FSD Quarterly | Q4 2025

HISTORIC HALL ENTERS THE FUTURE HOW MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY GOT THROUGH THE PROCESS OF A FUTURISTIC RENOVATION P. 30

NOVEMBER 2025

FSD CHEFS IMMERSION RECAP P. 04 MORRISON HEALTHCARE X CLEVELAND CLINIC NEW RESEARCH P. 12 WHAT’S EATING RETURN-TO-OFFICE CULTURE? P. 08

FIRST YEAR EATS PROVIDES FRESHMEN WITH MONTHLY EVENTS CENTERED AROUND MAKING LASTING, MEMORABLE CONNECTIONS.

https://youtu.be/093eVwPEWJQ

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR TARA FITZPATRICK SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR FOODSERVICE DIRECTOR | INFORMA CONNECT

WE’RE NOW ON TIKTOK! FSD: @FOODSERVICEDIRECTOR | TARA: @TARA32271 BENITA: @BGINGERELLA | LEIGH ANNE: @LEIGHANNEZIN

FOODSERVICEDIRECTOR.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF CIERRA BRECKNER, MICHIGAN DINING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Liberty Univeristy’s Sodexo Campus Chef Perry Ford, a veteran known for wearing a red coat on Fridays to honor military service, takes that tradition in a new direction for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

04 OPERATIONS

INNOVATION IN ACTION: NONCOMMERCIAL CHEFS GET CREATIVE IN THE KITCHEN AT FSD CHEFS IMMERSION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN By Benita Gingerella WHAT’S EATING RETURN-TO-OFFICE CULTURE? By Tara Fitzpatrick MORRISON HEALTHCARE TEAMS UP WITH CLEVELAND CLINIC FOR MEDICALLY TAILORED MEALS STUDY By Benita Gingerella EVERYTABLE TAPS INTO K-12 FOODSERVICE WITH NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH COMPTON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT By Benita Gingerella

26 SENIOR DINING

ST. LUKE’S UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER NETWORK FINDS ANTIDOTE TO ELDERLY

ISOLATION By Tad Wilkes

30 COVER STORY

NEW CLASSIC: MSU’S RENOVATED PERRY FOOD HALL IS READY FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS IN HISTORIC BUILDING By Tara Fitzpatrick

34 NEWS

FROSTBURG STATE STUDENTS ARE WELCOMED BACK TO CAMPUS WITH UPGRADED DINING OPTIONS By Benita Gingerella

16 K12

INSIDE STONY BROOK’S INVITING REDESIGN OF ITS WEST SIDE DINE-IN LOCATION By Tara Fitzpatrick NHL ARENAS DEBUT NEW FOOD ITEMS FOR 2025-26 SEASON By Benita Gingerella

SERVED PODCASTS

FROM BAN TO CONFIDENCE By Valeri Lea

18 COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES BEYOND THE BIG NAME: WHY THE NEW CELEBRITY CHEF PARTNERSHIPS RUN DEEP By Tara Fitzpatrick 20 FOODSERVICE OPERATOR OF THE MONTH

TIME TRAVEL AND COMFORT FOOD: FLAVOR MEMORIES GET UNLOCKED THROUGH

‘NEWSTALGIA’ By Liz Grossman

MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT: TAKING A SLOW-AND-STEADY APPROACH WHEN SWITCHING TO SCRATCH-MADE MEALS By Julianne Pepitone

TREND FORECAST: IN A STRESSFUL WORLD, CONSUMERS YEARN FOR MORE CONTROL

AND “ME TIME” By Tara Fitzpatrick

24 TRAVEL

LOS ANGELES PERFORMING-ARTS CENTER ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SODEXO LIVE! By Leigh Anne Zinsmeister

PHOTO COURTESY OF SODEXO COVER PHOTO COURTESY OF ARAMARK

OPERATIONS

Innovation in action: noncommercial chefs get creative in the kitchen at FSD Chefs Immersion at the University of Michigan A group of noncommercial chefs gathered at University of Michigan for FSD’s latest Chefs Immersion event this week. Over the course of three days, attendees connected with their peers, created new dishes in the kitchen and learned more about local food businesses.

