18
CLT Magazine | SUMMER 2022
From Events to Experiences LESSONS FROM THE WORLD OF FOOD SCIENCE AND PODCASTS bill harcleroad Director of Campus Activities and Leadership, SUNY Oneonta "If the forks and knives at a restaurant are heavier, people will not only say the food tastes better, but they will say they are willing to pay more for it." Dan Pashman on Milk Street Radio Episode 140 I was flying to a meeting when I heard the quote above, and it made me think that maybe we could make conference chicken taste better if we just used heavier flatware and played better music. It also made me wonder about how these lessons from restauranting can help us to provide better events for Oneonta students.
don’t but are still interesting). I am pleased to share some of them with you as well as some information from other sources.
Concept #1: Amuse-Bouche An amuse-bouche in the restaurant world is a single bite hors-d’oeuvre. It is not, however, ordered by the customer. It is a surprise “welcome” from the host. Dr. Spence’s research indicates that it is more likely to be remembered than what the patron ordered. It gives the event “Sticktion”- something that sticks in the memory. Having food at events is nothing new to activities professionals, but we decided to up our game. Our first go around featured higher quality food options but, ironically, the students didn’t care for that. We gave them bacon wrapped chicken and they asked, “Where are the pretzels?” So, our friends at Sodexo got more creative with the themes themselves. Casino Night, for example, now has cookies decorated as casino chips and brownie dice.
The research cited was from the book Gastrophysics by Oxford Professor Charles Spence. I purchased a copy and was hooked, ordered several more copies, and invited colleagues to join me for a summer book club and discussion on how to utilize the research in our practice. This is something I had done before with podcasts and the two came together nicely. There are so many lessons in the book that apply to what we do in campus activities (and some that
