comes from by organizing field trips to local Farm to Fork vendors; and hosting an Iron Chef competition. On the educational side, they have invited guest chefs and lecturers to speak on campus, offered additional training for unionized culinary staff, and organized a slew of Earth Day activities including a special “restaurant-by-reservation” event (see page 51).

OBERLIN STUDENTS MAKE FIELD TRIP TO FIELD-LESS TYLER FARM Learning where your food comes from is an essential part of the experience at schools served by Bon Appétit. At Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH, Director of Operations John Klancar and Dietitian/Marketing Manager Eric Pecherkiewicz helped Bon Appétit Fellow Claire Kelloway coordinate a visit to a nearby hydroponics facility, Tyler’s Farm. Roughly 15 students joined to see Tyler’s greenhouse and ask questions about hydroponics and the greens they eat at Oberlin. Farmer Tyler Gogolek told the group that he began delving into hydroponics in 2014 after 20 years growing garden mums and working for greenhouse companies. He was able to invest in his first hydroponic greenhouse knowing that he would have a buyer in the Bon Appétit team at Oberlin, who were looking for fresh, local greens. Today the college is still one of his largest customers, and his business is growing into a second greenhouse with new experimental crops. Tyler and his wife, Karen, were especially excited to share their story and farm with the Oberlin group. The crowd of mostly first-year students asked questions about everything from integrated pest management practices and the different needs of spinach versus lettuce to monitoring water pH levels and greenhouse CO2 concentrations. The group was visibly excited and engaged, chatting right up until it was time to leave. Overheard as they filed onto the shuttle back to campus: “Now I want to be a hydroponic farmer!” — Submitted by Claire Kelloway, Fellow

In this time of change and progress, Bon Appétiters are proud to partner with Oberlin’s administrative, faculty, and student leaders. Feeding student engagement is a top priority, and one best served collaboratively. Submitted by Wayne Wood, General Manager

Dietitian/Marketing Manager Eric Pecherkiewicz (left) and Oberlin students listen as farmer Tyler Gogolek explains hydroponics

32 | BRAVO

The winning team’s seared shrimp with fruit salsa, prosciutto lardons, and asparagus tips

OBERLIN MAKES IRON CHEF COMPETITION AN ANNUAL EVENT Engaging busy college students can be a challenge, but the Bon Appétit team at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH, knows that creating interactive experiences is worth the extra effort.

After student-run dining co-operatives hosted a well-received Iron Chef competition this semester, Executive Chef Matthew Krasnevich was inspired to plan and execute a follow-up competition.

Chef/Manager Tom Nemeth leads Oberlin student Henry Coe in plating asparagus muffins

Throughout the month, the Bon Appétit team promoted the event and encouraged students interested in participating to enter a drawing. Four students were ultimately selected to compete in two pairs, each with a chef at the helm. Oberlin staff and the student head of the dining committee served as jurors.

33 | BRAVO

Student excitement mounted as the competition unfolded in Oberlin’s largest dining hall. Onlookers cheered on their friends as each team created three dishes incorporating the secret seasonal ingredient: Asparagus! Some judges generously shared samples with spectators, delighting the crowd.

In the end, the team supported by Chef/Manager Kevin Chaney emerged victorious. Student Hannah Cipinko especially impressed the judges with a dish of tofu and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Participants and viewers agreed: Iron Chef Oberlin was such a success, it merits repeating year after year! — Submitted by Eric Pecherkiewicz, Dietitian/Marketing Manager

FOOD FOR YOUR WELL-BEING

WHEATON PROMOTES GOOD HEALTH...TIMES 2! TWO EVENTS AT WHEATON COLLEGE in Wheaton, IL, focused on inspiring students to make good food choices for great health. First, the catering team featured the merits of healthy fats and plant-based proteins by hosting an interactive demo table complete with wholesome tastings. The culinary team prepared two infused oils — one with garlic and a second with fresh herbs — and paired them with rustic bread for dipping. They also offered samples of a salad bursting with lentils, golden beets, fresh garlic, basil, parsley, green onions, and grape tomatoes. The dressing incorporated the herb-infused olive oil. While students savored these delicious items, Bon Appétiters promoted the advantages of including healthy and flavorful fats and plant-based proteins in one’s diet. In addition to the demo table, the café menued foods that promoted the same themes. The infused oils, for example, were available on the salad bar as an alternative to the other dressings. The taqueria station served tofu fajitas and nutrient-rich sides like beets with fresh oranges, and beans and rice. The students seemed grateful for the chance to learn something new and offered positive feedback. In the second event, the Bon Appétit and Wheaton College teams worked together to help students recharge with a better night’s sleep. Organized by Director of Student Health Services Britt Black, RN, B.S.N., M.H.A., the program enjoyed crucial support from Wheaton’s Nurse Practitioner Beth Walsh and Bon Appétit’s Director of Nutrition and Wellness Terri Brownlee. Presenting the message that both a good night’s sleep and a balanced plate are essential for good health and well-being, the teams acknowledged the challenges posed by a busy college schedule. A display table featured optimum foods for working out and the best times to eat them, as well as foods to help students relax and promote restful sleep.

Assistant Catering Manager Jennifer Vincent educating students on healthy fats and plantbased proteins

As presenters, Terri and Beth provided students with information and practical tips on eating for performance both on and off the field, and strategies for getting enough sleep despite their schedules. Students relaxed and enjoyed a hot tea bar and almond cherry chia seed bites while they interacted with the speakers. What a great way to partner for the well-being of our guests! Submitted by Samantha Bauman, Director of Catering

34 | BRAVO

SAP REDUCES WASTE BY 27 PERCENT At the start of the campaign, no one was sure what to expect. Buckets with colored tape appeared everywhere, and cooks weighed and recorded food waste for the entire month. There was admittedly some early doubt about whether these actions would successfully reduce waste and thereby help the environment. Four weeks later, any doubt was erased. The answer was a clear and resounding yes!

SAP’s Café 3 team with their color-coded waste-tracking buckets, left to right: Line Cook Jorge Lopez, Line Cook Laura Soto, Café Manager Eva Wilson, Salad Bar Lead Antonio Renysco, Dishwashers Ramon Lopez and Patrick Anderson, Line Cook Jose Luis Lopez, Deli Cook Chang Lam, Dishwasher Julia Mata, Sous Chef Joseph Valenzuela, Grill Cook James Davis, and Café Chef Raj Selvarathanam

SAP SPENT THE MONTH of February participating in Bon Appétit’s Waste Awareness Campaign, an annual month-long educational and awareness-raising initiative with a three-part goal: to help guests and staff become more mindful of how much food they waste; to better understand the reasons for that waste; and to learn tips and tricks for how to be less wasteful. The team used color-coded buckets to track the types and quantities of both back-ofhouse and front-of-house waste. Having

this information gave them a better sense for what specific changes would help prevent and reduce waste in the future.

During the month, SAP’s three cafés reduced their overall food waste by an average of 27 percent. The dramatic reduction stemmed from consistent education and frequent review of production techniques, from trimming onions to utilizing the very last part of broccoli heads. Café Manager Eva Wilson and Café Chef Raj Selvarathnam ably led the team through these efforts.

Since employee education is a key com- Education, empathy, and a sense of teamponent of the campaign, the teams par- work all played significant roles in revitalticipated in 10@10 trainings on everything izing the culture of awareness around Bon from portion control to prep techniques, Appétit at SAP’s waste-reduction priorities. all designed to help them prioritize waste The new team motto? “Keep the buckets!” reduction and prevention and adopt best Submitted by Melissa Miller, General Manager, and Claire practices moving forward. Cummings, Waste Programs Manager

Café 8 team, left to right: Dishwasher Jose Luis Godoy, Grill Cook Matthew Arnold, Supervisor Karina Bustos, Café Chef Robert Perez, Indian Chef Lakshmi Tikka, Salad Bar Lead Yadira Quintana, Prep Cook Elizabeth Escobedo, Line Cook Ramon Godoy, Cashier Fernando Conde, and Indian Prep Cooks Jose Hernandez and Federico Martinez

35 | BRAVO

CHEF WARS STILL RAGING AT GENENTECH FOR THE FOURTH CONSECUTIVE year, Genentech chefs went to war...with each other. The 2017 edition of Chef Wars presented a cutthroat culinary competition among 18 chefs from the South San Francisco cafés split into three teams. Director of Operations Yoel Cohen and Executive Chef Jenem Martin selected the mandatory ingredients, which this year included grass-fed beef, spot prawns, eggs, lemongrass, black garlic, cauliflower, dragon fruit, and kombucha. (Chefs were permitted to use items from the kitchen as well.) Each team had one hour to prepare an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Highlights of the resulting dishes included a silky, elegant cauliflower soup and a dragon fruit dessert soup that featured “water ganache” made with kombucha. Judges included Bon Appétit Regional Vice President Rob Kvitek, Senior Vice President Cary Wheeland, and Genentech Senior Ben-

efits Analyst Sharon Cerini. The winning team — Executive Chef Laurent Vaily, Cook John Pantonial, Executive Chef Jorge Sanchez, Sous Chef Oscar Vasquez, Executive Chef John Koyanagi, and Sous Chef Cristian Abea — eked out a victory by a margin of a single point! Scoring was based on 10 points for taste, 5 points for adherence to the Bon Appétit food program, 5 points for originality, and 5 points for presentation. Each member of the winning team received a knife, their names engraved on the Chef Wars trophy, and — best of all — bragging rights for an entire year! Submitted by Jenem Martin, Executive Chef

In white, left to right: Cook John Pantonial, Executive Chef Jorge Sanchez, Executive Chef John Koyanagi, Sous Chef Oscar Vasquez, Executive Chef Laurent Vaily, and Sous Chef Cristian Abea raise their hands in sweet victory along with Director of Operations Yoel Cohen, Senior Vice President Cary Wheeland, District Manager Steve Ganner, Genentech Senior Benefits Analyst Sharon Cerini, and Regional Vice President Rob Kvitek

36 | BRAVO

Executive Chef John Koyanagi presenting a dish to the judges

The highly prized Chef Wars plaque

Team A’s creations, counterclockwise: Spot prawn with blackberry kombucha syrup and shaved asparagus salad; dragon fruit crisp with quinoa crumble; and seared ribeye with black garlic, poached egg, and cauliflower purée

Featured ingredients included lemongrass, dragon fruit, kombucha, spot prawns, grass-fed beef, cauliflower, and more

The winning team’s elegant cauliflower soup

37 | BRAVO

SERVING SMALLER SCHOLARS AT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY THE BON APPÉTIT TEAM at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland isn’t serving only college students and staff. As part of their community outreach efforts, they’ve developed a relationship with the scholars at a nearby K–6 charter school, Stepstone Academy.

Since then, Stepstone scholars have come to Case Western every year to eat a meal on the last day of the board plan. And as the school has grown, so has Bon Appétit’s involvement. Over the past five years, the team at Case Western has hosted cooking classes for the Stepstone scholars and brought Case Western’s Dub Box to Stepstone several times for community outreach events. They’ve served snacks and offered lessons focused on tasting fruits and vegetables and preparing healthy meals.

The school serves some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city. Near Case Western’s campus, this area has the second-highest child poverty rate of any major city: 89 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. “We’re excited that the scholars are getting much information about local and fresh food,” Jim explained. “We want to share our Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Jim O’Brien first learned knowledge of food with them, providing them with tools to be about Stepstone Academy through his wife, Andrea, who works able to recognize food that is nutritious and good for the body for OhioGuidestone, a nonprofit community services organization and mind.” that helped found the school in 2012. Ever since its inception, Jim has been inspired by the school and its students, and he wanted This exposure to produce can be especially important for students who may not have regular access to fresh fruits and vegetato find a way to engage them in Bon Appétit’s mission. bles. In Cuyohoga County, where Stepstone is located, fast food He started simply, by inviting the Stepstone scholars to eat at is (on average) 4.5 times more readily available than a full-service Case Western. The idea was to expose the scholars simultaneously grocery store. to a college campus (so they could picture themselves there), to fresh, healthy foods, and to where food actually comes from (not Not long ago, Fellow Claire Kelloway had the opportunity to the grocery store!). Stepstone’s first-ever cohort of kindergarten- help host a Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen class with ers came to Case for lunch, and a Farm to Fork partner gave a Stepstone’s 5th grade scholars, the same group of students who presentation about local foods and how many potatoes they sell first came to Case for lunch. (Read more about Healthy Kids on to the college to feed students. Every scholar got a local potato page 70.) Manager of Food Education for Children Hannah to take home, a visual and tactile reminder that food starts out Schmunk, Campus Executive Chef Vinnie Gaikens, Executive Chef in the soil. Rob Washington, and Claire led a lesson together on transforming

The Stepstone and Case Western Reserve groups, including Resident District Manager Jim O’Brien (in blue shirt and tan jacket), who started the partnership

38 | BRAVO

VISITING DEPAUW’S LOCAL GROWERS STUDENTS AT DEPAUW UNIVERSITY in Greencastle, IN, are lucky to have an on-site campus farm supplying their café with superlocal produce. A few months ago, Fellow Amanda Wareham, who has managed the Campus Farmers program for Bon Appétit, had the chance to tour the greenhouse with Campus Farm Manager Malorie Imhoff to learn how the farm is run. During the school year, students diligently bike between the kitchen and the campus farm, about a mile from the central campus, picking up food scraps and dropping them off for composting. Volunteer campus farmers coordinate the care for both the greenhouse space and the campus farm itself in the warmer months. A couple of campus farmers are also employed during the summer. Staff from a few local restaurants and even some of the Bon Appétit team members plan to spend some time volunteering on the campus farm during the summer. Malorie was excited to hear from Amanda about models that other campus farmers have employed to ensure continuity of knowledge.

Stepstone scholars showing off the salsa they made from scratch

Manager of Food Education for Children Hannah Schmunk high-fives a student for a correct answer while Fellow Claire Kelloway looks on

fruits and vegetables into a scrumptious meal of garden tacos and fruit kebabs. They covered basic knife skills as well as how to spot what vitamins a fruit or vegetable may have, based on what color it is. Vinnie even threw in a lesson on composting food scraps, complete with actual compost from the Case Western farm that was made from campus kitchen scraps.

Then Executive Chef Jordan Hall, Catering Chef Josh Dunn, and Amanda took a field trip to Ponderosa Aqua Farm, a Farm to Fork vendor about 30 minutes south of campus. Farmer Missy Carrell gave the group a tour of the greenhouse and the facility where fish are housed. Tilapia occupy five of the six tanks, while catfish take up one. Missy primarily sells tilapia (a sustainable option!) and circulates the nutrient-rich water to small herbs and microgreens in the building where the tanks are and outside to the greenhouse, where she grows lettuces and even tomatoes. Missy gave the group a chance to try quite a few of the microgreens and lettuces. Everyone was surprised by how delicious the sunflower microgreens in particular were — they’re just like sunflower seeds! Submitted by Amanda Wareham, Fellow

Healthy Kids was a perfect fit at Stepstone. “This event was just a natural progression of our longtime relationship with the school and a great opportunity to focus on the first class that we worked with five years ago,” Jim explained. As the school has grown, several Case Western Bon Appétiters have enrolled their children at Stepstone, making the connection between the school and Bon Appétit even more meaningful. Submitted by Claire Kelloway, Fellow

A tasty microgreen

39 | BRAVO

Farmer Missy Carrell, Fellow Amanda Wareham, Executive Chef Jordan Hall, and Catering Chef Josh Dunn at Ponderosa Aqua Farm

THE GETTY’S CULINARY TEAM FINDS INSPIRATION AND CONNECTION AT THE FARMERS’ MARKET EXECUTIVE CHEF JULIE PICCO may have just joined the team at the Restaurant at the Getty Center in Los Angeles this spring, but she is no stranger to farm-to-table cooking. In her more than 10 years of experience, she has developed healthy dining programs and a deep appreciation of seasonality. Her menus showcase bright, simple flavors and a unique juxtaposition of textures that gracefully complement the experience of visiting the Getty. So when looking for ways to get to know her new staff, a visit to the Santa Monica farmers’ market seemed like the perfect group outing. She wanted to bring the entire kitchen team, so that those who hadn’t yet had the chance to visit the market in person could meet vendors and be inspired by new seasonal ingredients. And for Julie, it was an opportunity to build relationships not only with her team but also with the farmers who supply the restaurant’s produce.

Executive Chef Julie Picco outside the Restaurant at the Getty

As luck would have it, the group ran into their representative from L.A. Specialty Produce Co., Rhonda Rago, from whom Julie does much of her produce purchasing. Rhonda took the Bon Appétiters on a guided tour of the market, introducing them to farmers and explaining who grows which types of produce. The Getty team had the opportunity to ask questions and talk to each vendor about their ingredients. When they encountered an ingredient they weren’t familiar with, they brought some back to the Getty kitchen to experiment with. They even discovered a varietal of red and green butter lettuce, Salonova, that Julie has since incorporated into her tuna poke dish on the menu. The visit was such a success that, in addition to returning to the Santa Monica farmers’ market regularly to keep an eye on what’s in season, Julie is planning a second team field trip to meet another local purveyor, La Española Meats. Everyone is so excited that they’ve already arranged their schedules to ensure that all prep work gets accomplished in advance so the entire group can attend. “These trips are a way to keep the team spirit, and to keep us learning about where our food comes from,” said Julie. “Visiting the farmers’ market with our chefs is a way for us to get inspired, and to start writing the next season’s menu.” Submitted by Waverley Aufmuth, Public Restaurant PR & Marketing Manager

From left to right: Getty Line Cook Maria Gonzalez, Lead Cook Clare Villasenor, and Line Cook Chelsea Ochoa visiting the Santa Monica farmers’ market

40 | BRAVO

GOING GARDEN-TO-TABLE TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL PUBLIC GARDENS DAY The Bon Appétit teams at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles celebrated National Public Gardens Day with a variety of garden-inspired dishes. To help raise awareness of public gardens and the important role they play in the communities they serve, the Getty Villa team created a salad inspired by the gardens of Ancient Rome, using only ingredients available in the gardens of that era such as fava beans, asparagus, and beets. The Restaurant at the Getty Center showcased the sweet side of the garden with small dessert bites, and concocted a garden-inspired cocktail flight — a hibiscus margarita, an herbed gimlet, and a muddled red bell pepper cocktail — that were a feast for the eyes and tastebuds.

Garden-inspired cocktails at the Getty for National Public Gardens Day

41 | BRAVO

EMMANUEL CELEBRATES ALL THINGS YOGURT DURING STAR CHEF VISIT EMMANUEL PUSHES CARROTS CENTER STAGE

Café Managers Raby Diallo and Kelly Jean Louis, Star Chef and National Marketing Manager Cheryl Sternman Rule, and General Manager Robin Fortado with a display of Yogurt Culture samples

Lemon–poppy seed mousse with fresh raspberries and cookie crumbles

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT Emmanuel College in Boston hosts a cookbook author, so the team went all out to support visiting Star Chef Cheryl Sternman Rule (who recently joined Bon Appétit as the national marketing manager at headquarters). Whipping up a wide array of samples from Yogurt Culture, Cheryl’s second cookbook, the Emmanuel Bon Appétiters showed off yogurt in all its creamy glory, offering two dips (one with sun-dried tomatoes and feta, the other with olives and blood orange); two drinks (a ginger vanilla lassi and a vibrant green smoothie); and two desserts (lemon– poppy seed mousse with fruit and a yogurt sheet cake). All samples featured Farm to Fork yogurt from Narragansett Creamery of Providence, RI. Lucky students who won giveaway copies of Cheryl’s cookbook received a wealth of knowledge about yogurt, with more than 100 global recipes to explore. The forwardthinking team even saved a few copies for freshman orientation. Submitted by Patrick Sevy, Café Manager

42 | BRAVO

When considering the humble carrot, never stop at soups and mirepoix! For National Carrot Day, the Bon Appétit team at Emmanuel College in Boston created a wide variety of sweet treats — as well as a few healthy options (of course). Head Baker Donna Papastavrou turned out delicious carrot cakes, breads, vegan cupcakes, and granola bars made without gluten-containing ingredients that featured local Grandy Oats Granola from Hiram, ME. Students without a sweet tooth snacked on roasted carrot and yogurt dip with toasted pita points and sipped glasses of fresh carrot, ginger, and celery juice. Guests were amazed at just how many delicious items could be made from an ordinary carrot! — Submitted by Patrick Sevy, Café Manager

BON APPÉTIT TASTES THE IMPOSSIBLE… FIRST! IF YOU DON’T KNOW what the Impossible Burger tastes like, you’re not alone. This revolutionary plant-based burger — specifically designed to entice meat lovers — has been making waves at just a handful of exclusive, top-flight restaurants, including Bon Appétit’s own Public House, where renowned chef-partner Traci Des Jardins and Executive Chef Jorge Lumbreras debuted it to great acclaim in March. (David Chang and Brad Farmerie were among the other noteworthy early adopters.) With the burger’s recent launch at a corporate café in South San Francisco and its impending July rollout at Adobe’s headquarters in San Jose, Bon Appétit officially became the first food service company in the country to offer this much-buzzed-about burger to its café guests. Although its meaty taste, texture, and juiciness are what have made headlines, the burger has other qualities, too — ones that align with Bon Appétit’s companywide sustainability commitments. The Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% lower greenhouse gas emissions than its beef counterpart. It’s made from wheat protein, potato protein, coconut oil, and heme, the natural molecule that gives meat its color and flavor. (It contains gluten and soy.)

Chef-partner Traci Des Jardins and Executive Chef Jorge Lumbreras with Public House’s Impossible Burger

At Public House, which adjoins AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Impossible Burger has been outselling the standard hamburger during lunch (except on game days), according to Jorge. It was also an instant hit at Bon Appétit’s first corporate café to carry it. On its first day, the burger was menued at the B42 Café in South San Francisco, which normally sells only around 24 burger specials daily. They sold 24 Impossible Burgers as soon as they opened the doors. “Customers were so excited; they couldn’t believe they were seeing it in their café,” said Executive Chef Jenem Martin. The following day, B42 Executive Chef Todd Terwey and Sous Chef Stephen Marquez prepared 60 Impossible Burgers, anticipating even stronger demand once the word spread. They sold out by the end of service — a once-impossible feat for a plantbased burger! Submitted by Cheryl Sternman Rule, National Marketing Manager

The Impossible Burger makes its food-service debut at B42 Café in South San Francisco

43 | BRAVO

EARTH DAY 2017

REDUCE , RECOVER , UPCYCLE! BON APPÉTIT TEAMS AROUND THE COUNTRY CELEBRATED EARTH DAY BY GETTING SCRAPPY — UPCYCLING FOOD SCRAPS, THAT IS!