By Benita Gingerella

FIRST YEAR EATS PROVIDES FRESHMEN WITH MONTHLY EVENTS CENTERED AROUND MAKING LASTING, MEMORABLE CONNECTIONS. https://youtu.be/ISuu9l9iyRs?si=lw5ZFGVKtnEMy6nO

I n mid-October, noncommercial chefs from across the country met in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan for Foodservice Director’s latest FSD Chefs Immersion. Over the course of the three-day event, the chefs were able to connect with their peers, create new menu items and learn more about three food businesses that call Ann Arbor home. Here’s an inside look at the event.

QUARTERLY | Q4

OPERATIONS

1. Day one of the Chefs Immersion kicked off with lunch at the University of Michigan’s South Quad Dining Hall. During the meal, attendees received an overview of the schedule and heard from the Michigan Dining Team (M Dining) as well as event sponsors Botrista and Jamix. 2. Afterwards, attendees got into their teams and met with sponsors to discuss recipe ideas for the Culinary Exchange happening the next day. 3. Dinner that night was held at the campus farm. The Michigan Catering team prepared a wonderful meal of Grilled Branzino Fillets, Whole Roast Lamb, Grilled Naan, Jerk Chicken with Posole Succotash and more. 4. The following morning, attendees met at South Quad to enjoy a breakfast prepared by M Dining and then got to work on the first round of the Culinary Exchange.

5. Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the chefs prepared a variety of dishes using products from sponsors Botrista, Hormel Foods Corporation, 50CUT, Irresistible Foods Group, J.T.M. Food Group and Kraft Heinz Company. Sponsor Jamix documented each of the recipes that were created. 6. La Colombe, another one of the event’s sponsors, was also on hand preparing lattes, cappuccinos and more to make sure that attendees stayed well- caffeinated throughout the day. 7. The Culinary Exchange consisted of five rounds. The chefs took time after each round to share what they prepared with the group.

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PHOTOS: BENITA GINGERELLA

OPERATIONS

8. One of the first creations of the morning was a booze-free Brownie Mudslide prepared by the Orange Team. 9. Later on, the group warmed up with a Seafood Stew prepared by the Blue Team that featured both salmon and shrimp. 10. One of the rounds also included virgin Bloody Mary’s complete with multiple garnishes. 11. After a long day in the kitchen, the group enjoyed dinner on the rooftop of University of Michigan’s Munger Graduate Residences. The meal was once

again prepared by the catering team and featured Linguine with Artichokes and beans, Alouette Potatoes, Miso Braised Winter Greens, Chicken Cordon Bleu and more. 12. On the final day of the event, the group took a tour of three local food businesses. The first stop of the day was Argus Farm Stop where breakfast was waiting for attendees. They also received a tour of the space and learned more about the local ingredients they sell and the farmers they work with. 13. The group then traveled to White Lotus Farms where they enjoyed samples of the farm’s fresh bread and goat cheese followed by a tour of the farm. 14. The event came to a close at Zingerman’s Delicatessen where attendees enjoyed lunch and learned more about the deli from the Zingerman’s team.

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PHOTOS: BENITA GINGERELLA

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OPERATIONS

W hat does “return to office” look like? Obviously it depends on the company, but the question is best not faced on an empty stomach; that much we know for sure. The better question may be: What does return to office taste like? Mealtime in the workplace is showing up again and again as a factor, an incen- tive and even an architect of a new cul- ture of togetherness for workplaces in the generations to come. Business dining buzz words of the day: Flexibility, local restaurants, food halls, customization, pop-ups with guest chefs, collabs with commodity boards, educational pieces and managing it all online in a user-friendly way (please see glossary at the end of this article).

What’s eating return-to-office culture? B&I dining has been at a seemingly endless crossroads post pandemic. If “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” that can depend on what employees are eating for lunch, who’s buying and who’s feeding them.

BY TARA FITZPATRICK

QUARTERLY | Q4

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHEF MARGARET OCCHIPINTI

OPERATIONS

“That’s what a lot of our clients are looking to us for: Amenities to drive the experience so people want to be there at work,” says Chef Margaret Occhipin - ti, who oversees B&I accounts for Ara- mark’s upscale B&I division, LifeWorks. More companies are sinking their teeth into making bigger investments into providing meals for employees. A recent survey by workplace food tech platform ezCater shows that meal programs for employees are on the rise, with 43% of companies now offering re- curring meal programs, a 17% increase from 2024. “Today’s workplaces require adapt- able solutions, especially with the rise of hybrid work models,” said ezCater’s Chief Growth Officer Cindy Klein Roche in a statement on ezCater’s new self- serve Relish app, which allows employ- ees to order individually packaged meals from a rotating list of local restaurants with a meal subsidy from their employ- er. What’s for lunch? As anyone who’s ever had the thank- less task of ordering lunch for the office knows, the logistics alone are a burden (and heaven help you if you get some- one’s order wrong!). Now, that’s a bur- den that can be taken over by an app like Relish, whose features, according to Roche, “are about giving organizations the power to create a flexible meal program that truly works for them. Workplaces looking to boost employee engagement can feed their people with- out worrying about logistics, overhead costs, or fluctuating headcounts.” Having meals streamlined from cool places might make workers excited to return to the office in these first years post-pandemic. Right now, companies like SeatGeek, NorthPoint Development and Stax have been seeing encouraging results with the Relish app. “Relish has helped Stax simplify the in-office experience while making it eas - ier to get people excited about coming in,” said Natalie Rosenthal, Executive Assistant, Stax, in a statement. “Our peo-

ple are happy to sit together, share a meal, and discover a new restaurant.” Best of all from the employer’s standpoint, Rosenthal said, is “when lunch is over, they leave feeling good about the experience and that spills over into the afternoon.” The ezCater survey showed that employees save on average 30 minutes of their workday when meals are provided, and 68% report feeling more productive. Work- places are responding by dedicating more of their budget to workplace food, with 60% planning to spend more this year, with nearly a third expecting budget increas- es of 25% or more. Restaurants and the local economy benefit as well, with restaurants grabbing a big portion of their sales volume from large catering orders from businesses. FSD’s sister company Technomic has found that the 2023-24 average revenue growth rate for restaurants is 3.3%. But ezCater found that restaurants with catering programs did better, with a 5.1% increase in the same time period.

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OPERATIONS

It’s not just local restaurants, either: Dave’s Hot Chicken and Crumbl are na- tional brands found working with ezCa- ter. Pop-ups make the team work We’ve been hearing the phrase “sur- prise and delight” so often in the hospi - tality industry, the phrase itself is doing neither. However, the idea is solid: Part of the appeal of returning to office is the pos - sibility of unexpected (good) things hap- pening. At one Lifeworks B&I location in Vir- ginia, collabs with commodity groups like the California Avocado Commis- sion and manufacturers like Barilla for Professionals have played a key role in building a post-pandemic company cul- ture, working with LifeWorks on educa- tional “days” and special menus. During and immediately post-pan- demic, LifeWorks had been delivering at-home meals and pickup stations for remote employees, one of the tools B&I dining had to weather the storm. Now that return to office is happening on a larger scale, those at-home meals have shifted to dinners that employees can pick up on their way to the evening commute home. Occhipinti, who oversees business dining across the country, has been an architect on that culture building. Occhipinti uses collabs as a building tool that faces both the customer (the employees) and the dining team as well. “The California Avocado Commis- sion, the Watermelon Board and Baril- la have done training days, and we’ve fine-tuned it so these training days have been incredible for my team,” Occhipin - ti says. “I was worried that lentils might not be interesting, but it was so amazing and the chef demoed all kinds of ways to use them, like lentil granola—what a nutrient boost—with dark chocolate, nuts and toasted lentils. “The education piece is there and then the magic happens when we break chefs into teams and issue a challenge: Take this ingredients and what you’ve

“Today’s workplaces require adaptable solutions, especially with the rise of hybrid work models.”