OUR CHEFS’ DAILY CREATIVITY WITH ROOT-TO-STEM, STEMTO-LEAF, AND SNOUT-TO-TAIL CULINARY TECHNIQUES ALWAYS IMPRESSES AND SHINES BRIGHT, BUT ON EARTH DAY, THEY SHOWCASED EVEN MORE INVENTIVENESS AND DEMONSTRATED HOW THESE PRACTICES MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE PLANET. MENUS FEATURED MOUTHWATERING DISHES MADE WITH UPCYCLED INGREDIENTS — THINK PICKLED CHARD STEMS, AND DUMPLINGS MADE WITH VEGETABLE PEELS. The promotion went well beyond the plate. At Earth Day activity tables, Bon Appétiters everywhere offered one or more of the following: • A vegetable butchery demonstration showing how to use all parts of the vegetable, from leafy carrot tops to fibrous broccoli stems • A Find the Flaw game, where guests could inspect different fresh (need we say beautiful?) fruits and vegetables from our Imperfectly Delicious Produce (IDP) program and guess which “flaw” makes the item cosmetically challenging to sell in the marketplace (and therefore worthy of rescue) • An IDP Photo Booth, where guests could affix googly-eyes to “imperfect” produce and pose with their creations • A No-Waste Cooking Competition, where chefs competed to prepare an appealing dish generating the least amount of waste possible Why do all this? To share simple, Earth-friendly techniques that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save some of the water, labor, land, and energy that go into growing and harvesting food. Based on the in-café and social media feedback, the message made it home. And with lots of samples to enjoy throughout the day, deliciously so!

ELECTRONIC ARTS GETS INTO THE #PHOTOBOOTHSPIRIT Of course the team at Electronic Arts are a creative bunch, but Bon Appétiters at this Redwood City, CA, campus outdid themselves this Earth Day. Their custom photo booth, designed to look like an Instagram post, offered tiaras and other props — not for the guests, but for the Imperfectly Delicious Produce! Guests could accessorize their napa cabbages and fennel bulbs with extra sparkle before snapping photos with their anthropomorphized creations. What a clever way to turn heads online and help spread the word about rescuing produce and upcycling it into something new and extra special. — Submitted by Ariana Tanimura, Assistant Catering Manager

Imperfectly Delicious Produce ready for its turn in the photo booth limelight

What a capture! Mediterranean Chef Teodoro Campos ready to serve lunch at his station

Catering Attendant Christopher Chapanar posing with his favorite piece of Imperfectly Delicious Produce

46 | BRAVO

PRO PEPPER PREP: Rapt students watch Salad Bar Prep Cook Jessie Holladay butcher a green bell pepper at Otterbein University in Westerville, OH. Note those perfect cuts! — Submitted by Jennifer McGann, Regional Marketing Director

Fred Hutchinson’s Earth Day event table highlighted the potential of leaves of all kinds

Salad Bar Prep Cook Roxie Blanchard and Deli Prep Cook Alicia James by their colorful Earth Day display

Supervisor Nicolina Miller helps a guest Find the Flaw in some IDP carrots

FRED HUTCHINSON SERVES FAR MORE THAN SALAD SAMPLES Earth Day can be every day! Especially when you bring the focus into your very own kitchen. That was the important message Bon Appétiters at Fred Hutchinson in Seattle had for guests GEORGE FOX MAKES “A-PEELING” JUICES AND SALADS when they hosted an interactive Earth Day event in their café. Earth Day at George Fox University in Newberg, OR, was a wel- The team highlighted simple ways everyone can get more milecome breath of fresh air — and fresh information about food age out of the vegetables lurking in refrigerators and pantries. waste! During lunch, students in Canyon Commons delighted in a Upcycling vegetable parts for use in creative salads, moving the menu of upcycled dishes thanks to the creative efforts of Salad Imperfectly Delicious Produce to center stage, and giving guests Bar Prep Cook Roxie Blanchard and Deli Prep Cook Alicia James. fun, easy-to-execute tips on how to revive limp greens offered The duo prepared house-made juice from everyday kitchen scraps highly practical takeaways, well beyond the delicious chilled broclike carrot peels, celery ends, orange pieces, and strawberry tops, a coli stem salad samples guests munched on at the activity table. concoction that brought the transformation of otherwise-wasted Among the enthusiastic exclamations: “I didn’t know I could do items to thirst-quenching life. Students also enjoyed two salads that!” and “You can eat that?” and “I would juice that IDP apple!” featuring stem-to-leaf techniques and IDP items. — Submitted by Brett — Submitted by Nicolina Miller, Supervisor Two stem-to-leaf salads showed the delicious potential for utilizing otherwise wasted produce parts

Harvey, Board Manager

47 | BRAVO

LAFAYETTE OFFERS FULL WEEK OF EARTH-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES Fellow Claire Kelloway joined the Bon Appétit team at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, for their ambitious series of sustainability events as a part of the college’s annual Earth Week celebration. Claire and Marketing Manager Alexa Rossi hosted a big pop-up at the Earth Week kickoff carnival to advertise Lafayette’s eco to-go system by distributing eco clamshells. In all, Claire and Marketing Manager Alexa Rossi handed out a whopping 250 new eco to-go containers to delighted students. Free cookies and a coupon to exchange their dirty container for a clean one after the event kept spirits high. Recycling games, local foods, a low-carbon race, and live music all contributed to the festive atmosphere. At the “LaFarm to Table Dinner,” everything was locally sourced — like a spring Eat Local Challenge. (Even the soda machines were turned off in favor of agua fresca flavored with local pears.) In addition to the delicious meal, volunteers from LaFarm, the college’s community garden and working farm, hosted action stations throughout the café, inviting guests to peel garlic, cut potatoes for planting, and sign up to volunteer at LaFarm. Alexa and Claire also hosted a Weigh the Waste station, while the sustainability office presented a display of student compost research and a soil sample guessing game. A fantastic volunteer day at LaFarm capped off the busy week, with roughly 30 students, staff, and professors helping to ready the farm for the upcoming growing season. Campus farmer Sarah Edmonds put everyone to work picking up highway trash, spreading compost, and planting potatoes and herbs.

Lafayette Marketing Coordinator Alexa Rossi hands out eco to-go containers at an Earth Week kickoff picnic

First-year Lafayette students help plant herbs to create LaFarm’s “herb island”

Executive Chef Scott Sypniewski offered a burrito picnic from the Lafayette Food Truck to feed the hardworking volunteer farmhands. They feasted on chicken and vegetable burritos, pasta salad, chips and salsa, and fudge brownies — a splendid way to wrap up the campuswide celebration of environmental awareness. — Submitted by Claire Kelloway, Fellow, and Alexa Rossi, Marketing Coordinator Lafayette students, sustainability staff, and faculty enjoy a post-farming picnic courtesy of Bon Appétit’s food truck

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: Patricia and Mark Lovejoy of Garden Treasures Nursery and Organic Farm joined Sous Chef Mark Raynor (right) and other members of Nordstrom’s Bon Appétit team in Seattle for an Earth Day celebration at Century Café. The Lovejoys brought beautiful kale raab, purple asparagus, chives, calcot onions, apple mint, and baby leeks, as well as stories of the farm and a manual seeder and cultivator. Elsewhere at Nordstrom, Executive Chef James Edmunds and Cashier Lili Unruh shared tips on how to cut waste and utilize various produce items from stem to leaf. — Submitted by Halle Smith, Catering Director

48 | BRAVO

Student workers in East Dining Hall pose with their perfectly imperfect creations

JUST GOOGLY-EYE IT: A jumble of cute IDP vegetables encouraged guests at The College of Idaho in Caldwell, ID, to take selfies, while driving home the importance of reducing food waste. Front of House employee Nancy Fogleman showed them how it was done. — Submitted by Crystal Rideau, General Manager

Sustainability Student Manager Jerrilyn Goldberg and student Anne Guttridge enjoy learning about Bon Appétit’s food waste reduction initiatives

SPUDS, PEELS, AND LEAVES AT CARLETON COLLEGE

At Carleton College in Northfield, MN, students could build IDP “friends,” Mr. Potato Head–style, and take selfies with imperfect carrots, parsnips, radishes, and ugly fruit. Candied orange peel was available for sampling in East Dining Hall while broccoli salad with orange vinaigrette held sway in Burton Dining Hall. Not to be outdone, Bon Appétiters in Sayles Hill Café offered teas made with whole herbs — stems as well as leaves. Guests enjoyed “Better Burgers” as well (see page 58). As if that weren’t enough, prospective students and their parents were treated to a food tour. — Submitted by Jerrilyn Goldberg ’18, Sustainability Student Manager, and Katie McK-

FEELING FINE ABOUT IDP BROCCOLI: At Genentech - South San Francisco’s Café B35, Executive Chef Laurent Vailly put together a tasty slaw using IDP broccoli fines, apples, watermelon radishes, carrots, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and an agave-lime dressing. — Submitted by Jenem Martin, Executive Chef

enna, General Manager

49 | BRAVO

Fellow Maggie Kraft and General Manager Sia Mohsenzadegan get googly-eyed

BRASSICA BUTCHER: Executive Chef Glenn Babcock of Denver’s Regis University shows how to break down a head of broccoli with panache and little waste. — Submitted by Letina

UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC HOSTS DUAL CELEBRATION At University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, Fellow Maggie Kraft joined the Bon Appétit team in a jam-packed week of activities.

Matheny-Leix, General Manager

General Manager Sia Mohsenzadegan and Maggie hosted a cooking demo featuring IDP products and herbs from the on-campus garden. Students stopped by to taste the spinach salad, which also featured IDP strawberries, broccoli stems, chives, and candied walnuts. Many students had noticed the IDP options featured on the menu and were excited to learn more about the program and Bon Appétit’s commitments to fighting waste. Then Maggie was joined by University of the Pacific’s sustainability coordinators and Garden Programs Director Patty Grey for a combined John Muir birthday and Earth Day celebration. This famous conservationist’s birthday is April 21, right before Earth Day, and many of his papers and works are housed at Pacific. Maggie set up an IDP photo booth and provided carrot cake samples (made with IDP carrots) to students and staff. Meanwhile, her Pacific counterparts encouraged students to don a fake beard and birthday hat and take a photo with a cutout of John Muir, and shared information about various sustainability initiatives on campus including eco to-go containers. It was a great opportunity to talk with students about all of the various sustainability initiatives on campus. And on the menu for Earth Day itself: several specials featuring IDP produce, of course! — Submitted by Lena Perry, Marketing Intern, and Maggie Kraft, Fellow

CAN’T SEE THE CARROTS FOR THE GREENS: Bon Appétiters at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, CA, offered guests two scrumptious salads, including a vibrant carrot-greens salad, as well as citrus crisps and citrus gummies. No reason to waste a thing when the dishes look this good! — Submitted by Samantha Reyes, Café Manager

50 | BRAVO

Oberlin students peruse their Earth Day dining options on a theme-specific menu sheet

OBERLIN TIES EARTH DAY DINNER TO ANNUAL ECOLYMPICS

Head Baker Karen Arellano holding Earth Day cookies

SWEET, EDIBLE EARTH AT CLAREMONT MCKENNA

At Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, CA, Head Baker Karen Arellano and fellow members of the bakery team baked up some pretty Earth-inspired cookies. Guests with savory proclivities could enjoy Broccoli Wockly salad featuring IDP broccoli fines, raisins, walnuts, red onion, and carrots. Kudos to Operations Director Mayra Arteaga as well. Her table setup featured an agua fresca hydration station and Find the Flaw activity with IDP Granny Smith apples. — Submitted by Paul Anthony Baca,

Excuse us, but do you have a reservation to save the planet? Bon Appétiters at Oberlin College hosted a special Earth Day dinner at Rathskeller in Wilder Hall, delighting students as part of the college’s annual Ecolympics. (Ecolympics, an annual water and electricity conservation competition, takes place not only at the campus of the Oberlin, OH, college but at other schools as well.) With displays of local IDP favorites and a menu filled with Farmto-Fork and IDP foods, students enjoyed ordering the special dishes, playing Find the Flaw, and winning prizes. — Submitted by Eric Pecherkiewicz, Dietitian/Marketing Manager

Executive Chef

TARGET HITS EARTH DAY BULL’S-EYE: At Target’s Minneapolis headquarters, Bon Appétit Operations Manager Kathy Vik (pictured) touted the benefits of using china in-café and compostable tableware for take-out, and talked about the IDP program. Target team members enjoyed learning how to use all broccoli parts, including the stems, as Kathy demoed how to peel and prep them. — Submitted by Kathy Vik, Operations Manager

51 | BRAVO

ADOBE GOES MEATLESS COMPANYWIDE AND OFFERS MULTIPLE MEDIA-SAVVY DEMOS

In celebration of Earth Day, the cafés at Adobe’s four North Amer- Adobe - Seattle offered vegetable butchery demos to help eduican sites highlighted a dual focus on reducing food waste and cate guests about the proper way to break down vegetables to cutting food-related carbon emissions by serving all meatless spe- make the most of the edible parts of the plant. cials for one day. At Adobe - San Jose, Executive Chef Brian West and Bon Appétit The Meatless Monday celebration, which also extended to Adobe Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler brought the topic offices without a Bon Appétit presence (including international of food waste to life. With a dramatic large-screen projection of offices), was presented in partnership with Adobe’s Sustainabil- their actions for guests in the bleachers and a media feed deliverity and Corporate Responsibility teams. Bon Appétit chefs were ing their demo to those elsewhere in the café, the pair educated challenged to get creative with enticing plant-based proteins in and inspired Adobe guests. specials at every station in their cafés, as well as at salad and deli bars. The messaging around the one-day event emphasized Maisie kicked off the event by giving an overview of the three the carbon savings from eliminating meat from one’s diet once major ways chefs at Bon Appétit Management Company minimize a week; the overall carbon savings from Bon Appétit’s cafés food waste. Brian followed by offering a litany of creative ways totaled 3,927 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is the equiva- guests can revive and rescue food from their own refrigerators, inlent of removing the emissions from 4,190 pounds of burned coal cluding: reviving droopy basil by dunking it briefly in ice water; usfrom the environment! ing ice cube trays to freeze extra herbs in olive oil or melted butter for quick use down the line in pastas or sauces; adding herb Adobe - San Francisco’s Landmark 193 offered an IDP photo stems from cilantro, thyme, oregano, or even rosemary to stocks; booth, while the Adobe Café in Lehi, UT, and Watermark Café at and brushing stale bread with olive oil and crisping it in a 350°F oven before pulverizing it into bread crumbs to store in freezer bags. (Alternately, take that oiled, crisped bread and use it as the base for pan con tomate, a simple Spanish-style tapa.) Brian also demoed several dishes, including a stock and a quick marmalade made from beautiful citrus rinds. During a lively Q&A, attendees peppered the pair with questions, and when the event wrapped up, guests continued to seek answers to their remaining questions, approaching Brian and Maisie for more advice on how to make better use of the foods they love so that far less of them goes to waste. — Submitted by Adobe - San Jose Assistant General Manager Diane Ortiz and Catering Administrator Gloria Rios prepare to engage guests about upcycling

Carrot-top pesto salad with orange zest and celery leaves for food-waste-fighting education

Emilie Zanger, Food Program Manager, and Cheryl Sternman Rule, National Marketing Manager. Photos: Charlotte Fiorito

Adobe - San Jose Executive Chef Brian West chatting with Adobe guests after his demo with Chief Strategy and Brand Officer Maisie Ganzler. Vegetable trimmings, Parmesan rinds, bones, and prosciutto scraps bubble in a tasty stock on the burner.

52 | BRAVO

Cambia guests pose playfully with their Imperfectly Delicious Produce

Deli Cook Wael Abdalla, Sous Chef Robert Harding, Cashier Cherie Conner, Executive Chef and General Manager Ethan Davidsohn, Entrée Cook Alice Marshall, and Salad Bar Cook Sean McDermott couldn’t resist participating in the photo booth fun

CAMBIA GETS SNAP HAPPY DURING ITS SCRAP-FORWARD FEAST Things recently got ugly at Cambia Health Solutions in Portland, OR...with an IDP photo booth and homely produce taste-test in honor of Earth Day! Waste Programs Manager Claire Cummings joined forces with Executive Chef and General Manager Ethan Davidsohn and Lauren Bodine from Charlie’s Produce in Portland. Ethan made a delicious agua fresca from IDP cucumbers, mint, lime, and a pinch of sugar. Though some guests hesitated to try the green drink, they proceeded to fall in love with it after tasting it. He and his team also wowed with a chicken and Soy Curl tinga. (The dish incorporated a stock simmered from scraps, as well as cilantro rice flavored with cilantro stems, furthering the nothing-goes-to-waste theme.) Meanwhile, Lauren served up taste tests of both “perfect” and IDP Honeycrisp apples, English cucumbers, and shiitake mushrooms. Guests could not tell the difference between the two — proving the point of the exercise — and were shocked to learn how much food goes to waste in the United States due to minor cosmetic imperfections. They were thrilled to learn about the IDP program, and all agreed that ugly produce tastes just as good as its prettier counterparts. More than 30 people snapped selfies with produce in the IDP photo booth and many more stopped by the table to learn and

Ethan’s food-waste-fighting chicken and Soy Curl tinga

enjoy a taste test. Cambia plans on displaying the photos to promote the company’s commitment to sustainability, ensuring that the learning will extend beyond Earth Day — and the confines of the café. — Submitted by Claire Cummings, Waste Programs Manager

WELCOME, FIRST TIMER! Starbucks Operations Manager Emran Chowdhury celebrates his first Earth Day as a Bon Appétiter at SODO Kitchen, at Starbucks HQ in Seattle. — Submitted by Adam Worth, Operations Manager

53 | BRAVO

Guests pay close attention to Santa Clara University Executive Chef Michael Brinkmann’s demo as they enjoy their meals

SANTA CLARA U HOSTS GARDEN DINNER AND TRIVIA NIGHT Among several Earth Week activities including an IDP photo booth, Santa Clara University Executive Chef Michael Brinkmann and Executive Sous Chef Mauricio Valejo joined Fellow Maggie Kraft at the university’s Forge Garden for a cooking demo. The chefs made beautiful dishes featuring typically wasted product such as fava leaves, beet stems and leaves, and green garlic tops. Working with Garden Manager Katherine Rondthaler, who sourced a majority of the ingredients from the garden, they even used honey collected from the bees onsite! The event provided students with a prime opportunity to see all the ways they could use each part of the produce sold at the weekly garden market. In addition to the student attendees, guests included a mother and son from the women’s shelter across the street from the Santa Clara, CA, campus. Students enjoyed the meal so much that many took the recipes home and told Katherine they would be back for the weekly market. In addition to the repast, guests enjoyed a few rounds of waste-focused food trivia. Many were both surprised and intrigued by what they learned. Two winners each took home a copy of Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook by Dana Gunders, enabling them to continue the food-waste fight at home. — Submitted by Maggie Kraft, Fellow

WASTE TODAY, VIEW TOMORROW: In partnership with the Food Recovery Network, the Bon Appétit team at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland collected food waste for one full day during Earth Week. The next day, they displayed the accumulated scraps to illuminate for students just how much food was being wasted. This activity, at the university’s all-you-care-to-eat cafés at Leutner and Fribley, was accompanied by signs displaying facts about waste. — Submitted by Amanda Mass, Marketing Manager

SEATTLE U CELEBRATES CITRUS: With candied orange peels and googly-eyed cukes and bananas, Seattle University gets deep into the Earth Day spirit! — Submitted by Kara Barnes, Marketing and Recruiting

ROOTS WITH LETTUCE LOCKS: Check out the glorious heads (er, of lettuce) on this creative display of IDP root vegetables at Albion College in Albion, MI. — Submitted by Shane Powers, Marketing Manager

54 | BRAVO

Michael and Kathleen Stang of Lalier Garden and Stang’s Apiaries brought local honey samples and an active beehive

Director of Catering Chana Ritchey, Director of Operations Heather Lee, and Culinary Director Tim Hilt with house-made honey lemonade

ORACLE HQ ABUZZ ON EARTH DAY

Populating all but the most extreme corners of the globe, bees play a crucial role in agriculture and represent an irreplaceable link in food production. In fact, according to research from Michigan State University, bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. (They’re involved in pollinating everything from apples and berries to nuts and cucumbers.) In honor of this year’s weeklong Oracle Green Fairs, the Bon Appétit team at Oracle in Redwood Shores, CA, brought awareness of the diminishing bee population by partnering with local beekeepers Lalier Garden and Stang Apiaries. Participants enjoyed sipping house-made honey lemonade and observing a live hive that showed off the unique habitat of these important pollinators. Guests could even take home wildflower seeds to create their own bee-friendly environment! — Submitted by Cara Brechler, Director of Marketing Catering Team Member Karina Arevalos shows off the plantable wildflower seed–paper giveaway

SUPERIOR SETUP: Executive Chef Dylan Brandt hosted a colorful table display and Find the Flaw activity at State Auto Insurance in Columbus, OH. — Submitted by Jennifer McGann, Regional Marketing Director

55 | BRAVO

Everyone wants to be a chef these days! Learning to cook empowers you to make healthier and more sustainable food choices and wows your friends. Cooking is an Art and a Science (CIAS) is a new foodie-focused, in-café series developed to showcase the culinary expertise of Bon Appétit’s chefs and teach our guests about the essentials of cooking. Chefs and managers browse our library of culinary terms and techniques — which range from braise and brine to temper and “mother sauces” — and choose one to pair with a special menu item or cooking demo. Eye-catching signage points our guests to the menu items and information about the featured technique, while fun digital content (including instructional videos) for our guests is easily accessible on Cafebonappetit.com. We’re excited for this new way to show off our teams’ formidable culinary prowess as well as giving our guests a deeper connection to the culinary art and science they consume through their café menus each day.

BON APPÉTITERS BUILD BETTER BURGERS Executive Chef/General Manager Paul Lieggi of Mt. Angel Abbey in Benedict, OR, was similarly enthusiastic. Paul’s burgers featured 60 percent beef from Lonely Lane Farms and 40 percent shiitake mushrooms from Yamhill County Mushrooms, both Farm to Fork vendors. The burgers were so popular they sold out! “The guests loved and some even raved about them,” Paul said. “We will be blending more beef and local produce soon.” In fact, Paul was so excited about the culinary potential of the great-tasting, easieron-the-environment burgers that he’s been experimenting with new combinations, pairing pasture-raised beef with ingredients like beets, split peas, and wild rice. His newest creation: a Better Baked Potato Burger on house-made Shepherd’s Grain buns. “It brings back childhood memories,” Paul said, “like the first time you put French fries on your hamburger.” Mt. Angel Abbey Executive Chef/General Manager Paul Lieggi grinds his pasture-raised beef with split peas, wild rice, and other plants

Some of Paul’s Better Burger experiments

WHAT MAKES A BURGER a “better” burger? It’s about the meat: not just higher quality meat, but less overall quantity of meat as well. As part of their Earth Day celebrations, several Bon Appétit chefs took part in the Better Burger Challenge, an initiative spearheaded by environmental justice organization Friends of the Earth and student-led group Turning Green. The campaign urges chefs at businesses and colleges and universities to reimagine the traditional burger and create a newer prototype that’s better from an environmental, health, and animal welfare point of view.