-Cindy Klein Roche, Chief Growth Officer, ezCater

learned and make two different dishes,” she adds. The resulting “competition, fun, the smiles, the energy,” let Occhipinti know she’s onto something with periodic pop- ups, which of course benefit the em - ployees, too. “Now we have a dish they’ve creat- ed and we’re now showcasing it on our menu,” she says. “It’s a morale boost. At our locations, we also do teaching kitch- ens [for employees], and it’s been so well received.” Looking ahead, Occhipinti is planning to delve more into global cuisines, espe- cially West African. “Those authentic flavors are on the horizon, and even Italian can take a different approach by focusing on the different regions.” And a bright future could be ahead for return-to-office culture: The young - est employees, Occhipinti has noticed, aren’t afraid to wait around and even socialize while waiting for great food. “I see this really young demographic com- ing in,” she says, “and they don’t care if they have to wait for really great fla - vors and global flavors. They’re in line with friends or texting friends on their phones.” B&I Dining Buzzwords Glossary- Flexibility: While the initial wave of return to office culture features a Tues - day, Wednesday, Thursday hybrid with “shoulder days” Monday and Friday be - ing remote workdays. Foodservice has to be nimble enough to handle these

fluctuations, a continuing challenge. Local restaurants: It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. For example, a B&I pro- vider can work with local restaurants on certain special days to boost business and bury those competitive “town and gown” vibes. Food halls: “A food hall feels very upscale and ‘boutique’ so it’s not like walking through a servery and going to stations; it’s curated and everything is kind of self-contained,” Occhipinti says. “There are long farm tables and it’s not like you get your food and then go some- where else. You’re part of the space.” Customization: Part of a larger trend in the way we eat, having workplace meals catered (pun intended) to our very personal tastes and preferences equals a meaningful perk of returning to office. Pop-ups with guest chefs: While it may not be an exactly “captive audi- ence,” workplace dining can still fall victim to that old specter of monoto- ny. Working with corporate chefs from manufacturers, celeb chefs, local chefs and farmers are all ways to stir it up. Collabs with commodity boards: This works for both customers and those serving them, since new ideas (lentil granola, heart shaped pasta from Barilla, avocado everything) get creativity flow - ing in both directions. Educational pieces: Learning new techniques and all about global cuisines is another way for both office workers and dining teams to make returning to the office worthwhile.

QUARTERLY | Q4

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OPERATIONS

Morrison Healthcare teams up with Cleveland Clinic for medically tailored meals study

The Morrison Healthcare team at Cleveland Clinic partnered with doctors at the hospital to conduct the study, which found that while offering medically tailored meals is a labor-intensive process, there are clear benefits to hospitals and patients.

M edically Tailored Meals (MTM) have grown in popularity to help patients with chronic illnesses better manage their health. Providing the meals, however, can be a labor-intensive process. The Morrison Healthcare team at Cleveland Clinic partnered with researchers at the hospi- tal to conduct a study that looked at the impact and feasibility of offering a MTM program. “If it’s not feasible for us, it’s not feasi- ble for others, and we really wanted to be able to show what’s that return on investment,” says Regional Vice Presi - dent for Morrison Healthcare Wendy Phillips. The study included 60 patients who met the following criteria: they uti- lized hospital services or had visited the emergency room at least twice in the past six months, they were over 50 years old, they had either diabetes, high blood pressure or congestive heart fail- ure, they were on Medicare, Medicaid or were uninsured, they lived in a food desert, and they met the criteria for food insecurity. The participants were then delivered MTM to their homes for three months. The meals were created by Morrison chefs and dietitians and featured dishes that are considered heart-healthy with high fiber, low sodium and more. In addition to being healthy, the meals had to be able to be frozen and then re- heated well. After brainstorming sessions and BY BENITA GINGERELLA

saving for the healthcare systems, a cost saving for the patients, and just overall good outcomes.” Patients also filled out a survey at the end of the three months where many shared how the meals helped them per- sonally. “We had people that said that now, because they didn’t have to pay for the food, they could afford their medica- tions for the month,” says Phillips. Data from this study will be used to advocate with Congress for providing MTMs to patients, Phillips says. While providing the meals is a labor-intensive process, she adds, the benefits are there. “If we’re seeing it on this scale with Cleveland Clinic, imagine the benefits that Medicare could see on their scale,” she says. “I think it’s more a call to Medi- care, Medicaid, to kind of really support the medically tailored meals, because we know the tremendous effects that it has on the health system value.”

many taste tests, the team landed on a variety of healthy options, including stuffed cabbage, veggie bowls and pasta bowls. “[Patients had an] incredible array of very wonderful, healthy food,” says In - ternal Medicine Physician and study au- thor Dr. Monica Yepes-Rios. “They could choose from those meals and select the ones they wanted to have delivered to their home, so they were consistently delivered for those three months.” After the three months, Dr. Yepes-Ri- os and the team looked at the outcomes. They found that the patient satisfaction was “very high,” says Dr. Yepes-Rios and that the meals did reduce the num- ber of trips to the hospital. “We saw that if we compared six months prior to starting the study to six months after the study, there was a sta- tistically significant decrease in hospital utilization and emergency room utili- zation,” she adds. “So, definitely a cost

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OPERATIONS

Everytable taps into K-12 foodservice with new partnership with Compton Unified School District The Los-Angeles-based chain will provide vended meals to supplement the district’s in-house nutrition program starting this school year.

E verytable is headed to school this fall. The Los-Angeles- based restaurant chain known for its scratch-made, health-focused offerings has partnered with Compton Unified School District to provide vended meals to supplement the district’s nutrition program this school year. Everytable’s relationship with the city of Compton, California goes back several years. It first opened a retail location in the city in 2018 and then opened a location at Compton College a couple years after. Providing meals to Compton Unified seemed like the next logical step for the company, says Everytable Founder and CEO Sam Polk, especially because he feels they are well-suited to help school BY BENITA GINGERELLA

foodservice programs implement more scratch-made meals into their menus. “There’s this big movement for scratch cooking in schools. But scratch cooking is really hard, and you need certain equipment, and you need a lot of training,” he says. “And so, a lot of these schools are basically, like, on a transition to scratch cooking, but they can’t do it right away.” By utilizing Everytable’s existing supply chain and infrastructure, the company can aid school districts, like Compton Unified, who want to incorporate more scratch-made meals into their menus but don’t have the current means to do so on their own. “We have really high experience making high quality, ultra fresh food from scratch,” says Polk. “We can

leverage that existing supply chain and logistical infrastructure to meet the needs of schools.” Everytable’s meals are meant to sup- plement Compton Unified’s in-house foodservice menu. School nutrition op- erators at the district will place their orders, which will be prepared fresh in Everytable’s commissary kitchen and then be delivered to the schools. The ingredients used for Everytable’s school meals are the same ingredients used at its retail locations, just in differ- ent proportions to meet the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture’s (USDA) School Nutrition Standards. Kids can be tough critics, says Polk, so Everytable held a tasting at Compton High School earlier this summer where students got to sample and share their

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVERYTABLE

OPERATIONS

feedback on several different menu items, including Everytable’s Chicken Alfredo, Chicken Teriyaki, Pollo Asado and more. “[Students] loved the chicken alfredo, they really loved the pasta,” says Polk. “They loved the Chicken Teriyaki and then they especially loved the Chicken Parm Ciabatta Sandwich which is one of our specialties.” Everytable will continue to hold stu- dent taste tests throughout the year to make sure its offerings keep evolving with students’ wants and needs. Thanks to Everytable’s in-house R&D team, they can be nimble in making rec- ipe adjustments, says Polk. For example, the team has already made changes to its bean and cheese burrito recipe based on initial feedback from students.