General Manager Kevin McConvey and Executive Chef Martin Levison at Twitter in San Francisco served Better Burgers, too, choosing to do so around National Hamburger Day instead. Made with local grass-fed beef, carrots, garlic, mushrooms, onions, and chickpeas, the burgers were received “extremely well.” So well, in fact, that one guest even requested the recipe! By Cheryl Sternman Rule, National Marketing Manager

As part of that goal, a Better Burger should also include healthy, more sustainable beef from ranchers raising their cows on pasture. Participating chefs were tasked with creating burgers that use organic and/or grass-fed beef, but 30 percent less of it. In its place, they were to substitute an equal amount of organic vegetables, grains, or legumes. Teams from Genentech - South San Francisco, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Mt. Angel Abbey were among the early participants, much to the delight of their burger-loving guests. At MIT in Cambridge, MA, Chef/Manager Brian McCarthy’s team prepared a falafel burger, mixing ground beef with hummus, cage-free egg for cohesiveness, and extra seasoning. They topped the burger with tzatziki sauce. “The students loved it,” said Brian, who is the author of several vegan cookbooks for food service. “We sold about 50, which is good for a grill special.… Clever idea, this build a Better Burger!”

Paul’s finished Better Burgers

58 | BRAVO

ADOBE - LEHI FARM FORAGER INTRODUCES FELLOW CHEFS TO VITAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION THRIVING AGRICULTURE MAKES ALL communities stronger. But it holds special value for communities with large numbers of refugees, who may face special challenges in accessing affordable and nutritious food. Adobe - Lehi Executive Chef Ted Mathesius, Bon Appétit’s forager for the state of Utah, recognized this reality when he arranged for all Utah-based Bon Appétit chefs to tour a New Roots program garden in Salt Lake City. New Roots — a collaboration between the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and the Utah Refugee Coalition — is committed to providing the local refugee community with access to fresh, local, affordable, and culturally appropriate food. In addition, New Roots seeks to build a healthier community by developing small-scale urban farms and community gardens, all while providing refugees with access not just to food but to food literacy education as well.

for each refugee. New Roots even brings gardeners together to share their agricultural skills and connect with their new home and community. Since this visit, New Roots has begun supplying fresh produce to all Utah-based Bon Appétit cafés, and will do so throughout the summer and fall. Thanks to his relationship with New Roots, Ted’s local purchasing spending will continue to rise while he and his fellow chefs support increased economic opportunities for the local refugee community. Submitted by Terry Davies, Catering Manager

One initiative is a Community Gardening Program, which secures plots for refugees at community gardens throughout Salt Lake City. New Roots provides seeds, seedlings, and instruction on best gardening practices in Utah, and in so doing, helps to secure an abundant supply of fresh, nutritious, and accessible produce

A thriving head of red butter lettuce at the New Roots garden

Left to right: Aaron Lee, Chris Natalie, and Kristin Kropp (all from New Roots) along with Chef/Manager Joe Davis, Catering Manager Terry Davies, Sous Chef Scott Shaw, and Sous Chef Roki Gumataotao

59 | BRAVO

COOKING CLASSES AND FOODIE FILM DISCUSSION DRAW CROWDS TO THE HUNTINGTON A month later, Huntington Hospitality hosted a very special screening of the brand-new documentary, James Beard: America’s First Foodie, followed by a panel discussion and reception. Dubbed “the Dean of American Cookery” by the New York Times, this cookbook author, journalist, television celebrity, and teacher was a Portland, OR, native who loved and celebrated the bounty of the Pacific Northwest long before it would become hip to be a “locavore.” In the film, a veritable who’s who of the food world — from Alice Waters to Jacques Pépin, Martha Stewart, and Wolfgang Puck — share memories and recall Beard’s influence on the modern culinary scene. After the hourlong screening, James Beard Award winner Mary Sue joined Producer/Director Beth Federici, Producer Kathleen Squires, and well-known pastry chef and Beard buddy Jim Dodge (Bon Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger clowning around in the Border Grill class Appétit’s director of specialty culinary programs) for a short disCELEBRATED LOS ANGELES CHEFS Susan Feniger and Mary Sue cussion of what Beard meant to them. Beard Award–winning OakMilliken — creators of Border Grill’s authentic modern Mexican land food writer John Birdsall, who is working on a major new biogcuisine and two of Bon Appétit’s three chef-partners at The Hun- raphy of Beard, moderated the free-form discussion. Jim brought tington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens — have down the house with his personal anecdotes about Beard’s physibeen hosting demonstration-style cooking classes with freely cal exhibitionism, lack of culinary confidence, and notorious ability flowing margaritas at their downtown location for years. When to dine out everywhere without ever spending a cent. District Manager Fabio Soto and Huntington Hospitality General Manager Sarah Geana decided to launch the new culinary event The discussion was followed by a reception with a menu of series at the San Marino, CA, cultural hub, the Border Grill class Beard-inspired appetizers planned by Mary Sue and Bon Appétit was a natural trial balloon. The exclusive one-night-only dinner Executive Chef Marc Powers, including Beard’s onion tea sandwiches with house-made mayonnaise and parsley (featured in the salon sold out in just hours! film), GoneStraw Farms chicken crêpes with sauce suprême, escarFans of Susan and Mary Sue’s Too Hot Tamales show flocked gots à la bourguignonne with grilled brioche, Roman lamb burgers, to the live show-plus-dinner to see them prepare some of their strawberry shortcake, and blueberry rolls. Guests lingered far past signature dishes on stage. Guests enjoyed lavender-lemon margar- the designated event ending time, dancing to live music and quizitas and tomatillo guacamole with chili-lime crackers while waiting zing the filmmakers about all the scenes they had been forced to for the show to start, then dined on Peruvian ceviche with pickled leave out to make the one-hour runtime. onions, Yucatecan pork with corn tortillas, green rice, and plantain empanadas, followed by churros with whipped crema, dulce de James Beard: America’s First Foodie is now available for viewing as leche, and chocolate sauce. Everyone received a booklet with the part of PBS’s American Masters series. complete menu’s recipes, and dozens stood in line to buy cook- Submitted by Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications books and have them signed by the dynamic pair of chefs.

60 | BRAVO

Bon Appétit’s Director of Specialty Culinary Programs Jim Dodge signs a book for a fan after regaling the crowd with tales of Beard’s eccentricities

Marc and Regional Executive Chef Peter Alfaro putting the final touches on the Border Grill ceviche

Executive Chef Marc Powers clowning around with the movie poster

61 | BRAVO

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS HONORS CHAR BURGESS SPENDING ALMOST 50 YEARS as a key member of a university community merits both celebration and recognition. And so, on a beautiful, blue-skied afternoon, guests at the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA, gathered to honor Vice President and Dean of Student Life Charlotte “Char” Burgess, who was set to retire after 46 years in student life — more than half of them spent as a Bon Appétit client and enthusiastic partner. “It was very special to be on campus to take part in the celebration for Char, who has been a dear friend for almost three decades and has overseen food service at Redlands since the late ’70s, back when [Bon Appétit President] Michael Bauccio was supervising the operation for Saga,” said Senior Vice President Cary Wheeland. Outside Orton Center, guests mingled while enjoying appetizers such as spring pea and mint crostini with Meyer lemon salsa; crab on cucumber with avocado harissa; and baked brie in phyllo cups with bacon jam.

Guest of honor and Vice President and Dean of Student Life Char Burgess with Thurber, the University of Redlands’ canine mascot

Inside, maroon taffeta linens covered tables and stunning arrangements of calla lilies, roses, and hydrangeas offered further pops of color. A salad of beet greens with beluga lentils, candy-striped beets, and avocado kicked off the dinner, which featured entrée selections of herb-crusted chicken, pan-roasted lamb chops, and eggplant with king mushrooms. Lemon curd tarts and coconut-mango panna cotta rounded out the festive meal. Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed faculty sketches and comedy acts, including a performance of “Everything’s Coming Up Charlotte” (set to the tune of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”) by members of the University of Redlands School of Music. The evening concluded with a Champagne and cider toast. A huge round of applause erupted when Master of Ceremonies Bill Hatfield ’74 thanked the Bon Appétit catering team and Cary for all of their work in making Charlotte’s send-off so very special. Submitted by Malisia Wilkins, Marketing Supervisor

The team prepares to serve lemon curd tarts with toasted meringue

62 | BRAVO

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS GOES BACK TO THE ROOTS Cooking demonstrations are always more fun when they include the chance to eat what you’re seeing. That’s why Executive Chef Anastacio Rodriquez and Executive Sous Chef Amine Boussaksou planned a dinner to accompany their stem-to-root cooking demonstration at University of Redlands in Redlands, CA. While students enjoyed a delicious plant-based menu, the chefs demonstrated how to make balsamic-glazed turnips and a lentil, avocado, and striped beet salad with olive relish. They emphasized to the students that one can cook with almost every part of a fruit or vegetable, including often-discarded parts like beet tops and apple peels. The students were full of positive feedback about the delicious dishes, which also included garlic flatbread and an apple cake with Chantilly cream. At the end of the dinner, attendees were thrilled to receive copies of Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, an Ozzi reusable to-go container, and a bag full of fresh Farm to Fork produce! — Submitted by Caroline Ferguson, Fellow

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH ROLLS OUT MOBILE FOOD TRAILER WITH THE LAUNCH OF a retrofitted food trailer, Bon Appétiters at Abercrombie & Fitch in New Albany, OH, recently brought a new dining experience to its guests. General Manager Anthony Baker and his team drew inspiration from gourmet food trucks and the vintage Airstream trailers so popular now. “I really wanted to create a bistro-style, chill hangout place where people could also quickly and easily get some food and take a break,” explained Anthony. The trailer will travel to different spots on campus to reach a wider audience. This means second- and third-shift Abercrombie & Fitch employees with limited time can enjoy high-quality sustenance without walking too far. The food trailer will also be tapped for special events and catering. Featuring a morning menu with healthful breakfast bowls and locally sourced coffee, including Crimson Cup’s nitro brew, the trailer will also provide house-made ice pops from local vendors and house-made ice cream sandwiches, as well as bistro-style meals throughout the day. Offerings will vary based on the season, as “our biggest goal with this food trailer is to create a fun environment and to highlight our local vendors,” Anthony said. Submitted by Nicole Nicolas, Marketing Coordinator

Executive Chef Anastacio Rodriquez explains how many parts of vegetables get wasted — but don’t have to be

Abercrombie & Fitch’s stylish vintage food trailer

63 | BRAVO

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Executive Chef Matthew Fogarty preparing the togarashi braised pork

Sous Chef Ngoc Nguyen (right) with a UMass culinary helper

ST. OLAF HONORED ONCE AGAIN FOR BEST CAMPUS FOOD The Princeton Review does more than prepare anxious students for high-stakes admissions tests. It also offers a slew of rankings, including a closely watched list of which campuses have the best food. For the third consecutive year, the Bon Appétit team at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, was invited to celebrate its high ranking (number 5 this time!) at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts. Executive Chef Matthew Fogarty, Pastry Chef Richard Hays, Sous Chef Ngoc Nguyen, and General Manager Traci Quinnell attended the celebration, which included plenty of cooking. Matthew sent a menu of campus favorites ahead of time, the UMass culinary team ordered product, and the St. Olaf Bon Appétiters prepped their dishes the day before the event. The menu pulled out all the stops, featuring loaded baked potato salad with smoked salmon and smoked cheddar; scalloped cowboy-skillet corn with green

chilis and crushed crackers; edamame and black bean salad with bucatini and grilled-tomato vinaigrette; togarashi braised pork with pickled-ginger sticky-rice dumplings and sesame slaw; cauliflower-potato vindaloo with mint yogurt and naan; and Mississippi mocha-almond fudge cake. Lucky UMass students got to enjoy the feast, which is always a pleasure for chefs and diners alike. “Bringing three new faces was a great team-building exercise and a great way to see how other education accounts operate,” said Richard. “The UMass culinary team was very helpful and supportive and they really added to a great event!” While the number 5 ranking is impressive, the St. Olaf team has basked in this particular limelight before. In fact, the team has made it into the top 5 five times in the past 10 years! — Submitted by Traci Quinnell, General Manager

64 | BRAVO

AWARDS

UNITED FRESH LAUDS ADOBE - LEHI EXECUTIVE CHEF FOR PRODUCE PROFESSIONALISM Skillful and creative cookery with fruits and vegetables is a hallmark of all Bon Appétit chefs, but this year one chef in particular earned industry recognition for his mastery of produce. Executive Chef Ted Mathesius of Adobe in Lehi, UT, was among eight honorees at the 2017 United Fresh Produce Excellence in Foodservice Awards in Chicago in June. Ted won in the category heralding excellence in Business in Industry. Now in its 10th year, the program recognizes the innovative and influential use of fresh produce in the culinary arts. In a press release announcing this year’s honorees, United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel wrote: “These eight winners are using fresh

Adobe - Lehi Executive Chef Ted Mathesius

fruits and vegetables on their menus in very innovative ways. We are proud to honor them for the important role that they play in showcasing our industry, as well as introducing their customers to fruit and vegetable trends and new products.” — Submitted by Terry Davies, Catering Manager

THE THACHER SCHOOL LANDS GREEN ACHIEVER AWARD FOR ITS SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS The Thacher School, an independent boarding school in Ojai, CA, was recently awarded the Green Ribbon School Green Achiever Award for its sustainability achievements. The award recognizes schools for reducing their environmental impact and costs, improving the health and wellness of students and staff, and providing effective environmental education. And proudly, the Bon Appétit team played a role in that!

café also serves organic milk and chicken, and of course cage-free eggs, and seafood that follows Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guidelines. He further commended the Bon Appétiters for partnering with Chefs to End Hunger in donating leftover food to Los Angeles food banks and for composting food that cannot be donated or feeding it to the school’s pigs and chickens. All of these combined efforts, including their participation in the Imperfectly Delicious Produce program, minimize food waste and qualified the campus to become Food Recovery Verified by the Food Recovery Network.

Juan Sánchez, the Thacher School’s sustainability coordinator, praised Food Service Director Richard Maxwell and Executive Chef lsmael Martin “for their support and ‘can-do’ attitude, coupled with Bon Appétit’s strong commitment to environmental sustainability.” Juan also noted that during peak harvest season, “We look forward to continue growing our collaboration with Thacher sources 50 to 60 percent of its fruits and vegetables from Bon Appétit — and making the world a better place,” Juan wrote. local farms, part of Bon Appétit’s wider Farm to Fork program. The — Submitted by Richard Maxwell, General Manager

65 | BRAVO

AWARDS

REGIS WINS CHILI AWARD AT LOCAL BENEFIT Besting the competition at any chili cook-off feels great, but when the event benefits a pediatric cancer foundation, participation is its own reward. Sous Chefs Grant Ruesch and Adam Schedeler of Denver’s Regis University won the “wild card award” for their chili at the inaugural Zach’s Chili Challenge, which benefited children’s cancer research at the Morgan Adams Foundation. The challenge — named in honor of 17-year-old Zach Canaday, who continues to pursue his studies even while battling cancer — brought together Denver’s finest chefs at McNichols Civic Center Building. More than 300 guests ate delicious food, enjoyed great drinks, and came together to help raise funds to get kids the treatments they need. The foundation’s events manager, Kirby Lind, wrote to Grant, Adam, and General Manager Letina Matheny-Leix expressing gratitude for the Bon Appétit team’s support. “I am incredibly thankful to you for your participation this year. Without you this event would not be possible. It is our sincere hope that you will continue to join us at future events and help us move forward in our fight against kids’ cancer.” Kirby included a letter of gratitude from Zach’s family, ending his note: “Thank you, once again, for your support of children’s cancer research. You are making a difference!” Grant and Adam competed against (and beat!) local legends including Biker Jim of Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs. The pair’s Gold Label Green Chili featured Hatch, poblano, and Anaheim chilis along with pork shoulder and a rich pork-bone stock. Their use of a wild-card ingredient — pork chicharrones — and the decision to pair their dish with a mint-and-lime agua fresca set their entry apart and earned the duo the wild-card win.

Regis Sous Chefs Grant Ruesch and Adam Schedeler with Grant’s award-winning chili

“It was an honor to represent Bon Appétit in the inaugural Zach’s Chili Challenge,” Grant said. “Helping give kids a better quality of life while they battle their disease is a noble cause, and I’m glad Bon Appétit could lend support through the simple act of cooking. It was a memorable night of great food, drink, and community coming together to help kids fighting cancer. I’m already looking forward to next year’s challenge.” — Submitted by Letina Matheny-Leix, General Manager

OTTERBEIN AWARD DEEMS BON APPÉTITERS CITIZEN PARTNERS The Center for Community Engagement and the Center for Student Involvement at Otterbein University in Westerville, OH, recognized the Bon Appétit team as a Citizen Partner at its recent Celebration of Service and Leadership Awards. The team help to support The Promise House, an on-campus resource center and food pantry operated by the Center for Community Engagement, through in-kind donations. They help out in other ways, too: assisting with produce at a farmers’ market and helping to coordinate a swipes donation program at the end of each semester. — Submitted by Amanda DeWitt, General Manager The Citizen Award recognizes civic leadership, community service, and action-based research

66 | BRAVO

AWARDS

CAFÉ MODERN AT MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH TAKES TWO BEST BRUNCH WINS For the second straight year, OpenTable diners named Café Modern at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, one of the 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America. And that’s not all: Café Modern also snagged the “Best of Fort Worth” honors for its brunch by readers of Fort Worth Magazine! The brunch menu boasts an embarrassment of riches, from a BLT eggs Benedict and loaded Homestead Gristmill grits with applewood-smoked bacon, cheddar, and chives to a sweet and spicy chicken confit bowl with gochujang and quick-pickled cucumbers. The front- and back-of-house teams took great pride in the dual recognitions and look forward to continuing to serve museum guests (and the public) elevated brunches with innovative twists. — Submitted by Adrian Burciaga, General Manager

The Modern Eggs Benedict, with poached Vital Farms cage-free eggs, toasted English muffin, applewood-smoked ham, and lemony hollandaise

SEATTLE U STUDENTS VOTE BON APPÉTIT CASHIER STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR — AGAIN! The students of Seattle University have once again voted overwhelmingly to name much-beloved longtime Cashier Linda Maria Robinson as Staff Member of the Year and honored her at the university’s Commencement Brunch. Linda has been a Seattle University team member since 1965, and even worked for Michael Bauccio, now Bon Appétit’s president, when he was general manager at Seattle University for Saga Corp., before the campus became one of Bon Appétit’s first accounts in the Northwest. Linda continues to work hard and embody a spirit of hospitality and positivity year after year. Mother of four and grandmother of 12, she’s an honorary mom to thousands of current and former students. The only problem with Linda’s popularity? Sometimes her line ends up really long, because everyone wants to say hello to Linda! — Submitted by Jay Payne, General Manager

67 | BRAVO

OPENING CAFÉ 3000 DEBUTS AT TURTLE CREEK OFFICES IN GRAND DALLAS STYLE interior, and floor-to-ceiling office windows with spectacular views of Turtle Creek.

Executive Chef Alan Huang working alongside Executive Chef Denise Shavandy (left), who came from Café Modern to assist with the opening, and Lead Cook Christopher Brockington (right)

DALLAS IS HOME TO a thriving restaurant scene, but employees right at the Turtle Creek Offices complex can now enjoy top-flight food in their workplace. After much anticipation, Bon Appétit opened its doors at the campus, home to Hillwood, a residential and commercial real estate development and investment company. Nestled in the prestigious Turtle Creek area in Dallas, the LEED-certified space features elegant stone walls, a sleek, modern

At the core of the campus is Café 3000, whose breathtaking dining hall serves as a centralized hub for Hillwood-based businesspeople to network, hold casual meetings, and host visitors. At the grand opening ceremony for the entire campus, guests could observe Executive Chef Alan Huang preparing his soon-tobe signature poke bowl with white soy–glazed ahi tuna and seaweed-edamame salad. The Southern-style Lowcountry shrimp and gristmill cheddar grits was another crowd favorite. Café 3000 has received rave reviews since its opening. Participation is high, with guests regularly expressing their love for the fresh, healthy, and affordable options. The Meals to Go program has also been a tremendous hit, allowing guests to share Café 3000’s nutritious and flavorful offerings with their families. Submitted by Rachel Phair, General Manager

Southern-style Lowcountry shrimp and gristmill cheddar grits

Executive Chef Alan Huang’s signature poke bowl with white soy–glazed ahi tuna and seaweed-edamame salad

Braised short rib with whipped potatoes and chive

68 | BRAVO

OTTERBEIN OFFERS FRESH LESSON IN CULINARY HERBS ing an opportunity, Otterbein University’s Executive Director of Alumni Relations Becky Smith and alumna Amy Stross proposed an herbs-focused cooking class featuring experts from the Bon Appétit team at this Westerville, OH, university.