“The students said they wanted more flavor on it, and so literally, before they’re going to get it the next time, it’s already been significantly improved to meet their taste profiles,” says Polk. In addition, Compton Unified faculty and staff can order their own Everyta- ble meal for lunch using the company’s Everytable at School platform which allows diners to place their orders on- line and have them delivered directly to their school. They also receive a 10 percent discount. Everytable’s partnership with Comp- ton Unified marks the start of what Polk believes will be a long relationship with K-12 foodservice. The company has “massive expansion plans in K-12 throughout California,” he says. Along with expanding its vended

meals program like the one offered at Compton Unified, it is also working on what it calls Work in Progress (WIP) products, which “basically are compo- nents of a meal,” Polk says. School nutrition programs would then be able to purchase the WIP’s directly from Everytable and use them to pre- pare their own scratch-made offerings from the comfort of their own school kitchen. “Districts want to do their own scratch cooking, but a lot of times, all that is available to them is frozen and pre-pro- cessed stuff,” says Polk. “So now, they can get scratch cooked proteins from us and scratch made dressings and sauces, and they can cook some of the compo- nents themselves and combine it with ours.”

QUARTERLY | Q4

K12

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FUELING HEALTHY FUTURES This conversation explores the vital work of Action for Healthy Kids, a nonprofit organization dedicated to im - proving health programming in schools across the United States. The discussion highlights the personal journeys of the speakers, the importance of school nutrition, the impact of the Healthy Meals Incentives initiative, and the challenges faced in child health today. The speakers emphasize the need for collaboration between education and nutrition professionals, innovative approaches to school meal programs, and the importance of measuring success in these initiatives. They also discuss future plans for Action for Healthy Kids and the ongoing commitment to supporting child health and nutrition.

50 MINUTES

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#THISISSCHOOLMEALS Every day in school cafeterias across the country, some- thing extraordinary happens. Behind every tray and plate is a story of collaboration, care, and dedication — where School Nutrition Professionals and food partners unite around one purpose: nurturing the minds of the fu- ture. From breakfast to lunch, these meals do more than fill stomachs — they fuel curiosity, growth, and academic success. Thanks to the USDA’s strong nutrition stan- dards, school meals now include more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than the average meal served at home. Studies show students who eat school meals score 20% higher on math tests — proving that good food powers great minds.

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K12

FRESH K12 CONTENT FROM

From Ban to Confidence How three districts safetly brought an allergen back to the menu F or years, peanuts were banned in Oakley Union Elementary (CA), Towns County (GA), and Hickory City Schools (NC). Whether due to allergy concerns, parental pressure, or longstanding policy, peanuts and peanut butter were considered too risky to serve. That’s no longer the case. Today, these three districts are safely and confidently serving peanut products again—thanks to deliberate planning, stakeholder collaboration, and strong allergen management protocols. The outcome? Smooth transitions, no allergy incidents, and increased student participation. These success stories are part of the National Peanut Board’s “Something’s Missing” campaign, which highlights how schools can bring back peanuts safely—and why it matters for nutrition, satisfaction, and inclusion. What Prompted the Shift? Each district had different motivations. For Oakley Union, it was about inclu- sivity and menu variety. Towns County found the total ban difficult to enforce, especially outside the cafeteria. In Hick- ory City Schools, demand from students was clear. “I understood the demand for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the previous district I worked at,” said Christy Gwyn, School Nutrition Director for Hickory City Schools. “I knew students would participate when

offered Uncrustables™ versus other lunch entrees.” How They Made It Work All three districts implemented safety strategies like staff training, designat- ed allergen-free seating, and the use of pre-packaged peanut products to reduce cross-contact risks. Hickory City Schools also added safeguards at the point-of-sale system to flag any known allergies. They prioritized communication, too. “I obtained valuable resources from the National Peanut Board to better inform all stakeholders,” said Gwyn. Oakley Union started with older students. “Start at your higher grade schools before introducing it to K-5,” added Maria Bautista, Kitchen Lead at Oakley Union. Positive Results The transitions were smooth across all three districts, with no allergy incidents

reported. Participation went up, and feedback was enthusiastic. “The students love the peanut butter options. Often times, we run out of that first,” said Bautista. Towns County Director Becky Mullins added, “Everyone is glad to have peanut butter sandwiches back”. These districts show that peanuts can be served safely—with the right systems and communication in place. Explore More Tools To learn how your district can safely reintroduce peanuts, visit the National Peanut Board’s School resource hub at NationalPeanutBoard.org/Something- sMissing . You’ll find peer-tested best practices, case studies like the ones featured here, allergen education mate- rials for staff and families, and imple- mentation tools designed to help school nutrition teams serve peanuts safely and inclusively.