Old-fashioned strawberry shortcake with balsamic reduction

LOTS OF PEOPLE KNOW there’s basil in pesto, but for some, knowledge of fresh herbs and their uses may end there. Sens-

While Amy offered tips on tending an herb garden at home, Catering Manager Stephanie Blaha demonstrated how to make a mock gimlet with mint and cucumber. Chef/Manager Mukesh Kumar demonstrated how to compose a salad with roasted herbed vegetables and house-made herb vinaigrette, and how to make herb-crusted chicken with warm sweet-potato salad, which Chef/Support

Catering Manager Stephanie Blaha demonstrates how to mix a faux gimlet as Chef/Manager Mukesh Kumar and Otterbein alumna Amy Stross look on

Manager Justin Netto helped him prepare for the group. Baker Mary Race presented a sweet finale: an old-fashioned strawberry shortcake with balsamic reduction and mint-and-basil chiffonade. Submitted by Amanda DeWitt, General Manager

SAS EMBRACES OVERNIGHT OATS CRAZE OATMEAL IS HOTTER THAN ever, especially when it’s…cold. Overnight oats — uncooked oats soaked overnight in milk or yogurt — have taken food blogs and social media by storm, and the Bon Appétit team at SAS in Cary, NC, noticed. At the Marketplace Café, they offer a new selfserve overnight oat and yogurt bar as a fun breakfast alternative. For those tired of their standard bowl of hot oatmeal, or just trying to shake up their morning routine, the new offerings provide health, customization, and a hat tip to food trends all in one spot. The menu includes oats soaked in unsweetened almond milk and oats soaked in low-fat milk, plus plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, house-made fruit purées,

fresh berries, and locally made granolas. Guests may sweeten their own yogurt to taste without the concern of added sugars hiding in many preflavored varieties. Switching up the fruit purées weekly keeps the offerings from getting too predictable, although strawberry-chia jam is available daily due to its popularity. Jars of chia seeds, dried tart cherries, coconut flakes, dried apricots, banana chips, and even chocolate chips line the bar for the ultimate in customization. In a few short weeks, the overnight oats have become such a guest favorite that overall breakfast sales have increased as a result. The takeaway? Watch the trends, and never be afraid to introduce a new concept! Submitted by Courtney Botbyl, Café Manager

69 | BRAVO

A beautiful parfait featuring plain Greek yogurt, overnight oats, blackberry jam, mixed berries, and coconut flakes

ON THE ROAD WITH HEALTHY KIDS IN THE BON APPÉTIT KITCHEN When Bon Appétit launched Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen last fall, Manager of Food Education for Children Hannah Schmunk and the Bon Appétit Fellows could never have imagined how much joy, laughter, and smiles it would bring into their lives and to the Bon Appétit teams across the country who have participated in its development and success. They knew the kids were going to have fun, but they didn’t realize how much fun the grown-ups were going to have, too! Just ask Johns Hopkins University Executive Chef Philippe Chin, who won over a group of wildly excited Baltimore Boys & Girls Club kids with his French accent and contagious passion for food. Or Café Manager Uriah Paiva, who somehow convinced 25 kids to “taste test” wasabi microgreens

picked straight from Plantronics’s hydroponic farm in Santa Cruz, CA. Throughout the Healthy Kids program, kids are encouraged to think like chefs and embark on a food adventure. The “taste tests” let them try a fruit or a vegetable they may never have encountered before. With closed eyes, kids take a bite and concentrate on the flavor. The foods that Bon Appétit chefs have inspired kids to try is amazing! Squash blossoms, dragon fruit, kiwis, beet chips, orange cucumbers, tomatillos, lychee, Romanesco cauliflower, and – of course – those wasabi microgreens. When the Bon Appétit team hosting Healthy Kids has a garden or farm on campus, the kids go outside for a garden activity so they can see food growing in plant form – like the time when SAP General Manager Melissa Miller showed kids how

70 | BRAVO

to harvest pizza toppings from the SAP kitchen garden in Palo Alto. It didn’t take long for the kids to feel at home in the garden: Some even climbed into the beds in search of the ripest fruits and vegetables! Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen has given Bon Appétit teams the opportunity to collaborate with organizations doing incredible work for children and youth in the communities we operate in, including Stepstone Academy (see page 38), Cambridge Community Center, Urban Ventures, San Francisco General Hospital, many Boys & Girls Clubs, and neighborhood elementary schools. By learning about the connection between what they eat and their ability to do what they enjoy, children go home with a newfound power to make better choices for

IN ACTION AROUND THE U.S. The Bon Appétit Healthy Kids team — Manager of Food Education for Children Hannah Schmunk; Manager of Strategic Initiatives Nicole Cardwell; and Bon Appétit Fellows Amanda Wareham, Caroline Ferguson, Claire Kelloway, and Maggie Kraft — has visited (so far) more than 20 Bon Appétit locations and nonprofit sites. Here’s a sample of Healthy Kids in action...

their health. As one little girl said to Executive Chef Jennifer Uphold at Milliken & Company in Spartanburg, SC, “This is my first time making food for myself...this is so much fun!”

...AT URBAN VENTURES, MINNEAPOLIS: At Urban Ventures’ Hub learning center, 24 elementary school–aged children tasted jicama and lychee. Bon Appétit at Best Buy Executive Chef Christian Pieper (pictured, left) walked them through how to make a homemade salsa, while Amanda (pictured, above) helped give lessons in knife safety.

They also see how food connects us to each other. Back at Plantronics, Uriah encouraged the kids to get in the kitchen with their moms, dads, aunts and uncles, and grandparents who have important stories to share through their food. The classes may last only a few hours, but the smiles and the knowledge last much longer. Submitted by Hannah Schmunk, Manager of Food Education for Children

...AT LESLEY UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MA: Nicole and Executive Chef Chris Wozny hosted the Cambridge Community Center at Lesley for a fun and successful program. Here, Nicole quizzes students on how much they know about plant parts and how many vegetables in the colors of the rainbow they can name.

71 | BRAVO

HEALTHY KIDS

...AT OREGON EPISCOPAL SCHOOL, PORTLAND, OR: Children from the after-school program taste-tested roasted purple asparagus (mixed reactions) and chamoe melon (a sweet melon that looks similar to lemon cucumber) with Executive Sous Chef Jason Rosvall (left), General Manager Kelly Cowing (right), and Maggie. They made garden tacos, including pico de gallo salsa, and fruit skewers, and enjoyed them along with the lessons in how eating a rainbow helps make you feel strong and energetic.

...AT TWITTER, SAN FRANCISCO: For “Bring Your Kids to Work Day,” Executive Chef Martin Levison and Hannah hosted morning and afternoon workshops with 30 kids in each group. While tasting jicama, Martin helped the group find the right culinary words and phrases to describe the taste. The team heard everything from “juicy,” “crunchy,” and “sweet” to “tastes like peas,” “tastes like lettuce,” and “Mmm, I love it!” During Martin’s knife safety demonstration, one of the little chefs raised her hand and exclaimed, “We’re using knives? But we’re so small!” With some encouragement and hands-on support, they all got the hang of chopping and had smiles from ear to ear.

...AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE: Roughly 25 kids from the Gilmor Homes Metro Baltimore Boys & Girls Club joined Claire, Hannah, and Executive Chef Philippe Chin (pictured) for a jam-packed lesson. Gilmor Homes is a public housing project in Sandtown-Winchester, a neighborhood in West Baltimore considered a food desert. The director of the Metro Baltimore Boys & Girls Clubs, who attended the workshop, shared with the Bon Appétiters that these kids rarely have special opportunities like Healthy Kids and hardly leave the neighborhood they live in. As Philippe went around to talk at everyone’s tables during the picnic, it was clear that the kids had an amazing time. Many of them asked how to become a chef; one boy even asked if he could come back for a private lesson — and Philippe gave him his card. At the end, everyone got a fresh apricot to take home.

72 | BRAVO

HEALTHY KIDS

...AT ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, BRISTOL, RI: A group of children of staff and faculty enjoyed Lead Catering Chef Fran Gaynor’s taste test of Cara Cara oranges and sugar snap peas, and a salsa-making session. With support from Nicole, Executive Chef Jon Cambra led a knife skills session before the kids made their rainbow fruit kabobs and garden tacos.

...AT ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, TERRE HAUTE, IN: One of the most important parts of Healthy Kids is the chance that the children get to help actually prepare their food. Here, Executive Chef Justin Durand has a young assistant mixing the microgreens in their from-scratch salsa. With help from Amanda, Jason led the group in taste-testing and describing starfruit and Asian pears.

...AT YMCA SAN FRANCISCO: For the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day on Treasure Island, Hannah ran a nutrition and wellness booth, where 100-plus kids and their families made smoothies and silly veggie faces. “This is my first time making food for myself...this is fun!” said one little girl.

...AT PLANTRONICS, SANTA CRUZ, CA: Café Manager Uriah Paiva and Sous Chef David Walczak had kids sampling basil, wasabi microgreens, and other greens straight from Plantronics’ on-site hydroponic farm.

73 | BRAVO

HEALTHY KIDS

...AT STARBUCKS HQ, SEATTLE: Caroline and Hannah joined Executive Chef Vuong Loc in hosting a group of Starbucks employees’ elementary school-aged kids in their taqueria. After a lesson on where food comes from, Caroline led the kids on a food adventure, taste-testing purple asparagus and gooseberries, both of which were new to most kids, while Vuong helped the kids find culinary words to describe the taste of each, like “earthy” and “floral.” After the lesson, they prepared garden tacos and designed their own rainbow salad recipe. The program ended with a picnic and two special treats provided by the Bon Appétit Starbucks team — broccoli brownies from Seattle’s local bakery, Power Yummies, and gift bags with their very own apron and set of kid-safe knives! Hannah, Starbucks Executive Chef Vuong Le, and Caroline get ready to lead a Healthy Kids class

...AT BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, IRVINE, CA: Executive Chef Eric Morgan gave two full-to-capacity groups of Blizzard employees’ children taste tests of dragon fruit and sugar snap peas and shared the importance of tasting in the kitchen, explaining that he enforces three rules in his kitchen: “Taste, taste, and taste!” The kids were excited to see the dragon fruit in its whole form — Eric compared it to a cactus — as well as its black-and-white spotted inside. But the fan favorite was definitely the sugar snap peas, with one little boy going as far as to say “it tastes like heaven!”

74 | BRAVO

HEALTHY KIDS

...AT DEPAUW UNIVERSITY, GREENCASTLE, IN: Children of faculty and staff — including the university president’s triplets and General Manager John Hecko’s sons Leo and Wilson — began their Healthy Kids session with a lesson from Hannah and Amanda by the fireplace on where food comes from and a tasting activity with dragon fruit and arugula microgreens. Executive Chef Jordan Hall taught the kids how to “claw and saw” for knife safety, and the toppings for the garden tacos were so beautifully presented that no kid could resist them.

...AT WHEATON COLLEGE, WHEATON, IL: A fifth-grade class took a semiurban hike over to Wheaton for their Healthy Kids class, where Amanda and Executive Chef John Krickl started them off with a tasting activity of jicama and papaya. (Almost all of the kids liked the jicama, but they might have to try papaya again as their taste buds evolve!) At the end of the program, the group quizzed John on what it’s like to be a chef — and several said they too might like to become a chef when they grow up!

...AT THE BROOKLYN O’MALLEY CLUB, BALTIMORE: Hannah and Claire, with a little help from the Bon Appétit team at nearby Goucher College, Towson, MD, brought the Healthy Kids program to the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Baltimore’s Brooklyn O’Malley Club. (The program was originally set to take place at Goucher College but due to a power shutdown on campus, they brought the program straight to the kids.) The kids sampled and reviewed jicama and gooseberries, prepared rainbow fruit kabobs, and made a new Healthy Kids recipe, massaged kale salad.

75 | BRAVO

USF’S FOOD RECOVERY NETWORK CHAPTER FEEDS COMMUNITY FOUR TIMES A WEEK

Student volunteers from the University of San Francisco’s Food Recovery Network chapter preparing to serve their community meal

SAN FRANCISCANS WALKING BY the corner of Divisadero and Turk Streets on a Friday evening often look up from their phones in surprise at the smells of delicious food, then smile at the University of San Francisco students serving a free community meal. Bon Appétit Fellow Maggie Kraft smiled, too, when she met with USF’s energetic Food Recovery Network (FRN) chapter founder, Ayrris Tate, and a few members of the team at the New Liberation Church before the weekly event there. A national organization with which Bon Appétit has long partnered, Food Recovery Network brings college students together to fight food waste and hunger by recovering excess edible food on their campuses and donating it to people in need. The USF students take that commitment to fight food waste one step further by recover-

serving the food at one of their four weekly community dinners in the neighborhoods around University of San Francisco. Ayrris In the New Liberation Church kitchen, five explained that each of the community dinstudent volunteers were reheating salmon ners is unique in its setting and attendees. pasta from Bon Appétit’s Market Café, They have chosen locations based on the chopping oranges, and stir-frying greens location of their community partners and recovered from a local farmers’ market. the connections they’ve made over the They worked neatly and efficiently, dou- past three years. One dinner takes place ble-checking timing and setup with each after a community church service for other. Nearly all the volunteers have been the attendees, while others (like the one involved with the organization for one or Maggie attended) are standalone events. two years. They have different reasons for The goal of each dinner is to engage with participating — from wanting to help pro- the community and foster a positive learnvide hot meals to those in need to reducing ing experience for both the students and carbon emissions caused by food waste. the community members. ing, preparing, and serving food at pop-up community dinners several days a week.

Volunteers work one or more FRN shifts At each event, students share information each week. Responsibilities include recov- and statistics about food waste, including ering food from the farmers’ market, pick- the fact that 40 percent of food produced ing up from Executive Chef Joe DeBono’s in the U.S. each year goes uneaten — with team at the Market Café, or preparing and a value of $165 billion, according to the

76 | BRAVO

TARGET DONATES TIME AND LABOR TO AID MALNOURISHED CHILDREN RECENTLY, 20 BON APPÉTITERS from the Target North Campus in Brooklyn Park, MN, took part in an event to assist Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a Christian nonprofit whose mission is to help feed malnourished children around the world. Volunteers at Target and elsewhere placed rice, soy, dried vegetables, and a nutritionally complete blend of vitamins and minerals into bags. They sealed the bags, boxed them up, and placed them on pallets to be shipped to partner organizations that get the food to children in need.

Salmon pasta recovered from University of San Francisco’s Market Café

Natural Resources Defense Council. The FRN chapter at USF is fighting valiantly to bring that number down: This school year alone, they have recovered more than 8,300 pounds of perishable food! Though she is graduating, Ayrris remains confident that the chapter she founded will remain robust. She pointed out cochair Maggie Shugerman, explaining that Maggie, a sophomore at USF, has become an incredible leader within the FRN group, expanding the program, recruiting new members, and working hard to keep everything running smoothly. Proving her point, Maggie was rushing around to handle some last-minute logistical troubles before the dinner began.

The Bon Appétit team packed enough food in a single day to feed 53 children one meal per day for an entire year! Many associates also made monetary donations and bought shirts and other items offered for sale, knowing the proceeds would benefit the important charity. Submitted by Salvatore Rosa, General Manager

Cook Zach Muntean, Cashiers Sonja Peters and Amanda Kaufman, Retail Manager Kim Craft, Catering Captain Kaye Peterson, Cook Heather Hirsbrunner, and Sous Chef Deziree Klema

Though the students recover the food and organize the dinners themselves, the Bon Appétit chefs and managers offer support by providing donations of excess food and a place to store it safely. Those donations ensure that any excess food generated at USF is feeding people, not landfills — meeting Bon Appétit’s food waste commitments and allowing FRN students to expand their reach, serving dinners at locations where they don’t have the ability to prepare dinner from scratch. Submitted by Maggie Kraft, Fellow

A Feed My Starving Children volunteer shows the impact of the nonprofit’s efforts

77 | BRAVO

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO WORKPLACE SAFETY: WORKPLACE, FOOD, CUSTOMERS, AND HOME THE KITCHEN IS AND will always be a dangerous place, thanks to its mix of sharp knives, hot pans, slippery floors, heavy boxes, and busy people. For over two decades, Bon Appétit has made a concerted effort to put in place systems and programs to protect our employees from getting hurt at work. It’s not just about the bottom line — it’s about our people. We care about our employees, and we believe we have a responsibility to send them home in the same condition they came to work. Our companywide emphasis on safety works, as evidenced by our impressively low rate of accidents, even as our number of employees grows. It’s not just about the workplace, however. An integrated approach to safety must also encompass food safety, our customers’ health, and safety at home.

relies on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles to identify and reduce product risk and the associated threat of foodborne illness and food-related injury. The program includes comprehensive standards, associate and manager education and training, self-inspection and third-party audits, effective facilities design, and vendor certification. Employees need to understand that temperature logs, procedures to avoid cross-contamination, and other responsibilities can have life-ordeath consequences for the guests they see every day.

CUSTOMER SAFETY

IN THE WORKPLACE Our managers know that they are responsible for building a culture of safety 24/7. They need to connect with their teams, tell them how important they are, recognize good safety behavior, and provide coaching when they see areas that need improvement. The most successful safety cultures don’t depend on top-down reinforcement, however; employee involvement is key, whether it’s safety leadership teams run by employees with guidance from management, or recognition programs that reward watching out for each other. Many of our accidents come from new employees, so we must make sure that all new employees take the Dining Associate Workplace Safety Orientation training in the online Learning Management System. Everyone operating new equipment should be trained in its proper use. Mentoring for new skills and responsibilities is also vital. Training must be ongoing, as should be recognition when employees perform their new tasks correctly and safely. When accidents at work do happen, managers should investigate them. It’s about asking what team leaders can do to prevent this from happening again, such as offering new training, and reviewing processes and recognition programs. And managers should be held accountable.

FOOD SAFETY It might seem obvious, but our employees also need to understand that every single one of them plays a part in making sure our food is safe. Our food safety program, from food source to service,

However, it’s not enough to make sure our food itself is safe (free from pathogens and spoilage); we also have to make sure it is safe for our guests (and employees!) with food allergies. Food allergies are on the rise, and it is critical that all employees undergo allergen training. Every location must have a clearly defined process (guided by the Quality Assurance manual) for identifying and tracking allergens from food preparation to service, so that guests and employees with allergies can eat safely in consultation with the on-site manager. Customer safety also includes making sure our food is free of nonfood hazards, and that proper procedures are followed in the café to prevent slips and falls.

SAFETY AT HOME Lastly, Bon Appétit recognizes that the safety of our employees extends to their homes. Many of the same learnings we emphasize in our cafés can be taken home for the safety of our families. Everyone can benefit from stopping to think before starting any potentially hazardous task, using hazard identification for electrical/plumbing around the house, making sure to put on the proper personal protective equipment for doing household chores (such as wearing goggles when mowing the lawn), and training family members to lift heavy objects properly — or better yet, to ask for help. Only a handful of the most dedicated safety champions have taught safety call-outs to our family members, but wouldn’t our homes be safer places if at least the adults called out “Corner!” and “Behind!”? Integrated safety isn’t a checklist — it’s a mindset. Our actions at work and at home can have serious consequences for our own bodies as well as those of our guests and families. Submitted by Steve Samuelson, Director of Integrated Safety

78 | BRAVO

“IT’S HOW WE WORK”: SAFETY IS WELL-INTEGRATED AT ANDREWS UNIVERSITY AT ANDREWS UNIVERSITY, a Seventh-Day Adventist Church educational institution in Berrien Springs, MI, the Bon Appétit and Andrews dining team takes safety very seriously. They believe that safety is the epitome of professionalism. Professionals don’t cut corners or take risks; they evaluate themselves, others around them, and the environment in which they work to avoid workplace injuries and near misses. They do this because they value themselves as individuals and those with whom they work, and they recognize that their greatest asset is the professional people on their team. With support from Safety Champion Lance Clark, Andrews University sous chef, they faithfully utilize 10@10 meetings to instill safety into their culture. Key to that effort are bottom-up messaging and top-down modeling: An associate is chosen to give specific safety training during team meetings, allowing that individual to be the expert on the topic. This drives success in a different/better way than when the message only comes from a manager. The managers then strive to model the expected behavior every day, every time, in every location. The accompanying picture was taken a few weeks ago after the Andrews team executed the largest meal service — a single meal

The Andrews University Dining Services team after the largest meal service they’ve ever executed

for 2,000 guests — in the history of Andrews University Dining Services. They planned pathways, stations, team layout, food storage and transport, and guest flows carefully to ensure everyone’s safety. It was a monumental achievement for the team, done with zero injuries and near misses. The Andrews team is proud to continue their accident-free run that began October 22, 2015! When a student catering coordinator was asked recently why he works safe, he replied, “I don’t know any other way to do it! It’s what we do here; it’s how we work.” Submitted by J. Mark Daniels, General Manager

STRETCHING FOR SAFETY: Since standing or sitting for long periods of time can take a toll on your muscles, General Manager John Hanrahan partnered with the onsite gym, Reach Fitness, at Oracle in Santa Clara, CA, to jump-start each Monday with a morning stretching session during the 10@10 meeting. Taking this moment not only helps the team be mindful and prepared for the day’s physical responsibilities, but has also aided them in more than 600 days accident free since August 11, 2015! — Submitted by Cara Brechler, Enterprise Marketing Director

79 | BRAVO

TASTE CELEBRATES 365 DAYS SAFE

TASTE Sous Chef Kyle Heatherly was chosen as the “Safety Super Hero”

TASTE’s Safety Board

TO INSTILL A CULTURE of safety, it’s important to celebrate milestones. That’s why the TASTE Café team at the Seattle Art Museum threw a staff appreciation party in honor of a year without a single recordable injury. General Manager Kristin White and Sales and Operations Coordinator Jasmin Kwan invited the team to Pike Brewing Company to celebrate the one-year marker — but first gave them a little homework. They asked each staff member to bring an item to the party that reminded them of why they work safe. It could be anything from a photo of a pet, to a picture drawn by a little one, to the Save the Date from a wedding. Those reminders are now displayed on TASTE’s Safety Board. By popular vote, Sous Chef Kyle Heatherly, who happens to be TASTE’s Safety Champion and manager of the Quality Assurance Program, was chosen as the “Safety Super Hero” at the party. Kyle won an Amazon gift card and acknowledgment in TASTE’s Be-AStar safety submission. Kyle exemplifies good safety practices every day, leading the safety discussion at the morning meetings and often employing visuals to show proper safety procedures (such as trash cans that are too full), demonstrating proper lifting techniques, and more. Another three staff members won IMAX tickets via a random drawing. The Bon Appétiters credit the peer-to-peer ownership of the safety environment — call-outs, lifting assistance, clean areas,

TASTE Catering Supervisors Semira Ghebremedhin and Jordan Martinez and Catering Cook Misa O’Donnell enjoying TASTE’s safety party at Pike Brewing Company

properly placed wet-floor signage — as well as management acknowledgment of safe practices as being key to their successful run. Staff members are acknowledged for working safe in person by management and with a recognition slip in the safety recognition box, which gives them a shot at a monthly $50 drawing. They are also awarded pins to wear on their aprons to thank them for their safe practices. Submitted by Kristin White, General Manager

80 | BRAVO

REFLECTIONS

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO RESPECT

Prepping a whole hog’s head

Stuffed whole hog head to be turned into porchetta di testa

A cross-section of the porchetta di testa

Sliced porchetta di testa

hat’s the best thing about working for Bon Appétit? I’ve been asked that question a million times, and although my answer occasionally varies, I always come back to this: Working for Bon Appétit gives me an opportunity to start new projects and focus my energy on things that truly matter to me. Respect for others — for our farmers, our soil, our cooks, and the animals we eat — is a huge part of it.

certified by Food Alliance. Their “whole hog program” aligns neatly with Bon Appétit’s values. At Willamette, we receive two whole pigs every week, butcher them, and distribute them throughout the kitchen. We even prepare porchetta di testa— boned, marinated, and braised pig’s head — out of the respect that we owe these magnificent animals for feeding us in the most delicious of ways. We won’t let any part of them go to waste.

If we’re doing our jobs correctly as chefs, we can inspire the people who work for us. We’re teachers and leaders. This means teaching our cooks not to write a menu first and then place an order, but rather to look at what’s available from our suppliers and create a delicious menu that uses the best, freshest ingredients to their fullest potential. This is especially important when it comes to the animals we consume.

As the chefs among you know, it’s important to push the creative envelope while still staying true to the principles of sustainability. This can pose a challenge, and it certainly can be exhausting. But I’m telling you right now, if you keep doing what you’re doing, change for the best is inevitable.

At Willamette University, we’ve been working with Pure Country Pork, a sustainable hog operation that’s third-party animal welfare

So what is the best thing about working for Bon Appétit? Every day we are given the chance to make this world a better place, one choice at a time. Submitted by André Uribe, Executive Chef, Willamette University

81 | BRAVO

DENISON HAS A BUSY SPRING DENISON VOLUNTEERS LEND FARM TO FORK VENDOR A HAND Not long ago, Bon Appétit Fellow Claire Kelloway and Denison University Sustainability Supervisor Lia Crosby hosted a field trip for students from the Granville, OH, university. They headed to Bird’s Haven Farms — a valued Farm to Fork partner — for a tour and a few hours of volunteer farm work. Located just 5 miles from campus, Bird’s Haven Farms is one of Denison’s nearest Farm to Fork partners. The farm supplies the university with a variety of produce throughout the academic year, including bell peppers, potatoes, eggplants, and squash. It was a surprisingly beautiful day, with temperatures nearing 70 degrees...but not for long! The forecast called for frost within the next 24 hours. Farmer Lee Bird asked the volunteers to pull protective covering over the farm’s strawberry crops to help protect the plants’ blossoms from the coming freeze. They weeded several plantings of rhubarb, and even got to eat some rhubarb stalks in the field as a reward for their hard work. Submitted by Lia Crosby, Sustainability Supervisor

Fellow Claire Kelloway gets her hands dirty pulling weeds away from the rhubarb plants

Bon Appétit Sustainability Supervisor Lia Crosby, Claire, and student John Luke Eliopoulos in one of Bird’s Haven Farms’ greenhouses

82 | BRAVO

DENISON CELEBRATES ALL PARTS OF THE PLANT

The team at Denison University in Granville, OH, got deep into the spirit of the “Incredibly Edible Plant Parts” National Nutrition Month theme. During lunch at Curtis Café, students were able to sample a wide variety of edible mushroom and beet parts — well beyond the caps and bulbs. — Submitted by Lia Crosby, Sustainability Supervisor

One of the dishes featured roasted beets with beet-top pesto, which is high in vitamin C and dietary fiber

The “Incredibly Edible Plant Parts” also included marinated portobello stem jalfrezi (an Indian sauce) and pressed oyster mushroom carpaccio

Bon Appétit Resident Dietitian Dayna Einheit and Sustainability Supervisor Lia Crosby host a National Nutrition Month table dedicated to edible plant parts

CUTTING-EDGE COMMUNITY OUTREACH: Denison University supports YES Club, an after-school and summer program with a chapter in nearby Newark, OH. When General Manager Paul Mixa reached out for ways to deepen the team’s community engagement, he connected with YES Club Director Ethan Pound. Not long after, Paul, Executive Chef Jonathan O’Carroll, and Chef/Manager Tenisha McKay (pictured) went to YES Club to lead a cooking demo and activity for 20 youngsters aged 10 to 15. The kids learned how to prepare healthy dishes using fresh ingredients, how to sauté, and how to appreciate spices and local grains. They also learned proper knife skills. Both sides really enjoyed the activities — so much so that the team is already planning future events. — Submitted by Kaity Vorbroker, Human Resources Administrative Assistant

83 | BRAVO

EMORY UNIVERSITY WELCOMES NEXT GENERATION OF SUSTAINABILITY SUPERSTARS THE BON APPÉTIT TEAM at Emory Uni- to find items in the café, such as reus- yesterday.... I especially want to mention versity in Atlanta recently welcomed 40 able dishware, soup kettles (where stem- that our school had [a] visit from the first graders to campus to learn about to-root and snout-to-tail practices take Georgia Department of Education for our the three R’s — reduce, reuse, and recy- center stage), and the compost bins at the STEAM certification. [STEAM refers to the cle — and how the team and guests put dish line — all of which help the team re- integration of science, technology, engithat message into practice every day. The duce and divert waste. At the second sta- neering, and mathematics infused with students from the city’s Henderson Mill El- tion, Manager of Community Partnerships meaningful arts integration.] I am proud to ementary School had been learning about Alyse Festenstein helped the first graders announce that today our school became fighting waste at school and just finished sort a collection of items into the correct the first school in [Georgia] to be certified upcycling materials (like plastic cutlery) bins for landfill, compost, and recycling. in STEAM! During their interview, my kids from their own cafeteria into creative And at the last station, Residential Dieti- talked about what they learned from their tian Jessica Perry encouraged the students visit to Emory and how it helps them try crafts and puppets. to taste crudités with carrot-top pesto, a to solve problems with their project. They When the young students arrived on stem-to-root recipe. even talked about composting!” campus, the group split into three separate stations: a waste scavenger hunt, a The kids had a blast during the jam-packed The Bon Appétit team enjoyed meettrash-sorting activity, and a stem-to-root visit. The team received a thank-you note ing the next generation of sustainability taste test. Director of Operations Kimberly from classroom teacher Celithia Tahti- superstars, and hope to see some of them Triplett, Dobbs Market General Manager nen, who said the field trip qualified the at Emory (way) down the line...as part of Manuel Ramirez, and Community Partner- school to receive a special certification! the incoming class of 2028! ships Coordinator Samantha Lenard led She wrote, “I wanted to take time out to Submitted by Alyse Festenstein, Manager of Community the waste scavenger hunt. The kids had thank each of you for a great field trip Partnerships

From top left: Director of Operations Kimberly Triplett, Dobbs Market General Manager Manuel Ramirez, Community Partnerships Coordinator Samantha Lenard, Manager of Community Partnerships Alyse Festenstein, and Residential Dietitian Jessica Perry with first graders from Atlanta’s Henderson Mill Elementary School

84 | BRAVO

EMORY STUDENTS DONATE DINING DOLLARS TO HUNGER RELIEF

At the start of the spring semester, Emory undergraduates Caroline Abbot and Crissy Hendrickson approached the Bon Appétit team with a solution to a common college conundrum: flex dining dollars (known at Emory as “Dooley Dollars”) left over at the end of the school year. Although some students enjoy spending their last Dooleys on cases of energy bars at the Eagle Convenience Store or underwriting their roommates’ daily latte habits, this group had a hunch that some of their classmates would rather donate theirs to a local cause. Emory’s first Dooley Dollar Food Donation Drive was born. Students who wished to donate their Dooley Dollars could visit the Eagle Convenience Store during the last two weeks of classes to purchase food items prioritized by the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Bread Coffeehouse, Emory’s on-campus food shelf. The Bon Appétit convenience store team created a special display of items for donation, including peanut butter, whole-grain cereals, and canned fruits, vegetables, and tuna. Students selected items from the display, paid using their Dooley Dollars, and dropped the items off in the donation bins located inside the store.

Tasting cups of crudités and carrot-top pesto that illustrate stem-to-root principles

Caroline and Crissy were instrumental in spreading the word via social media, an article in the student newspaper, and flyers and banners around campus. As finals approached, many students even came by to drop off unopened items they had in their dorm rooms. According to the final donation tally, students spent $2,497 Dooley Dollars and purchased more than 600 items — including 119 jars of peanut butter, 162 boxes of cereal, and 103 cans of fruits and vegetables — for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Bread Coffeehouse. “This project has been a great experience,” Caroline told her Bon Appétit collaborators. “It’s been fantastic to work with you and the rest of Emory Dining. We truly appreciate your flexibility and eagerness.” The Bon Appétit team looks forward to partnering on the program again next year and making an even bigger impact on hunger in Atlanta. — Submitted by Alyse Festenstein, Manager of Community Partnerships Items collected during the Dooley Dollar Food Donation Drive get loaded onto the Atlanta Community Food Bank truck

Director of Operations Kimberly Triplett receives a hug from a grateful group of first graders

85 | BRAVO

OPENING CHG HEALTHCARE OPENS TO EARLY RAVES IT’S ALWAYS A SPECIAL honor when Bon with the on-site fitness center and wellness Appétit is chosen as the food service partner team on health initiatives. with a healthcare group, as it means our wellness offerings will be most appreciated. Bon The opening team, including Executive Chef Appétit is proud to welcome CHG Healthcare Brandon Mowbray, General Manager Candace Services of Midvale, UT, to its client roster. Durham, and District Manager Ken Dale, overFounded in 1979, CHG Healthcare is a leader saw the construction of several new stations, in healthcare staffing and the nation’s largest including breakfast, kettles, fresh, grill, ovens, provider of “locum tenens services,” meaning classics, deli, and salad bar, in addition to it places temporary physicians, allied health micro kitchens, market, and coffee bar. On the Back row: Grill Cook Zach Taylor, Cashier Stan Oike, Cook Ryan Nelson, Regional Vice President Michael Venckus, CHG Director of Facilities Jeff Bowles, District Manager Ken Dale, Regional Marketing Director Kari Menslage, Chef/Manager Tate Barfuss, Resident District Manager Alban Newton, Chef/Manager Joe Davis, and IT Field Support Manager Mario Perera. Front row: Baristas Regan Hatch and Nicole Numkena, Pantry Cooks Rose Duran and Johaira Valenzuela, Cashier Kate Patton, Executive Chef Brandon Mowbray, General Manager Candace Durham, Cashier Savana Eaves, Director of Catering/Marketing Chloe McCombs, Marketing Manager Jeanette Vogl, and Catering Attendant Marley Kimball

professionals, and nurses in healthcare facilities across America. And it has been named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” each of the past eight years.

marketing side, three digital signage screens feature daily specials and custom events, with a big focus on wellness. Tablets at each station rotate daily specials.

Serving 470 covers per day, the main café The classic station and fresh station were (offering breakfast and lunch), bar (coffee, instant hits. Guests have been flocking to enjoy smoothies, and juice), and 24-hour self-serve the “tatchos” in particular, with its tater tots, convenience market are housed in a brand- shredded pork or chicken, beans, and housenew state-of-the-art facility that took three made queso. Feedback has been enthusiastic. years complete. The grand opening followed Remarking on the variety, the healthy offerings, a rolling move-in over three weeks, as em- and a daily vegetarian option, one guest said, ployees were relocated to the new facility “I have never eaten better in my life!” in waves. The energizing space features a rainbow of colors, mixed-use seating for im- Online feedback has been similarly glowing, promptu meetings, lots of power outlets with enthusiastic praise for the pickled beet for devices, Wi-Fi throughout, and a game salad, flank steak on asparagus with onion rings room with ping pong tables and video games. and hollandaise, and pork pozole. “Thanks for Bon Appétiters look forward to collaborating all you do to feed us,” a guest wrote. Submitted by Kari Menslage, Regional Marketing Director

86 | BRAVO

MIM CHEFS GET RESOURCEFUL DURING HOTTEST MONTHS OF THE YEAR BETWEEN THE MONTHS OF May and October, temperatures in Arizona soar to well over 100 degrees, and foot traffic to local businesses tends to slow. Such is the case at Café Allegro in the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, where wisely managing inventory, controlling waste, and exceeding guests’ expectations — all while creatively using what’s in dry and cold storage during the hottest months of the year — are all top priorities. That’s why Executive Chef Chris Lenza challenged his culinary team to create a dish that would wow guests while using products already in-house. Line Cook Martin

Valdez accepted the mission. He inventoried the kitchen — the walk-in, dry storage, and freezer — and produced a trio of eye-catching bruschettas: one with diced tomatoes, red onions, fresh basil, and mozzarella; a second with house-made artichoke hummus with balsamic-roasted fennel and tomato; and a third with peach jam, puréed feta, and Italian meats. A balsamic reduction drizzle and a salad with tomato vinaigrette completed the dish. Word spread quickly about the creative lunch special, proving how talented chefs can use their skills to transform whatever is on hand into something elevated and inventive. Submitted by Sara Sanchez, Café Supervisor

Café Allegro Line Cook Martin Valdez, Operations Manager Nick Bair, Café Supervisor Sara Sanchez, and Executive Chef Chris Lenza

GETTING DIRTY AT ST. TIMOTHY’S CAMPUS FARM AT ST. TIMOTHY’S SCHOOL, an all-girls private high school in Stevenson, MD, just west of Goucher College, the Bon Appétit team is lucky enough to be able to buy from the productive campus farm, called Redlands Farm. Run by two full-time farmers, Sammy Lichtenberg and Adam Clopton, the farm also benefits from many student workers. (All St. Timothy’s students need to participate in a sport of some kind, and working on the farm can count towards students’ sport requirement!) A few months ago, Fellow Claire Kelloway teamed up with Sammy to host an event to bring in students who had not already signed up to work on the farm. Once the sports season is over, St. Timothy’s students usually spend the last few weeks of school doing mixed after-school programming, led by Health and Wellness Director Megan Armbruster. Sammy and Claire turned one of Megan’s Health and Wellness classes into a farm volunteer day!

Students working at St. Timothy’s Redlands Farm

A group of first-years arrived at Redlands for an afternoon of farm work on the hottest day of the year. Starting in the shade with a lesson on soil health, the farmers talked to students about what qualities they look for in healthy soil, like high levels of organic matter and microscopic life, as well as the issues of topsoil loss and pollution that can occur with unhealthy soil. Then the students helped to build the soils

at Redlands by forming a bucket brigade to cover two rows with compost that would later get planted with onions. The afternoon ended with a discussion about how the water used on Redlands makes its way to the Chesapeake, and how the farmers try to keep their soil on the farm while not using chemicals that may pollute the Bay — and then the tired students took a break from the heat to play with the chickens. Submitted by Claire Kelloway, Fellow

87 | BRAVO

EVENTS IN BRIEF

Students at Johns Hopkins enjoy High Table in grand style

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY’S ANNUAL HIGH TABLE WIDENS RECOGNITION Even traditions evolve over time. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore recently celebrated High Table, a yearly tradition in which first-year students enjoy a special three-course meal with robed faculty members and administrators in a nod to old Oxford and Cambridge dining styles. The Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center was transformed with black drapery, long tables, gold chairs, and photos of past university presidents. This year, as part of the Women of Hopkins project, portraits of women who have changed the world in science, medicine, gover-

nment, and business were also hung on the walls, for the first time. The new addition showed that Hopkins traditions are “capable of evolution,” JHU President Ronald J. Daniels said. The evening’s menu included Caesar salad with brioche croutons and herb-marinated tomatoes, chicken scallopini with threecheese macaroni and vegetables, polenta cake with eggplant marinara, and tiramisu. Locally sourced beverages capped off the evening. — Submitted by Rebecca Lin, Hopkins Dining Student Intern

88 | BRAVO

EVENTS

Regional Dietitian Daniele Rossner introduced the students to a game: They had to guess how many grams of sugar were in each cup and plate of food

LAFAYETTE OFFERS PERSONAL TOUCH IN ACCOMMODATING SPECIAL DIETS Hospitality industry pros are used to accommodating those with special dietary needs, but there are ways to make such accommodations more personal. Over a lunch of salmon with tzatziki, green beans, and sweet potatoes, members of the Bon Appétit team at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, did just that when they held a meeting for students with type 1 diabetes. Regional Dietitian Daniele Rossner took the opportunity to talk with students about how best to meet their health and dietary needs during their four college years, while Campus Executive Chef John Soder encouraged students with food concerns to call or email him directly, assuring them he’d be happy to accommodate special requests with just a bit of notice. — Submitted by Alexa Rossi, Marketing Coordinator

Samples of sweet-potato–spinach hash at Yahoo

YAHOO FUELS GUESTS WITH WELLNESS KNOW-HOW The Bon Appétit team at Yahoo offered an expansive “Fuel Up” Food for Your Well-Being activity table, complete with food samples, workout tips, and guest handouts. The samples of housemade spicy sweet-potato–spinach hash, a high-performance snack, were a big hit. Guests also enjoyed browsing the information the team provided for National Nutrition Month about the value (and flavor!) to be gained by utilizing all parts of vegetables (such as fennel) in cooking. — Submitted by Samantha Reyes, Café Manager

SHOVELING UP SWEET NEWS AT WASHU: To celebrate the East End Transformation, the largest capital investment ever on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis, the Bon Appétit catering team provided food and beverages for a special groundbreaking ceremony for 1,000 guests, among them donors and university trustees. The projected two-year project includes the Schnuck Pavilion, which will house a new café. Among the special offerings were these shovel cookies hand-made by Pastry Chef Starr Murphy, dusted with edible gold and inscribed with donors’ names! — Submitted by Kristi Baker, Marketing Manager

89 | BRAVO

EVENTS Back row: Cashiers Jennifer Romero, Sonia Landaverde Dominguez, Lisa Jiménez, and Paola Riera; Cashier Superviser Oliva Ortiz; and Cashier Yeni Acevedo. Front row: Cashiers Ivenniz “Liz” Altamirano, Bernice Urza, and Angelica Gonzalez

Filipino barbecued chicken with papaya slaw and house-made banana ketchup

OREGON EPISCOPAL SCHOOL DELIGHTS WITH FILIPINO FEAST

BEST BUY MAKES CINCO DE MAYO A TEAM CELEBRATION In recent years, the Bon Appétit team at Best Buy in Richfield, MN, has made its Cinco de Mayo celebration a more personal one by involving the Mexican members of the staff. For 2017, the decorations were purchased by Cashier Sonia Lanaverde Dominguez from a local mercado, while Sous Chefs Mike Carlsen and Haley Mortenson coordinated a family meal that included Mexican breads, cookies, and pastries. Everyone even planned matching outfits, and several people brought extra shirts so that if someone forgot theirs they could still be included. In the café, the Cinco de Mayo menu was planned with input from the staff as well as Best Buy’s Latin Employee Resource Group. The dishes featured included vegetarian chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, and tacos al pastor. The contribution to morale was priceless. — Submitted by Susan Davis, General Manager

Faculty, staff, and high school students all enjoyed the Filipino-style chicken drumsticks, achara (papaya slaw), house-made banana ketchup, and cucumber-jalapeño agua fresca in a surprise popup at the Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, OR. Cooks Ben Rankin and Gail Young had a great time cooking and serving the traditional inasal (barbecued chicken) to 320 high school students and faculty members. Rampant finger licking ensued! — Submitted by Jason Rosvall, Executive Sous Chef

GEORGE FOX FÊTES SUMMER’S APPROACH WITH WARM WEATHER FAVORITES The Bon Appétit team at George Fox University in Newberg, OR, took a running jump-start into summer this year, menuing specials with tropical flair that delighted guests during stressful finals season. The tantalizing smell of kalua pork filled the air, and students flocked to get their fill of lomi-lomi salmon and fresh fruit salads, sweet with pineapple or spicy with chilis. From open to closing time, festive music filled the air, sounds matched only by the chatter of excited patrons. As the semester reached its most stressful point, professors and students alike welcomed a moment to relax and enjoy island flavors. — Submitted by Zach Kramberg, Board Supervisor

Tropical fruits accompany a beautifully burnished pig

90 | BRAVO

Cooks Ben Rankin and Gail Young ready for the pop-up

EVENTS

A display of grilled vegetable “gardens” with kalamata olive “dirt”

Campus Executive Chef Vincent Gaikens dressing grilled Brussels sprouts skewers with whole grain mustard

A dramatic s’mores tart for the campfire theme

Walking taco station with Chef/Manager Robbie Washington, Executive Catering Chef Constantine Vourliotis, Catering Chef Dick Thompson, and Sous Chef Justin Messina

CASE WESTERN AND CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN COLLABORATE ON CAMPFIRE FUNDRAISER Cleveland Bon Appétiters are always up for supporting a good cause. The teams at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Botanical Garden came together for a campfire-themed fundraising event benefiting Flying Horse Farms, a camp in Mt. Gilead, OH, that provides transformative experiences for seriously ill children ages 8 through 17, along with their families.

temptations, from a grilled vegetable “garden” display, local pierogi, a grilled cheese bar, and a “walking taco station,” to cedar-planked smoked salmon medallions and grilled bison strip steak. S’mores tarts and caramel banana tarts followed. And as the evening transformed into late night, Cleveland’s own Kernels by Chrissie popcorn and miniature corn dogs provided further cause for delight.

The event, held in the ballroom of Tinkham Veale University Center on Case Western’s campus, included a creative menu that took The fundraiser also featured speeches by some of the camp’s past “campfire” food to new heights. participants and parents of past participants, along with a special musical performance by the rock band O.A.R. In all, Flying Horse Passed offerings included mini fish tacos, grilled Brussels sprouts Farms raised a whopping $209,000 — $9,000 more than their goal! skewers, and a margarita sphere (a frozen minicocktail served on — Submitted by Amanda Mass, Marketing Manager a spoon). Multiple stations offered an assortment of additional

91 | BRAVO

EVENTS A full tub on Monday serves as a food waste wake-up call

After a small uptick, Biola enjoyed a 30 percent reduction in food waste in just two days

BIOLA’S WEIGH THE WASTE EVENT INSPIRES NEW HABITS Often the best way to influence changes in behavior is simply to shine a light on the status quo. In late March, Bon Appétiters at Biola University in La Mirada, CA, conducted a Weigh the Waste campaign to bring awareness of food waste to the more than 17,000 guests they serve weekly. Some students found themselves initially uncomfortable, but as the 5-gallon buckets began to fill in full view, their discomfort quickly turned to shock when the buckets were placed on a scale.

Monday’s lunch waste weighed more than 90 pounds, but by week’s end, the total waste per meal had dropped by nearly 30 percent! General Manager Steve Rall and Café Manager Vincent Hawkins were pleased with the noticeable reduction in total edible waste collected as the week progressed. The simple act of coming face to face with visual evidence of food waste helped inspire students to adjust their habits in a positive way. — Submitted by Vincent Hawkins, Café Manager

BATTER UP! The Bon Appétit team at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, CA, celebrated baseball season’s Opening Day with a ballpark-inspired menu, balloons and decorations, giveaways of classic snacks and sunglasses, and festive attire. Pictured here, left to right, Café Manager Samantha Reyes, Café Supervisor Sonia Diaz, Sous Chef Erick Valdez, Café Supervisor Marisa Ramirez, and Executive Chef Michael Tobias represent their favorite Bay Area baseball teams. — Submitted by Samantha Reyes, Café Manager

92 | BRAVO

EVENTS

The Garlic Day welcome table included green garlic, black garlic, QR code cards, and a miniposter illustrating the garlic plant from bulb to scape

FRED HUTCHINSON GETS GARLICKY Garlic-lovers, rejoice! #NationalGarlicDay gave the Fred Hutchinson team in Seattle the perfect opportunity to celebrate the “stinking rose” and demonstrate for guests the versatility of this much-loved (or to some, much-loathed) plant. Welcome tables highlighted all edible aspects of the plant from the bulb to the scape. Fermented garlic, elephant garlic, and garlic chives featured in the day’s entrées, which included garlic-chive shrimp scampi, and asparagus and ramp quiche with basil and black garlic pesto. QR codes on cards let guests easily print or download recipes. In a special nod to the Fred Hutchinson’s scientist base, the team even included a miniposter titled “The Chemistry of Garlic,” which explained the scientific basis of the affliction known as garlic breath. What a potent and delicious day! — Submitted by Nicolina Miller, Supervisor

Grilled California halibut in a rice paper wrapper with cucumber and shiso asparagus, and prawns with edamame purée and crisp lotus root

UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS CELEBRATES HAWAII WITH SAKE-FORWARD FEAST Faculty, students, and friends at the University of Redlands came together to celebrate 80 years of Hawaiian culture at the Redlands, CA, campus. Amidst the happy thrum of Senryu Taiko percussionists, guests enjoyed a cocktail hour with passed appetizers of poke salad cups, teriyaki chicken skewers, and miso-orange pan-roasted tempeh, and prepared for a multicourse feast replete with carefully curated sake pairings. Tables adorned with white orchids and palm fronds filled the Orton Center, where guests took their seats as rain sprinkled outside. A Hawaiian oli (prayer chant) blessing over the food opened the meal, which focused on Hawaiian and Japanese fusion cuisine. Master of Ceremonies Larry Burgess (husband of then-Vice President and Dean of Student Life Char Burgess, see page 62), educated guests about the history of the relationship between Hawaii and the University of Redlands.

BEAN COUNTERS: The Bon Appétit team at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, recently hosted a popular chili cook-off. Three teams competed, and students voted by placing a colored bean in a container that corresponded to their favorite chili. Cook Chris Paro took top honors for his “Down South Bourbon Bacon Chili,” which was served in Stav Hall the following week to great fanfare. — Submitted by Jill Metz, Catering Director

For their first course, diners enjoyed Daiginjo sake paired with Hawaiian greens and Nalo Farms’ dressing. The two courses that followed paired a fruity, floral Ginjo sake with grilled California halibut in a rice paper wrapper with cucumber and shiso asparagus, and white prawns with edamame purée and crisp lotus root. Courses three and four featured Junmai sake, paired first with seared lamb chops, shiitakes, and wilted mustard greens, and then with kalua suckling pig, Okinawan sweet-potato purée, and papaya coulis. A chocolate-haupia (coconut pudding) torte capped off the meal. In addition to free-flowing sake throughout the event, the Och Tamale Serenaders of Aloha delighted the audience with a medley of songs. — Submitted by Susan Martinez, Operations Manager

93 | BRAVO

EVENTS Presidio Foods Culinary Director Robbie Lewis scooping agua fresca

USF SPECIAL FARMERS’ MARKET SO SUCCESSFUL IT NEARLY SELLS OUT Being innovative is frequently about being nimble enough to take egg-free cupcakes, made without gluten-containing ingredients); a great idea and find a way to implement it. So when University Zuckerman’s Farm (vegetables); Field to Fork Farm (berries); and of San Francisco student Jessica Greblunas proposed bringing to- Bon Appétit’s own Arguello Restaurant (tacos and quesadillas). gether local vendors for a one-time farmers’ market as her senior project, the university connected her with the Bon Appétit team Bon Appétiters actively participated in ensuring the event’s success. — and they quickly made it happen. Controller Abby Ruegg sold strawberries; members of the accounting department rang up each sale; Catering Director Dannie Stanton Executive Chef Joe DeBono personally invited every vendor — and Sous Chef Jerome Costiniano helped Arguello serve the tacos; most of them current Bon Appétit Farm to Fork vendors, with Marketing Manager Kaitlyn Futch designed signage; and Supervisor a few special invitees as well — to sell at the market and offer Trent Williams from USF’s Lone Mountain Residence Hall acted as samples. Vendors included Green Girl Bake Shop (vegan ice cream the tech point-person. The market was a huge success, with lots of sandwiches, made without gluten-containing ingredients); La Bou- visitors, and by the end, 99 percent of everything on offer had sold langerie’s Shaw Road Bakery (pastries and jams); Equator Coffee out! — Submitted by Kaitlyn Futch, Marketing Manager (cold brew and coffee beans); Wholesome Bakery (dairy- and

KNOX STUDENTS RECOVERING FOOD FOR LOCAL FAMILIES All over America, student volunteers from Food Recovery Net- As the FRN group arrived at Safe Harbor, they were warmly greetwork campus-based chapters are working with Bon Appétit teams ed by the staff, who were getting ready for the weekend’s Easter to set aside, safely store, pack up, and deliver excess edible food Egg hunt. The FRN students knew just where to find their reusable to needy members of their local communities. At Knox College containers and were quickly on their way back to campus. The in Galesburg, IL, Fellow Amanda Wareham recently joined FRN students recovered more than 1,000 pounds of food during the chapter’s student leader, Karen Caballero, for deliveries to two of spring semester in partnership with the Bon Appétit team at the three nonprofits the Knox team is working with, Moon Tow- Knox! — Submitted by Amanda Wareham, Fellow ers (part of the Knox County Housing Authority) and Safe Harbor Family Crisis Center (which helps to house women and children who are victims of domestic abuse).

94 | BRAVO

Two first-years shared the winning vegan cookie, made without gluten-containing ingredients and featuring bananas and oats

Giant Sundae Night at Carleton College

WHOSE COOKIE REIGNS SUPREME? Each spring, teams of Carleton students come together in competitive cookie mode, whipping up treats and putting them out for fellow students to judge. Seven teams angled for top honors this year: “The Smart Cookies” made a classic chocolate chip; “Vegan Cookie” featured banana-oatmeal chocolate chip cookies; “Flarah’s 2.0” shared a sugar cookie scented with almond extract; “Big Miks and the Bad Boys” served a “soul-soothing” chocolate-chocolate chip cookie; “#Jylan” baked up a competing classic chocolate-chip cookie; and “Sweet Somethings” entered a snickerdoodle. The students ate — and spoke — and the winning Vegan Cookie team’s banana-oatmeal chocolate cookie was featured the following week in Carleton’s two dining halls and Sayles Hill Café. Mouths are already watering in anticipation of the 2018 cookie contest! SCOOP UP A GIANT SUNDAE What student doesn’t love ice cream? (Answer: None.) Students at Carleton College enjoyed a little spring term fun when the Bon Appétit team served up a giant sundae in the East Dining Hall. The sundae, which was presented in a long trough — oops, dish — included scoops of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice creams topped with caramel, chocolate sauce, pineapple, and whipped cream. Of course, sprinkles and sweet cherries capped the dessert in classic style (though the serving vessel was anything but ordinary). Everyone enjoyed their communal ice cream party, and the Bon Appétiters were happy to give stressed students a reason to smile! MAY THE 4TH BE WITH US ALL! To properly mark the Star Wars–themed holiday in May, Bon Appétiters at Carleton created an immersive dining experience by offering themed menus and encouraging guests to dress in costume. Students, faculty, and staff all enjoyed special treats such as memorial cakes for Yoda and Chewbacca, Mos Eisley– inspired entrées, and cantina-inspired sides. After taking their fill of the food and festive atmosphere, everyone felt at one with the Force. — Submitted by Kelly Rapp, Board Manager, and Jerrilyn Goldberg, Student Sustainability Manager

Sous Chef Gibson Price and a sophomore student channel Obi Wan Kenobi, the late Jedi

95 | BRAVO

EVENTS

CARLETON FORCES TRIPLE PLAY With three playful promotions, the Bon Appétit team at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, delighted students this spring.

ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO TEAM HOSTS THREE HIGH-PROFILE EARLY SUMMER EVENTS Amidst a busy catering season of summer weddings and numerous other private events, the Bon Appétit team at the Art Institute of Chicago took some time to also provide support for three very high-profile public-facing ones. — Submitted by Nicole Nicolas, Marketing Coordinator

FRONTERA’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY: CELEBRATING LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY AND FARMERS’ RIGHTS

The Good Food Forum participants, from left: Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me; Eduardo Rivera, farmer and recipient of a 2016 Frontera Farmer Foundation grant; Nora Pouillon, chef-owner of Nora, Washington, D.C.’s first Certified Organic restaurant; Jim Slama, founder and president of FamilyFarmed; Paul Kahan, a multiple Beard Award–winning Chicago chef; and Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appétit CEO

THE ART INSTITUTE HOSTED the 30th anniversary celebration for chef Rick Bayless’s groundbreaking Chicago restaurant Frontera Grill, just one day ahead of the James Beard Foundation awards gala in Chicago (at which Rick’s restaurant Topolobampo won the 2017 Outstanding Restaurant Award). The Frontera Grill event was both a birthday celebration and fundraiser, raising more than $100,000 for FamilyFarmed, a Chicago nonprofit organization that trains farmers and mentors local food entrepreneurs, and for Rick Bayless’s Frontera Farmer Foundation.

The event started in Rubloff Auditorium, where approximately 800 attendees gathered for a Good Food Forum panel discussion on the future of food that included Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio. Also founded in 1987, Bon Appétit has partnered with Rick since 2013, at a Tortas Frontera location at the University of Pennsylvania. Fedele talked about how both companies strive to create a sustainable food industry and focus on taking care of farmers. Next, in Griffin Court, part of the Art Institute’s Modern Wing, attendees enjoyed

96 | BRAVO

tastes and drinks from 16 renowned guest chefs and mixologists, from Chicago and around the country, with support from the in-house catering team led by Chef de Cuisine Charles Haracz. In return for AIC’s kitchen hospitality, the guest chefs shared their expertise. “It’s a great experience to taste all the different flavors,” said Jason Drakes, a lead banquet cook at the Art Institute. “We get all kinds of ideas for our recipes and ways in which to plate food.”

TERZO PIANO SURPRISES SECRET SUPPER GUESTS WITH DELECTABLE DINNER ON TERRACE

Terzo Piano chef-partner Tony Mantuano cooking his flaming ouzo shrimp for Secret Supper guests

A FEW WEEKS LATER, Chicago magazine selected Terzo Piano for its Secret Supper series, which brings together Chicago’s renowned chefs and foodies to discover a new restaurant amidst the eclectic culinary scene. The location of the dinner is a mystery until the morning of the event, when ticket purchasers receive an email from Chicago. The Terzo Piano team prepared a simple but elegant four-course meal inspired by one of Secret Supper’s sponsors, Cadillac, and paired with wine and Nolet’s Gin cocktails. A portion of the evening’s proceeds benefited the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Secret Supper veal with spring vegetables and salsa verde

Dinner kicked off with a VIP coctail hour on the Bluhm Family Terrace and passed hors d’oeuvres as guests delighted in Terzo Piano’s chef-partner Tony Mantuano’s cooking demonstration, which included

his flaming ouzo shrimp, then moved inside for dinner. The event was well coordinated and ran smoothly. People loved the food and enjoyed talking to Tony and Wine Director Cathy Mantuano, said Terzo Piano Manager Erika Armenta.

Secret Supper bergamot chocolate tart with gin sorbet

MENU CHARRED OCTOPUS

with smoked eggplant, blistered tomatoes, and sumac oil FRESH EAST COAST OYSTERS

with gin-and-tonic foam and cucumber

RICOTTA , LEMON, AND PEA AGNOLOTTI

with poppy seeds

97 | BRAVO

COFFEE-AND - COCOARUBBED VEAL

in a Marsala reduction with spring vegetables and salsa verde BERGAMOT VALRHONA CHOCOLATE TART

with gin sorbet

ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO CONT. STAR CHICAGO CHEFS COME TOGETHER AT CHEFS’ PLAYGROUND TO RAISE FUNDS FOR ACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

The Chefs’ Playground guest chefs, bartenders, and Terzo Piano staff

THEN ON JUNE 9, Tony, Fedele, and the Bon Appétit team pulled off the fifth installment of one of their favorite events, the annual Chefs’ Playground fundraiser for the Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC), a charter school located on Chicago’s underserved southwest side that promotes positive nutrition, environmental stewardship, international mindedness, and whole student wellness. “Our vision of a sustainable future is perfectly embodied within AGC and their dedication to educating our children on best practices for protecting the planet,” said Fedele. “We are proud to continue our support of AGC and its growth towards a new campus.” Formerly held in Terzo Piano, this year the event went bigger and moved to Griffin Court, the main hall of the Art Institute’s Modern Wing. Thirty of Chicago’s best chefs and bartenders created

modern takes on favorite childhood dishes and drinks. The evening began with an intimate VIP reception on the Bluhm Family Terrace, where Terzo Piano Chef di Cucina Carolina Diaz oversaw passed appetizers such as cherry lamb sloppy joes, smoked whitefish cones, bacon mac-and-cheese bites, and swordfish crudo. VIP guest chef Jimmy Papadopoulos of The Bellemore brought a grownup version of fish sticks, composed of salt cod, lemon, peas, and ramps, while acclaimed bartenders Gui Jaroschy and Scotty LoBianco (The Broken Shaker at Freehand Chicago) drew on memories of a sneaking nips of Dad’s bourbon while nibbling an oatmeal cookie to create an Oatmeal-Raisin Old Fashioned. During the main event, the 500-plus guests enjoyed a broad range of tastes, including Rick Bayless’s “mystery meat Friday” tacos; pizza pocket–inspired stuffed tigelle bread

98 | BRAVO

from Sarah Grueneberg (Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio); and Carolina’s Fig and Tartufino Caramelle (pasta inspired by wrapped candies stolen from her grandma’s purse). Paul Kahan and Perry Hendrix (avec) transformed their favorite childhood snack of PB&J on saltines into chicken liver and rhubarb jam on aniseed matzoh. A virtual-reality display allowed guests to immerse themselves in the future AGC campus, designed by architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang. AGC students were also on hand to talk about their classes, morning yoga, and campus chickens. The evening continued with Windy City Live TV host Ji Suk Yi and the Food Network’s Jeff Mauro leading a fundraising paddle pledge, and ended with dancing to the flowing tunes spun by DJ Matt Roan. The night raised more than $230,000 for general operating funds, with an additional $18,700 raised for the school’s capital campaign.

Chefs’ Playground photos: Ben Macri

BOKA and Swift & Sons Chef Meg Galus created a take on Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bars with feuilletine–chocolate crunch discs, hazelnut–milk chocolate ganache, and dark chocolate

Chef C.J. Jacobson’s crispy socca

Chef Rick Ortiz’s cauliflower dish, inspired by his grandmother’s cauliflower cakes

Frontera Grill Chef Rick Bayless and Terzo Piano Chef di Cucina Carolina Diaz with their posters for Chefs’ Playground, featuring portraits drawn by AGC students

99 | BRAVO

FURMAN UNIVERSITY TEAM ENTRUSTED WITH TWO HIGH-PROFILE EVENTS the popular BMW Charity Pro-Am golf tournament. The event paired amateurs and celebrities including Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, former Major League Baseball players Larry “Chipper” Jones and Paul O’Neill, and actor Carmine Giovinazzo with Web.com Tour professionals in a four-day better-ball competition. The Bon Appétit team provided private on-course concessions for players and caddies, public on-course concessions for spectators, private dining for players and celebrities, a clubhouse grill for spectators, and sky-box catering — feeding more than 2,300 people over six days. The beer brats and kraut (with vegan brats available); German-style potato, cucumber, and lentil salads; and spaetzle salad with spring vegetables were all big hits.

Welcoming guests to the BMW Charity Pro-Am golf tournament at Furman

WHEN BON APPÉTIT JOINS forces with a new client as food service provider, there are always many sacred campus traditions that must be upheld without too much change. So it’s extra exciting when the Bon Appétit team is asked to help create new annual events. At Furman University in Greenville, SC, the Furman Libraries and the Office of the Provost hosted the university’s first Faculty Scholarship Reception and entrusted Executive Chef Chris Harris, Operations Manager Koren Nappi, Catering Director Becca Caccamise, and Catering Manager Margaret Dickert to oversee it. The event, which recognized and celebrated the scholarly publications and creative works of 87 Furman faculty members, was attended by 200 guests including members of Furman’s Board of Trustees. They enjoyed passed appetizers of shrimp and grits fritters, grilled flatbread with hand-pulled smoked brisket and cheddar cheese, a port-and-fig phyllo cup with goat cheese mousse and micro greens, mini Serrano ham sandwiches with Manchego cheese and romesco sauce, and a buffet of sweets.

“The BMW Pro-Am would not have been a success without the incredibly talented team we had,” wrote Furman’s Director of Auxiliary Services Becky Vuksta to the culinary team shortly after the tournament ended. “You know it is a great thing when on Monday, a PGA official walks into the pro shop and asks who is responsible for hiring all the great people at Furman. The compliments were numerous — from players wanting Furman to host its own tour event to amateurs talking about the course and how wonderfully they were treated and how delicious the food was. All of this is because of you and your staff of great people.” Becky closed by saying she looked forward to “an amazing year two.” The Bon Appétit team can’t wait to reprise these two special events at Furman! Submitted by Michael Brownlee, Resident District Manager

“The response from faculty and trustees was overwhelmingly positive,” wrote Director of Libraries Janis M. Bandelin, Ph.D. “We hope it will become a revered and anticipated tradition.” Another exciting new event took place the following month, when the Furman Golf Club was chosen as one of three hosts for

1 00 | BRAVO

OPENING TESLA DEBUTS SLEEK NEW CAFÉ BRIGHT, MODERNIST, AND MINIMALIST is options in mix-and-match fashion according exactly how one might expect the Page Ave to their taste and whims. Café in the newly constructed wing of Tesla, California’s electric-car-making superstar, to The Bon Appétit team, helmed by Café Manlook. Serving lunch to 300 Tesla customer ager Noel Sepulveda, has noticed that the service and manufactory employees daily in made-to-order sushi and sandwiches have Fremont, CA, the café is decked out with digi- been very popular. Having never had their own tal signage including two large televisions that café on campus before, Tesla employees have been very happy with the food options. One flank the café’s Tesla-red entrance. guest sent in an online comment that said, “I Guests eagerly roamed the café on opening was pleasantly surprised to find halal food on day, remarking on the freshness and variety of the menu. I had the citrus-roasted chicken, lunch offerings. In a departure from the norm and it was perfect. Thank you for considering of plated dishes at traditional stations, all of- the dietary preferences of everyone!” ferings are instead priced per ounce. Guests Submitted by Janine Beydoun, Regional Marketing Manager customize entrées, sides, deli, and salad bar

Celebrating a successful opening at Tesla, left to right: Regional Operations Support Team Andrea Junca; Project Assistant Maria Deloso; District Manager Arbee Del Rosario; Hiro | Mura Sushi Lead Romeo Pena; Regional Operations Support Team Nicolai Tuban; Hiro | Mura Sushi Owner Derik Hirozawa; Café Manager Noel Sepulveda; Franklin Templeton - San Mateo Executive Chef Gerard Darian; Cashier Carissa Barragan; Franklin Templeton - San Mateo General Manager Jeremiah Han; Supervisor Maria Gonzalez; Cashiers Emily Hart, Jaime Salazar, and Marlen Frutos; and Driver Carlos Recino

101 | BRAVO

STARBUCKS CHEF BEATS BOBBY FLAY WITH FAMILY RECIPE ginger, red Thai chilis, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, and rock sugar in his mother’s mortar and pestle, which he had brought with him to the show. Bobby admitted that Vietnamese cooking is out of his comfort zone, so he took a risk with an untraditional twist by topping his pho with crispy fried chicken. The judges loved the flavor of Bobby’s fried chicken, but they were equally impressed Vuong on the set of Beat Bobby Flay after with Vuong’s presentation, celebrating his win and thought his noodles were perfectly cooked. What ultimately proved to be the deciding factor was the balance and depth of flavor of the broth.

Executive Chef Vuong Loc and Iron Chef Bobby Flay anxiously await the results after the judges’ tasting

BEAT BOBBY FLAY? No problem — at least if you’re Vuong Loc, executive chef of SODO Kitchen at Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, who also manages to find time to run the restaurants Pomerol and ChinaPie. Filmed in front of a live audience, the The judges unanimously voted in favor of Vuong’s pho, ending show features two rounds of fast-paced cooking challenges. In Bobby’s three-episode winning streak. “Chicken pho is definitely the first round, two chefs cook head-to-head with only 20 min- the hardest battle I’ve ever done,” said Bobby. utes to create a dish featuring an ingredient of Iron Chef Bobby Flay’s choosing. The first-round winner then has a chance to “beat As he was announced the winner, Vuong said he felt a sense of Bobby Flay” with only 45 minutes to cook his signature dish. pride for his family, and he was proud to have won by cooking a dish so close to his heart. “Pho has been a huge part of my life,” he Vuong faced off against New York–based chef Ian Alvarez. As says. “I grew up in Michigan, only eating pho at home. Now I live soon as the theme ingredient, red snapper, was revealed, the in a city that has more pho places than burger restaurants!” He chefs sprang into action. “The timing is tough and the competi- certainly made his family, Bon Appétit, and Seattle proud. tion is real,” says Vuong. “We walked through the kitchen only 15 Submitted by Waverley Aufmuth, Public Restaurant PR & Marketing Manager minutes beforehand, so there was no time to plan.” Vuong made a red snapper crudo with watercress and crispy fish-fin salad. His technique of deep-frying the fish fins added texture to the salad and impressed the judges, and his creative use of the whole fish combined with the balanced flavors of acid and salt ultimately gave him the upper hand in round one. For the second round, Vuong selected chicken pho to cook against Bobby. “Pho is something I grew up eating; I’ve made it thousands of times,” Vuong explained on the show as he began to prep his broth, charring ginger and onions before adding them to a pot of simmering chicken stock along with star anise and pork belly for extra depth. “The broth of the pho is the soul of the dish.” For the hot and sweet elements, Vuong hand-ground a chili sauce of

102 | BRAVO

VENTI VOLUNTEERISM FROM STARBUCKS’S SODO KITCHEN With no shortage of required tasks in a typical workday, carving out time to volunteer in the community takes some effort. But the payoff — for the nonprofit and the volunteers themselves — is always worth it. Bon Appétiters at SODO Kitchen at Starbucks in Seattle recently completed a day of volunteering for Food Lifeline, whose mission is to rescue surplus food from area farmers, producers, stores, and restaurants and distribute it to food banks, shelters, and meal programs throughout western Washington. The team spent several hours sorting and repacking pallets of donated goods to be sent to hundreds of local shelters. By the end of the day, they had packed more than 8 tons of food, providing nearly 14,000 meals to those in need. The experience, though relatively brief, was still eye opening for the participants. Volunteers remarked on how significant a difference they could make in a short time by doing something as seemingly basic as sorting food and personal care items, pet supplies, and infant care products.

General Manager Rick Stromire meticulously packing boxes

The SODO Kitchen team was among the roughly 10,000 volunteers who give their time to Food Lifeline each year. Among them are volunteers from other area Bon Appétit accounts as well, as Bon Appétit and Food Lifeline have a longstanding partnership. In fact, Bon Appétiters have donated over 325,000 pounds of food, which led to an Ending Hunger Award for Outstanding Food Donor in 2014! — Submitted by Anthony Morris, Assistant Manager of Catering Left to right: Cashier Li Ho; Assistant Catering Manager Anthony Morris; Cooks Heather Anderson, Sanjiv Adhikari, and DJ Roberts; Operations Manager Adam Worth; General Manager Rick Stromire; Catering Director Laura Wilkens; Sushi Chef Hiroshi “Tommy” Toyama; Cook Amber Renek; and Cashier Tonya Kimbrough

103 | BRAVO

CELEBRATING

FARMWORKER AWARENESS WEEK STARTING IN 2012, BON APPÉTIT HAS OBSERVED NATIONAL FARMWORKER AWARENESS WEEK COMPANYWIDE

CULMINATING IN THE BIRTHDAY of farmworker activist Cesar Chavez, it’s about celebrating farmworkers’ contributions to our food system while educating our guests about the people behind their meals. This year, we revisited our partnership with Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) to create a refreshed version of our “Faces of Farmworkers” in-café display and social media campaign. “Faces of Farmworkers” showcases portraits and quotes the SAF students gathered when spending time in the fields interviewing U.S. farmworkers. Several Bon Appétit teams joined with our Fellows or other partners to screen award-winning documentaries about farmworkers, each of which really brings the farmworker experience to life. — Submitted by Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications

“I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAVE BECOME OF ME IF I HAD HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO KEEP STUDYING AND FINISH MY DEGREE IN MARINE BIOLOGY.”

TASTE SHOWS FOOD CHAINS Bon Appétit was an early supporter of Food Chains, which focuses on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). When TASTE Executive Chef Josie Urbick first learned about how Bon Appétit had been the first food service company to back the CIW’s fight for fair treatment for Florida tomato pickers by signing their Code of Conduct for tomato growers, she was moved to find out more. She watched Food Chains and decided she wanted to share it with more Bon Appétiters around Seattle as part of Farmworker Awareness Week. General Manager Kristin White secured permission from the Seattle Art Museum to use one of the museum’s auditoriums. About 25 people came, including Bon Appétit Fellow Caroline Ferguson. Josie introduced the film as “an opportunity to learn more about where our food comes from and to use this information to make better decisions in our food purchasing,” she reports. “I also touched on the right that every human being has to be treated fairly and just.” Showing they’re the hosts with the most, Josie and Kristin provided refreshments afterward in the café, including a wild mushroom bruschetta; roast beef sliders with red onion jam and green peppercorn aioli; and green-pea blinis with leek cream and crispy prosciutto. Attendees lingered and chatted. Several said that they were really touched by the film, and were going to go home and do some research as to how they could get more involved.

ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY RAISES AWARENESS UP A NOTCH At St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, students are already quite aware of farmworkers issues. St. Edward’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) has provided college assistance to more than 2,800 students since 1972. Fellow Amanda Wareham joined a 10@10 meeting to share the history of Bon Appétit’s relationship with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and work with the Equitable Food Initiative, and why we celebrate Farmworker Awareness Week. Sous Chef Ruben Teran shared that he had some direct experience with these issues as a child through helping his mother, a lawyer who focused on labor protections and worked with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. Then the Bon Appétit team partnered with CAMP to screen The Harvest [La Cosecha], a powerful and personal picture of the differential treatment of child workers in agriculture, as compared to other sectors of the economy. Isabel Martinez, ’19, a student in the CAMP program and an alum of Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF), led a discussion afterward around children’s treatment in the fields. Isabel herself spent time working in the fields during the summer as a child, and she believes that experience gives her a much different perspective on life and education than that of the average college student. “It was a very meaningful discussion that really hit home for all the students,” Amanda said.

1 06 | BRAVO

FELLOWS TAKE STUDENTS EAST OF SALINAS

Jose Ansaldo from East of Salinas

The documentary East of Salinas is set in the heart of California’s Salinas Valley, aka “America’s salad bowl,” and follows third-grader Jose Ansaldo and his teacher, Oscar Ramos — both sons of migrant farm workers. Jose is undocumented, and his parents work long hours in the fields. Like many other migrant children, he is beginning to understand the situation — and the opportunities that may be lost to him through no fault of his own.

ing third-party certifications like the Equitable Food Initiative and supporting organizations like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. “I felt lucky to have been a part of these students’ discussion,” said Amanda. Fellow Claire Kelloway showed East of Salinas at Denison University in Granville, OH, and shared Bon Appétit’s commitments to farmworkers rights. And Fellow Maggie Kraft partnered with Assistant Director Wilita Sanguma of University of San Francisco’s Campus Ministry to screen the film. One of the students attending shared that both of her parents were farmworkers, and she had worked in the fields every summer herself since age 12. After the film, she said that Jose’s experience was similar to her own when growing up. The group discussed how to share the story of farmworkers, and how to discuss sensitive topics such as the experience of farmworkers and the experience of immigrants in a population that tends to be more privileged.

Amanda Wareham, Bon Appétit Fellow, showed the film at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, to a group of 20 students. They were especially struck by a scene in which Jose is left alone in his family’s apartment while his mother and brother travel to Mexico to see his grandmother. Jose cannot join them because he would not be able to return. “I’m beginning to understand what it means not to have my papers,” he says sadly. The Knox students acknowledged their lack of exposure to farmworkers’ rights in the U.S., and resolved to begin asking more questions about these issues. At Amanda’s screening at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, students were floored by the film, and a few were left a bit teary. Togeth- “I was glad that we created a space where students were comforter they talked through some of the impacts of immigration law able telling their story and asking questions,” said Maggie. That’s on farmworker families, and on consumers’ roles in fighting for how awareness is raised. better conditions for farmworkers, including attention to emerg-

107 | BRAVO

WHITTIER COLLEGE HOSTS HUNGER BANQUET THE PHRASE “HUNGER BANQUET” doesn’t seem quite right — but that’s exactly the point of this event held on college campuses around the U.S. The second annual Hunger Banquet at Whittier College in Whittier, CA, was hosted this year by the student-led Food Recovery Network chapter and Bon Appétit Fellow Caroline Ferguson. It fell in the midst of Bon Appétit’s yearly Farmworker Awareness Week, and was a powerful simulation of the widespread income inequality and food insecurity faced in the U.S. At the beginning of the event, FRN volunteers handed each attendee a wristband. The students didn’t know it, but the color of each wristband corresponded to each one’s socioeconomic class for the next couple of hours. Some students were in the lower class, some were in the middle class, and a lucky few were sorted into the upper class. These class assignments determined the students’ dining experience: lower-class students ate bread and water while sitting on the ground; middle-class students enjoyed a simple meal of rice, chicken, bread, and lemonade on paper plates; and lucky upper-class students had access to an entire spread of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and cookies — more than enough food for the entire group.

Whittier College Hunger Banquet haves…

While the students ate, Caroline and two student emcees gave a presentation about inequality, food waste, and food insecurity among farmworkers in the United States. The students were shocked to hear that more than half of farmworkers are food insecure, and that 40 percent of the food in the U.S. goes to waste every year. Emboldened by what they’d learned about injustice and inequality, the students started to mingle, with everyone eventually gaining access to the abundance of food on the upper-class table. As attendees munched on cookies and chatted with one another, the impact of the evening was clear: To feed everyone, we don’t need to grow more food — we just need to make more space at the table. Submitted by Caroline Ferguson, Fellow

…and have-nots

1 08 | BRAVO

SENDING OUR STUDENTS OFF IN STYLE All Bon Appétit teams form strong bonds with the people they serve daily, but those working at colleges, universities, and high schools around the country have the bittersweet experience of saying goodbye to a quarter of their regulars every spring. And that’s why they try to make sure their last memories of their campus food are extra-special ones like these...

George Fox’s five graduating student Team Leaders Marybeth Piper, Hannah Pettey, Alicia Nilo, Emylina Burunov, and Mikaela Easterlin

GEORGE FOX BIDS FAREWELL TO FAITHFUL STUDENT WORKERS The Bon Appétit team at George Fox University in Newberg, OR, has developed a special relationship with student employees over the years. Since the student employment program started at GFU more than 10 years ago, it has grown into the No. 1 student employment program on campus. Why? The students have really embraced the mission and vision of what Bon Appétit stands for. They help serve delicious, nutritious, sustainably sourced food at lunch and dinner, work in the dishroom, rise early to help out in the bakery, and learn kitchen techniques alongside Bon Appétit’s talented full-time chefs and cooks. Students have also acquired management skills by applying to be a team leader on dinner shifts. With a growing campus, the student employees have become an ever more vital part of the team. And the Bon Appétiters

Student Kitchen Prep Assistants Kelly Simonsen and Nissi Undurthi

wanted to thank them for their help. Student Kelly Simonsen worked in the kitchen all four years, so as a graduation gift the staff pitched in and bought her a nice knife. Tayla Yogi, who also worked all four years, was invited to sit at a special chef’s table event. And the five graduating team leaders pictured above were all given a special gift to thank them for their combined 16 years of service to Bon Appétit. They will be greatly missed. — Submitted by Brett Harvey, Board Manager

1 09 | BRAVO

Bakery Support Kelly Liu

GROVE CITY SERVES VIP VP AT COMM“PENCE”MENT Imagine the honor of preparing lunch for the vice president of the United States! Members of the Bon Appétit team at Grove City College in Grove City, PA, had that pleasure when they served Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, as part of commencement. Grove City President Paul McNulty and his wife, Brenda, joined the Pences for a private lunch of chicken salad with grape halves and pecans, slider rolls, fruit salad, and lemon crinkle cookies. Secret Service (human and canine) searching Although that lunch was the headliner, graduation events had A festive and patriotic fruit salad for the extra-special commencement lunch the catering van before Vice President started earlier that week, with the team preparing a special dinner Pence’s lunch could be delivered for 460 graduating seniors. The menu featured chicken tortellini primavera with basil cream sauce, and chef-carved flank steak. For The team worked hard and took great pride in the part they dessert, the seniors moved to the president’s house for chocolate played in such a historic day. President and Mrs. McNulty offered “lasagna” (layered chocolate mousse with chocolate cookie crumbs, praise and gratitude: chocolate chips, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream), mini milk-chocolate bowls filled with assorted white and dark choc- Grove City College is just a small place in rural western Pennolate mousse and fresh fruit, and Key lime and lemon blueberry sylvania. We have limited resources and we are stretched thin mini parfaits. The team set up a back patio coffee bar featuring as we manage a very active campus and persevere through the shaved chocolate and chocolate-covered pretzels, sandwich seasons of the year. We’re not Notre Dame or the U.S. Naval cookies, strawberries, and marshmallows. Academy [the other two Pence commencements] when it comes to budget and infrastructure. And yet, when we needed to step A series of events and meals for the trustees followed later in up and host the vice president of the United States for a morning in May of 2017, you did it flawlessly (to God be the glory).... the week. Brenda and I are proud to be your colleagues and will always be When Saturday arrived, the campus was a flurry of activity in filled with gratitude for the work you have done. preparation for Vice President Pence’s arrival. The law enforcement personnel even included mounted state police! The team Warmest regards, delivered several breakfasts, including a continental setup for the Paul vice president upon his arrival. — Submitted by Lynna McNany, Operations Manager

CARLETON THROWS STUDENT MANAGERS A FAREWELL FÊTE The Bon Appétit team at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, loves their student managers, who work so very hard for them throughout the year. This year, the team invited them to a special dinner served by the permanent managers. The students loved the micro greens salad with burrata, fresh fig, and caramelized

peach vinaigrette; grilled beef tenderloin with hollandaise, duchess potatoes, and grilled asparagus; and dessert of limoncello cake. It was a wonderful way to say thank-you and goodbye to a great bunch. — Submitted by Kimberly Driesch, Director of Operations

The Carleton student manager crew

Carleton Director of Operations Kimberly Driesch with Senior Student Managers Calvin Phan, Sean Kelly, and Jack Bredar, and Sous Chef Gibson Price

110 | BRAVO

A FEAST FOR 6,000 AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY For Santa Clara University’s 166th commencement ceremony — and Bon Appétit’s 18th at the California school — the Bon Appétit team served more than 6,300 graduates of the Class of 2017 plus their families and friends. (The occasion was made a bit bittersweet by the catering crew’s having to say farewell to 10 student workers among the graduating class.)

Eighty-plus staff members pulled together to serve the crowds a buffet menu of charbroiled chipotle-marinated skirt steak and tequila-and-lime-marinated chicken, grilled portobello mushrooms, country potato salad, fruit salad, honey baked beans, corn cobbettes, and more. And that was just one of 42 graduation events total held throughout the week! — Submitted by Kaitlyn Futch, Marketing Manager

FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS CATERS THREE EXTRA-LARGE RECEPTIONS

FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS GRADUATION MENU LOCALLY SOURCED VEGETABLE CRUDITÉS AND GRILLED MEZZE VEGETABLES PLATTER

with roasted eggplant dip, artichoke hummus, and sun-dried tomato pesto INTERNATIONAL AND LOCALLY PRODUCED CHEESE BOARD

with seasonal berries and local artisan breads

Fuqua School of Business On-Call Catering Attendant JaQuan Miller puts the final touches on the buffet

The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, NC, turned to the Bon Appétit team to cater the graduation receptions for 550 graduates of its Master of Management Studies, 1,050 graduates of its Executive MBA, and 3,000 graduates of its Daytime MBA programs — over just 24 hours! As if that weren’t enough, the crowds were even larger than expected. “Being able to pull together enough extra food on the fly and manage for us not to run out, as well as keeping the buffets stocked and moving quickly with the crowds we had was an amazing feat,” wrote Director of Student Life Ruth Tolman to the catering team. “Thank you for your adaptability and truly excellent execution. No one would guess at all that we hadn’t planned for that many people!... It truly takes a village to put on our graduation and there’s no way we could do it without you!” — Submitted by Jesse

QUINOA AND CAPRESE SALAD

with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes GREEK FLATBREAD

with roasted red pepper hummus, red onions, Kalamata olives, fresh basil, and feta cheese SHREDDED TURKEY TAMALE

with chili verde mole

PORK AND VEGETABLE POT STICKERS

with garlic hoisin sauce

PERUVIAN ROASTED CORN AND SWEET-POTATO CAKE

with roasted yellow pepper sauce

BATTERED CHICKEN FRITTERS

with molasses-soy barbecue sauce, spicy chili mustard, and ketchup GLAZED, CHOCOLATE , AND SALTED CAR AMEL DONUT HOLES FRESH HOUSE-BAKED COOKIES RED VELVET TRIFLE SHOOTER

with spring berry compote

S E A F O O D E X T R AVAG A N Z A LARGE POACHED SHRIMP COCKTAIL

with grilled lemons, horseradish cocktail sauce, and roasted garlic aioli HOUSE-SMOKED SALMON FILLET

with sieved eggs, capers, diced red onion, cream cheese, and sliced baguettes, crackers, and Melba toast SEAWEED SALAD

Smith, Director of Catering

111 | BRAVO

TEACHING WHEATON STUDENTS TO EAT WELL ONCE SCHOOL’S OUT PEEKING BEHIND THE KITCHEN DOOR

A group of about 15 Wheaton students, faculty, and staff toured the kitchen with Executive Chef John Krickl and Sous Chef Omar Rocha (pictured), who shared insights on the inner workings of a professional kitchen. As John led the group from the bakery, all the way through the kitchen, sharing insights into the complexities of prepping over a thousand meals daily, Fellow Amanda Wareham jumped in to talk about the Farm to Fork program, Low Carbon Lifestyle, and a few of Bon Appétit’s animal welfare commitments. Students peppered them both with questions, including: “What is the most popular meal you prepare at Wheaton? How many pounds of chicken do you go through in one day?” — Submitted by Amanda Wareham, Fellow Executive Chef John Krickl gets ready to show Wheaton students how to make a stir-fry

BON APPÉTIT TEAMS LOVE working with college students who are engaged and interested in where their food comes from. But there’s a big transition for many of these students that some of Bon Appétit chefs try to address — and that’s moving from the support of the café, where cooked-from-scratch, fresh, flavorful food is available all day, seven days a week, to cooking on their own, whether they’re moving off campus or away after graduation. Before the end of the semester, Executive Chef John Krickl led a group of 25 Wheaton College students in an incredible cooking class focused on strategies for purchasing groceries affordably and avoiding food waste, created in partnership with the Center for Vocation and Career (CVC) at the Wheaton, IL, college. Most students were seniors, and getting ready to leave the support of the Bon Appétit team at Wheaton behind. As in any good cooking class, a video camera at the front of the room gave the group a good view of John’s technique. John prepared a beautiful salad, a chicken teriyaki and vegetable stir-fry with rice, and Jamaican banana salad for dessert. It was quite an achievable dinner for students to make in their own homes, especially once the expert chef and educator broke it down for them. John showed the value of buying and maintaining a quality knife, and gave some cost- and time-saving tips, like stocking up on kitchen staples — peanut butter, curry paste, and spices — so that students don’t end up with three containers of red pepper, or conversely, have to run to the grocery store for each recipe. The students had a few insights of their own to share, from the best

ways to use coupons at the local supermarket to which farmers’ markets to frequent in the warmer months. With their arsenal of food know-how expanded, this group of students was ready for a summer away from school. Submitted by Amanda Wareham, Fellow

112 | BRAVO

BEST BUY HOSTS TINY FOOTPRINT COFFEE FOR LUNCH & LEARN SESSION MAKING A GUY FIERI FAN VERY HAPPY

Eric Guggemos worked in the café at Best Buy in Richfield, MN, ever since Bon Appétit arrived in 2004, until the end of 2016, when he was no longer physically able to work due to multiple health problems. In between medical appointments and treatments, his main solace is watching his favorite show, Triple D — hosted by his idol, celebrity chef Guy Fieri — with his two daughters at his sister’s house, even though his family complains that “we’ve seen the episodes all a million times.”

Guests toasting with watermelon kombucha

IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE drinking coffee is good not just for your productivity (and sanity), but for the Earth as well. General Manager Michelle Kirkwold of Medtronic first alerted the Best Buy team in Richfield, MN, to Tiny Footprint Coffee, a Minnesotabased company started by two brothers. (One runs the roastery and the other works at the coffee farm and its related foundation in Ecuador.) The Tiny Footprint website calls it “the world’s first carbon-negative coffee company” because in partnership with the conservation nonprofit Mindo Cloudforest Foundation, Tiny Footprint Coffee donates a portion of its proceeds to “fund reforestation in Ecuador’s cloud forest.” The trees planted are expected to remove nine times the carbon dioxide it takes to produce and distribute their coffee. The Bon Appétit team now serves Tiny Footprint’s nitro coldbrew Ethiopian coffee as well as kombucha on tap. Best Buy’s Manager of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Suzanne Hilker recently invited Tiny Footprint representatives to lead a Lunch & Learn program during Earth Month. Both the Best Buy and Bon Appétit teams are thrilled to have a new coffee partner whose mission aligns so neatly with both companies’ sustainability focuses.

It occurred to District Manager Paul Adams that someone at Bon Appétit had to have a connection to Guy and could help get a piece of signed memorabilia to Eric. Sure enough, Director of Specialty Culinary Programs Jim Dodge knew someone who knew Guy and volunteered to make this happen. Less than a week later, a package was in Eric’s hands signed by Guy on the outside with an inscription from him in the front saying, “Eric! You da man! Keep watchin’ — tell the girls there are more to come!” Sneaky Paul wanted the gift to be anonymous to keep Eric wondering how it came about. (Until now.) “Whoever gave me this gift, I thank you. You really made my week!!” wrote Eric in an email shared by his sister. — Submitted by Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications Eric Guggemos opens up his very special copy of Guy Fieri’s book Family Food

Submitted by Susan Davis, General Manager

113 | BRAVO

RESTAURANT 356 MAKES THE COVER OF THE ATLANTAN AND REFRESHES AT THE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL THE TEAM AT RESTAURANT 356, located in the Porsche Experience Center, has been making waves in Atlanta lately. A dessert by Pastry Chef Charmaine Ware is featured on the front cover of Modern Luxury’s magazine The Atlantan in its coffee-table edition. The heavenly dessert features a cranberry mousse dome covered in white chocolate, with an orange and rosemary coulis topped with crystallized cranberries. The pastry is holiday inspired, with the aromatic rosemary resembling an earthy pine wreath. And at the recent Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, the hot summer weather inspired Restaurant 356 Executive Chef Ensan Wong to create a light and refreshing halibut ceviche, with pristine fish from F/V Cape Reliant out of Seward, AK, and lime, lemon, onion, garlic, cilantro, parsley, club soda, ginger, and plantain, all topped with a drizzle of smoked pepper aioli. A Brazilian-rooted caipirinha, with Avuá Cachaça (a distilled sugar cane spirit), lime, and simple syrup accompanied the ceviche. Restaurant 356 participated along with 190 other vendors in serving approximately 3,000 guests. Director of Catering Samantha Alexander noted that Restaurant 356 stood out amongst its peers in pairing its food offering with a cocktail. The event gave the team a chance to showcase their abundance of culinary talent, and it was nice to connect with the Atlanta community as a whole. Submitted by Nicole Nicolas, Special Events Marketing Coordinator

A dramatic plantain garnish tops samples of refreshing halibut ceviche with smoked pepper aioli

Catering Chef Gregoria Lopez and Sous Chef Soucksavanh (Meina) Phandthadara serve up halibut ceviche at the 7th Annual Atlanta Food & Wine Festival

Catering Chef Arielle Grant, General Manager Michael DePaolo, Executive Chef Ensan Wong, Operations Manager Pedro Torales, and Beverage Controller Randall Clay

114 | BRAVO

Pastry Chef Charmaine Ware

Charmaineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cover-worthy dessert featured by The Atlantan

115 | BRAVO

THANK YOU, BON APPÉTIT

... FOR LISTENING, RESPONDING, AND DELIVERING GREAT FOOD MENTOR GRAPHICS, WILSONVILLE, OR

A guest at Mentor Graphics gave Chef/Manager Wes Boese and his team a shout-out through the café’s online feedback form. Chef/Manager Wes Boese does a great job delivering great food here at Mentor Graphics. I appreciate his embracing the BAMCO initiatives that are good for the planet and local producers but also for listening and responding to the dietary needs and concerns of the employees at Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville. Great work, Wes!

... FOR SUCH PHENOMENAL CANNOLI ABERCROMBIE & FITCH, NEW ALBANY, OH

Some things are so delicious that our guests will go to great lengths to track them down, even emailing company headquarters! Some sleuthing revealed that the cannoli in question had been made by the Bon Appétit team at Abercrombie & Fitch. To whom it may concern,

Cashier Ken Johnson’s smile delights guests daily

I work for a Columbus, OH, consulting firm in New Albany, OH. I recently had the pleasure of sampling a cannoli from the café’s dessert station and was so pleased that I returned to buy more to share with family and friends. Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, they had sold out and I was promptly informed by a helpful employee that your company was the source of my treat today. The intention of this email is twofold: 1) to commend you for crafting such a delightful cannoli of prime texture, flavor, and proportion. And 2) to inquire where the Average Joe/Mike might be able to purchase them. I would be more than willing to pick them up. Thank you for your help, but more so, thank you for the cannoli. Best, Mike Colosimo

... FOR DAILY BRIGHT SMILES

REINSURANCE GROUP OF AMERICA, CHESTERFIELD, MO Here’s one of several emails that General Manager Thomas Dixon has received lauding Cashier Ken Johnson for his sunny disposition, positive attitude, and exceptional service: I am a Project Manager with AURA Technologies and work remotely, but over the last six months have been spending a lot of time in the RGA office. I just wanted to recognize Kenneth in the cafeteria…. Early every morning I stop and pick up some yogurt and fresh fruit in the cafeteria, and Kenneth greets me with “Hello,” a smile, and pleasantries. He is such a kind and pleasant person [and] always puts a smile on my face! Jim

116 | BRAVO

THANK YOU

... FOR THIS TASTY STAR CHEF OPPORTUNITY ORACLE, SANTA CLARA, CA

After a recent visit to Oracle - Santa Clara by Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees author and Bon Appétit guest Star Chef Kian Lam Kho, the Oracle team received a pair of thank yous: one from a guest and a second from Kian himself: Thank you for hosting Kian Lam Kho and giving us an opportunity to purchase his cookbook and have him autograph it. Having some of his recipes available at lunch was a perfect touch! I took advantage of everything you offered: purchased the book, got his autograph, enjoyed lunch made with his recipes, and had a nice chat with him. Thanks again for providing us this tasty opportunity! After reading that note, Kian replied to the Bon Appétit team: My gratitude is due to YOU! I had such fun chatting with people and signing books. I loved that [the guest] enjoyed our discussion about the book and Chinese cooking. That was a really sweet comment from her. Thank you also to your crew for executing the delicious dishes from the book, and for welcoming me with such enthusiasm and hospitality. I will definitely be very glad to be invited back when I plan my next tour. Author and Star Chef Kian Lam Kho (left) with Oracle - Santa Clara Cook Aurelio Sanchez

Cheers!

... FOR FRESH, NATURAL OPTIONS DAY IN AND DAY OUT

... FOR SERVING THE NEEDS OF OUR DOWNTOWN HUNGRY

Medtronic guest James Slaba was kind enough to submit enthusiastic praise for several Bon Appétiters including Cashier Lisa Webb, Cashier Kayla Dixon, Catering Director Charliene Crowder-Pierre, and Chef/Manager David Schrier through the café’s online comment form. He saved room to praise the food at Medtronic’s Spine Café as well!

Denison Human Resources Administrative Assistant Kaity Vorbroker passed along this kind thank-you note from Trinity Episcopal Church in Newark, OH:

MEDTRONIC SPINAL AND BIOLOGICS, MEMPHIS, TN

DENISON UNIVERSITY, GRANVILLE, OH

Just wanted to express our gratitude for the wonderful food you are providing each month for the Community Meal hosted by Trinity Episcopal Church in Newark. Together with the United Church of Granville, we are serving the needs of our downtown hungry.

David and his team really nail it day in and day out.

Thank you. God Bless, Cathy Ford

Medtronic Spine Café in Memphis: 5 stars overall. Starts with the staff — Kayla and Lisa at checkout and working back to staff to David and Charlene in catering. Super job all around. Ends with the food — staff clearly proud of what they serve and for good reason, as in many respects it is as good as or better than one would find at a nice restaurant. For me, heavy on clean eating with the vegetables and salads fresh and natural. David and his team really nail it day in and day out.

117 | BRAVO

THANK YOU

... FOR GOING THE EXTRA MILE TO GUARANTEE SUCCESS AND HEALTH REGIS UNIVERSITY, DENVER

University Advancement Administrative Assistant Brittany B. Petrone sent a lovely note thanking Catering Supervisor Tiffany Collier, General Manager Letina Matheny-Leix, and Catering Director Adrianne Barnhart for their consistent professionalism and exceptional performance in the catering realm. Tiffany — and this goes for the entire Bon Appétit staff — is a joy to work with! Always professional, always courteous and respectful, always good natured. Tiffany goes above and beyond to make sure our University Advancement experience — whether it’s a meeting, a candidate interview, or an event — leaves faculty, staff, and friends of Regis impressed and looking forward to the next catered event. Her attention to detail, her punctuality, and her genuine interest in our staff and our needs all make Tiffany a star here at Regis! On behalf of the University Advancement team, THANK YOU to Tiffany and to the catering staff for going the extra mile to guarantee success here at Regis University!

Barista Alexis Shelton ready to make coffee dreams come true

... FOR HAVING SUCH A ROCKSTAR BARISTA REINSURANCE GROUP OF AMERICA, CHESTERFIELD, MO

General Manager Thomas Dixon and Executive Chef Stephen Shook were pleased to share this warm letter of appreciation about Barista Alexis Shelton: You have some very customer-friendly associates working for you, but I feel I need to write you this letter regarding one in particular.... Alexis is everything you could ever want from an employee and a barista! She is always there for her customers, never leaves anyone hanging, greets everyone with a smile, and does exemplary work while providing excellent customer service. It is obvious to me, and to my other colleagues, that she has a natural talent for what she does. Her customers love her and so do I. Not only does she do a great job herself, but she helps the rest of us do our best, too. She is always upbeat and happy, quick to help with whatever we need, and offers recommendations when we’re just not sure what we want to order. She is very dependable, trustworthy, kind, and hardworking. Alexis is a fantastic barista and she definitely deserves to be recognized in a very special way.

Letina and Adrianne — you ladies are THE BEST!!!! Thank you for being so good to us!! I know that we have some crazy (and very last minute) requests and I’m very grateful for all you do to accommodate the UA team. Your team is exceptional and that is certainly a reflection of you both. I hope you realize how much you mean to the entire community and how appreciated you truly are! (I’m smiling a big ol’ smile as I write all of this! I just love working with you all!) Letina and Executive Chef Glenn Babcock are proud that Regis University is now officially Food Recovery Verified! They received the following letter from Neambe Leadon, the program director at Denver Food Rescue: Good morning Glenn and Letina, First I want to say, thank you very much! Our participants absolutely LOVE the food from Bon Appétit, and I believe it is helping us drive our mission of increased health among our participants since it is already prepared. It takes some of the guesswork out of preparing a healthy meal. Thank you again for helping us make a difference. In gratitude, Neambe Leadon Program Director Denver Food Rescue

Sincerely Yours, Amy M. Livingston Senior Administrative Assistant Global Financial Solutions

118 | BRAVO

THANK YOU

... FOR CONSISTENTLY PROVIDING THE BEST CATERING EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE CARLETON COLLEGE, NORTHFIELD, MN

Director of Catering Charlene R. Otto maintains a board filled with customer comments that regularly laud the catering team’s efforts. She and General Manager Katie McKenna couldn’t resist sharing three recent favorites. They both agree that the thank-you board needs to be bigger to accommodate the flood of compliments! Good Morning! I just wanted to contact you to let you know what a fantastic job your team did for us last night. We had 27 people RSVP for the event, and 47 showed up. We were concerned about having enough food, drinks, and tables and chairs. Your team worked with us to provide the best experience possible for our guests and we really appreciated all their help. We couldn’t have pulled it off without them! Lisa L. Falconer Administrative Assistant in American Studies, Environmental Studies, and Linguistics ...the second... I just wanted to compliment the great people at Bon Appétit that I have come into contact with in just the past week. Their kindness and professionalism is of the highest quality. Plus, the cuisine at both the Carol Rutz retirement party AND the Psychology comps event was five-star Michelinrated in my opinion — and I have traveled to France. Thanks so much to all of you who make these events so special. Most sincerely, Charlie Priore Reference & Instruction Librarian for Sciences

Carleton’s catering comment board overfloweth!

... FOR THE WILLING AWESOMENESS OF YOUR STAFF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY

The Bon Appétit at Westminster team received this kind note of appreciation from Hillel for Utah’s Executive Director Dana Tumpowsky for their generosity in sharing their equipment and ovens:

...and the third! Hello everyone, I am writing to send you a HUGE thank you for the role that you and your teams played in making the Pat Lamb event last Saturday beautiful and meaningful.... Our catering colleagues provided delicious refreshments for our guests, great customer service, and creative problem-solving all while using a makeshift prep/storage space outside on the patio. Wow, I truly feel blessed to be able to work with all of you! Thank you for all of your gifts and talents that you provide every day for the Carleton community. Warm regards, Linda Dorn Stewardship Specialist

The success of Hillel for Utah’s first Challah for Hunger bake would not have happened without the willing awesomeness of your staff. Executive Chef Wayne Mankinen and Sous Chef Frazer Buchanan let us borrow mixing bowls, baking sheets, smaller baking sheets, and then stepped in to help us bake the 16 loaves of challah way more efficiently in the Shaw ovens.…My students and I truly appreciate you and your staff going the extra distance to help us out. And this is ALWAYS [the case], not just for this event, though it’s what stands out right now.

My students and I truly appreciate you and your staff going the extra distance to help us out.

119 | BRAVO

You are so lucky to have Wayne, Frazer, Catering Manager Chloe McCombs, Pastry Chef Nikki Hardinger, Catering Supervisor Sarah Stucki, and Café Supervisor Jonathan Speight…working with you. Thank you! Dana and Hillel for Utah Students

THANK YOU

... FOR MAKING THOSE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS WELCOME FURMAN UNIVERSITY, GREENVILLE, SC

Judy Bagley, Furman University’s director of the Student Office for Accessibility Resources, let Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Michael Brownlee know that his team had handled a visit by a prospective student with food allergies with great sensitivity. Hi Michael, The [family] let me know that their visit today went fabulously! They were so impressed with all aspects of the [Dining Hall] and said, “Furman is leaps ahead of other schools with regard to their attention to food allergies.” They also added they had a delicious meal! You played an important role in their comfort with choosing Furman for their son.

General Manager Matthew May alongside his collaborative client-partner, Office Services Coordinator Miranda Munson

CAPITAL CAFÉ TEAM THANKED FOR CREATIVE COLLABORATION WITH CLIENT

Thank you! Judy A student sent the following note of thanks through Furman’s Cafebonappétit.com portal. My name is Kenia, and I am a freshman at Furman. I am blind, and coming to Furman, I was a little worried as to how I would navigate the Dining Hall. However, most of the staff is wonderful, and some staff members go above and beyond. [Front-of-House Attendant Gail Pace, Supervisor Kwanme Johnson, Cashier Linda Solinsky, and Cashier Bonnie McNair] all deserve special recognition. They treat me like any other student but still offer assistance and ensure my needs are met at the dining hall. I thought you should know how wonderful your employees are. I am certainly going to miss them but look forward to seeing them in the fall for my sophomore year!

You know the client is happy with you when they write about you in their newsletter! The monthly Office Services publication of a corporate account in Norfolk, VA, praised the unique and highly effective collaboration between Office Services Coordinator Miranda Munson and Capital Café’s General Manager Matthew May. The article discusses how over the last few years, Miranda and Matthew have worked together to find creative ways to keep associates coming back to the Capital Café. Through this collaboration, a new chopped salad station and housemade items made without gluten-containing ingredients were introduced, and many coffee lovers were delighted when cold brew was made available last summer. Packaged treats such as cookie-, pancake- and bread-mix jars, decorated cookies, and chocolate-dipped Oreo pops were offered as gifts for purchase during various holidays. And the chili cook-off was so well received, it’s now held annually. “The dynamics between Miranda and me make our collaboration so successful,” said Matthew. “We both feel we have the creative freedom to share suggestions, and [hold each other in] mutual respect when we need to compromise. This partnership to spark creativity and present inviting menu options brings a cheerful tone to the café’s standard closing, ‘See you in the Café!’” — Submitted by Cary Wheeland, Senior Vice President

120 | BRAVO

FROM THE FELLOWS | CLAIRE KELLOWAY

TWO DAYS IN THE LIFE OF A FELLOW “I was thrilled by how many people I was able to speak with and engage in so many different food issues.”

s a Bon Appétit Fellow, I regularly find myself in uncharted territory, meeting new people and seeing new places as I travel to the 13 different Bon Appétit accounts I support along the East Coast, far away from my Midwestern home. It is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of this special position.

Not long ago I visited Otterbein University in Granville, OH. Over two days, I met a wide swath of Otterbein’s kind campus community. On my first day, I gave three presentations to very different audiences: a lecture in an environmental geology class; a discussion in a sociology class; and an evening panel discussion in partnership with a student group, Plan-It Earth, and the Environmental Defense Fund’s student organizing arm, Defend Our Future. This event, called “Defend Our Coffee,” was particularly exciting because I was able to speak alongside knowledgeable panelists including the head roaster and buyer for Westerville’s Java Central Café and a biology professor whose research focuses on coffee plants and production. We discussed how climate change threatens coffee production, as well as Bon Appétit’s Low Carbon Lifestyle commitments and where Otterbein buys its coffee (from the Farm to Fork roaster Crimson Cup). More than 60 students came, and the Bon Appétit catering team treated them to some amazing hors d’oeuvres.

SEEDS. This meeting included a tour of Otterbein’s community garden located near its equestrian center a mile or so off-campus. Community members can use plots in the summer to grow produce, and much of the harvest is donated to the Westerville Area Resource Ministry. In addition, SEEDS uses the garden — which includes a pollinator habitat, compost piles, and sculptures made from recycled materials — to host educational events with local students (the garden is also near a middle school). SEEDS and Plan-It Earth are a part of Otterbein’s Center for Community Engagement, and together these groups are spearheading food recovery efforts at Otterbein. I ended my visit by meeting with Center for Community Engagement and Bon Appétit teams to discuss what food recovery at Otterbein might look like. I know I only scratched the surface of all the great people and projects going on at Otterbein, but I was thrilled by how many people I was able to speak with and engage in so many different food issues. Perhaps the only thing more challenging than navigating new territory is saying goodbye once you’ve made new friends.

During breakfast and lunch the next day, I hosted a table to sign up students for a behind-the-scenes kitchen tour of the Bon Appétit operations. General Manager Amanda DeWitt and I recruited five students to see how their food is prepared and learn about Bon Appétit’s kitchen and sustainability practices. The group was awed by the sheer volume of from-scratch entrées and baked goods that our chefs make every day. They asked great questions about Bon Appétit’s seafood and animal welfare policies. I learned afterward that one student happened to be a member of a campus animal-rights group; he had no idea Bon Appétit was doing so much work around humanely raised meats and was so thankful to have made the tour. Later that afternoon, I met with more student environmental activists from Plan-It Earth and a food and sustainability group called

Otterbein Executive Chef Martin Brennan leads students on a kitchen tour

121 | BRAVO

FROM THE FELLOWS | AMANDA WAREHAM

FAREWELL, BON APPÉTIT “I’ve often wished that I could have a long chat with my former self and share my new perspective. I’ve recently realized that I have had the chance to do this to some degree.... Issues of food justice are not black and white, and a balance of committed critical thought and unified action is necessary to bring about meaningful change.”

ack when I was a student at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN, I didn’t picture myself working for a corporation after graduation. So when I first heard about Bon Appétit’s Fellows program, I was a bit hesitant to apply. But I was curious to learn more about whether a large food service company could effectively leverage its purchasing power for social and environmental justice. I had a vision of a just food system in my mind, but in my courses and conversations, I always felt at a loss for realistic solutions to these broad and systemic problems. Throughout college, I was quite attuned to signs of “greenwashing” and the conflict between true altruism and a market that could reward a false — or superficial — concern for justice. However, I did appreciate the transparent nature of Bon Appétit’s purchasing policies, and had positive experiences with the Bon Appétit team at Macalester. No surprise, I did end applying to be a Fellow, and I have no regrets. Over the past two years, I’ve appreciated an increasingly nuanced view of the food system and the various players that create and perpetuate it. I’ve had the chance to bring students along on tours of dairy farms reminiscent of my own family’s. I’ve met aquaponic farmers dedicated to carrying delicate microgreens and herbs through to market, balancing their requirements with those of the tilapia and catfish in their system,

and the valuable — though less visible — nitrifying bacteria making this symbiosis possible. I’ve had the opportunity to tour large farms working hard to compete in an industry that demands a high volume of product at lower prices. The Fellows and I have accompanied our Waste Programs Manager, Claire Cummings, to point out products that Bon Appétit chefs could purchase through our Imperfectly Delicious Produce program that farmers often had been composting as they had no other option to sell. Respecting and supporting farmers has always been close to my heart, and I’ve felt that Bon Appétit chefs and managers hold themselves to a high standard in maintaining these important relationships, within the limits of a bustling kitchen. Beyond that, the leaders of Bon Appétit always strive to add more farmers to the Farm to Fork family. Students, faculty, and staff at each college and university I’ve visited have continually challenged me to critically examine the commitment with which Bon Appétit addresses the many injustices of the food system. Connecting with people on many sides of complex questions has brought me to a deeper understanding of how systems may so easily sweep people into complacency, and distribute decision-making power unequally. It’s also helped me realize that with proper dedication and leadership in positions of power, there are a number

122 | BRAVO

of thresholds that can pivot in a more just direction. In a company made up of many folks who care deeply about a more just food system, with a large amount of buying power, these changes can impact a broad swath of people. I’ve often — as I know many people do for varying reasons — wished that I could have a long chat with my former self and share my new perspective. I’ve recently realized that I have had the chance to do this to some degree. I’ve talked to students across the Midwest (and beyond) who are grappling with the same issues that I dealt with as a student. Issues of food justice are not black and white, and a balance of committed critical thought and unified action is necessary to bring about meaningful change. I certainly don’t claim to have the answers, but I’ve learned a lot from Bon Appétit’s leaders, who have prioritized sustainability for the past 30 years. As with most large systems, the food system moves toward justice ever so slowly, but with more people like the incredible folks I’ve worked with over the past two years, I’m hopeful. Thank you to all those with whom I interacted during my Fellowship for sharing your wisdom, and also to those who are working in their own way toward a more just food system and world; I hope our paths cross again. Fellow Amanda Wareham (in apron) leads a Healthy Kids in the Bon Appétit Kitchen class with Best Buy Executive Chef Christian Pieper at the youth-focused nonprofit Urban Ventures in Minneapolis

123 | BRAVO

BON APPÉTIT MVPS

THE MORE DEZIREE KLEMA KNOWS, THE FURTHER SHE GOES “THE MORE THAT PEOPLE desire to make a difference,” know, the more work they says Line Cook Evangeline do” is a saying that Deziree Platt. Line Cook Kim Schendel Klema, sous chef at Target adds, “Her passion for food North Campus in Brooklyn and quality has permeated Park, MN, learned from her throughout the staff.” grandparents. She keeps a black-and-white photo of Reflecting on her 19 years them from 1949 in her kitchwith Bon Appétit, Deziree en at home as a reminder of says she’s glad that no two the strong work ethic and days are the same. She also passion for cooking they inappreciates how Bon Appétit stilled in her at a young age. accounts are at once all different (she has the freedom to In living out her grandparents’ work with her chef to come wisdom, Deziree’s journey of up with their own menus and pushing herself to constantly The photo that Deziree keeps as a reminder to work hard: her grandparents serving customers at their diner “create their own home” at learn has opened the doors ilarly under Lyle’s and General Manager Target North) and the same (sharing core for her — and others — to achieve more. Salvatore Rosa’s mentorship. She was pro- company values such as cooking from After graduating with a culinary arts degree moted to sous chef two years ago. “I’m scratch and supporting local farmers). in 1998, Deziree joined Bon Appétit as lead learning my own boundaries, discovering pantry cook at a corporate account in what I’m good at and doing things that I “If we could clone Deziree, that would be Maple Grove, MN, and saw in Executive didn’t think I could or had the courage to a good thing,” jokes Salvatore. With the Chef Kristina Soyring (now at Medtronic do, like becoming a sous chef,” she shares. number of people training under her who have expressed wanting to be just like her, World Headquarters) the type of role she hoped to have one day: a female leadership One of the things that she’s discovered maybe he won’t have to resort to cloning position in the kitchen. “I knew it wasn’t she’s good at is teaching people. She has to benefit from more leaders like Deziree! going to happen overnight,” she explains. “I everything she’s learned over the years at Submitted by Norris Mei, Digital Content Manager would have to put in my time to get to the ready to share with others, and views where I wanted to be.” So she jumped in teaching as an investment in building a feet first to learn the ins and outs of dif- stronger team. The more people know, ferent departments, including the salad bar, the more work they can do, and the more catering, and hot food, picking Kristina’s experience they can draw on to help othbrain at every turn and pouring her heart ers learn — it’s a domino effect. If later on she sees someone doing what she’s taught and soul into the process. them, then she knows she’s done her job. In 2001, Deziree arrived at Target North and worked her way up through several “Deziree is a great teacher,” praises Lyle. roles to become lead cook. When Lyle “She simplifies things for her staff and also Schoenthaler joined the team as execu- has the experience of having gone from tive chef in 2012, they were a group of 10 hourly to salary, so she’s a good example of Bon Appétiters serving 1,000 Target team what good can come from learning.” Memmembers. Over the last five years, those bers of her staff agree: “Deziree leads by figures have more than quadrupled, and example. Her leadership always starts with Deziree’s responsibilities have grown sim- a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a Deziree Klema, sous chef at Target North Campus

124 | BRAVO

INDEX

2017 VOLUME 2 | 30TH ANNIVERSARY

THE

30TH AN N I VER SA RY ISSUE

BRAVO IS THE ALMOST QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF

www.cafebonappetit.com

17-6851

01 | BRAVO