Valeri Lea | Contractor, National Peanut Board Valeri Lea has three decades of experience in the foodservice industry. Her background spans over 60 brands and product categories, leading foodservice marketing agencies, and serving in sales and marketing roles at large manufacturing companies. She is currently serving in a contractor role at NPB, responsible for foodservice business development where she provides strategic foodservice counsel and support.

QUARTERLY | Q4

COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

B efore we get completely starstruck, a basic query: Why do onsite foodservice operations choose to partner with a celebrity chef? There are a few reasons, says Megumi Robinson, Vice President of services at Belle Communication, a public relations agency focused on foodservice brands, influencer marketing and cutting-edge ways to connect food with people through media, orchestrating events like a Gen Z-focused French fry pop-up at Lollapalooza and an influencer-led summer camp for flavor forecasting. Belle Communication also does a lot of work and research in the chef part- nership space, including creative pro- jects with celebrity chefs that do more than provide a cool social media post (although that’s obviously a great perk). “Chefs can help accelerate innovation or introduce new concepts, globally in- spired flavors and it’s an opportunity for those larger organizations to bring a leader in this space to help advise in these areas,” Robinson says. “These types of collaborations can be a differen- tiator; they can bring cultural relevance,

interest and intrigue when differentia- tion is really hard when it’s hospital vs. hospital or airline vs. airline.” Today’s partnerships between celeb- rity chefs and onsite foodservice oper- ations are much more in-depth and in- tentional now than even ten years ago. “The best types of collaborations and partnerships we do are when it’s not just ‘one and done,’ it’s a deeper collab- oration,” Robinson says. “Everything from bringing in a celebrity chef to help with the R&D process, almost serving as an advisor to the in-house corporate chef team; we see that having the most impact: Get behind the scenes.” Robinson’s research finds that Goog - le searches for “chef partnership” have gone up 1,400%, so you could say it’s trending, to put it lightly. It all comes down to credibility. When an onsite foodservice operation part- ners with a celebrity chef, it should be beneficial to not just both parties, but to the people who end up eating the actual food. From the celebrity chef’s perspec- tive, they’re cognizant of “selling out” or seeming fake or even worse, getting

Beyond the big name: Why the new celebrity chef partnerships run deeper The best collabs happen when the celeb chef acts more like an artist-in-residence than a star who’s just popping in for a quick pop-up.

BY TARA FITZPATRICK

QUARTERLY | Q4

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

COLLEGES & UNIVERSITY

it to feel authentic and aligned with how they are,” Robinson says. “I think celebrity chefs are a good way to extend what an organization’s mission is, if there’s alignment.” In June, O.G. celeb chef Guy Fieri teamed up with hospitality students at Florida International University for a valuable lesson in disaster preparedness, showing the serious side of the fun-loving Fieri. His Guy Fieri Foundation staff is well-versed in running a disaster kitchen, and shared their knowledge about how to plan efficiently and effectively. They created a menu that included lemon pepper chicken, pesto pasta, chicken Caesar salad and of course, plenty of Fieri’s new “Flavortown” sauces. FSD has found several instances of this increased involvement in which the celeb chef takes on more of an artist-in- residence stance, getting acclimated and staying awhile and being hands-on with developing every part of the project. One example is Tampa General Hospital in Florida, where Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian helped to overhaul patient offerings and develop a whole new menu, using dishes from his own recipe logs he thought would be a good fit, raiding the spice rack, testing, tasting and repeating. Zakarian is a familiar face from Food Network shows including Chopped and The Next Iron Chef. Tampa General Vice President of Operations Donna Tope told FSD that Zakarian’s goal was to get involved in a revamp that would “change the whole philosophy and model of what hospitals do for foodservice,” a lofty but admirable goal for sure. For more background, check out recent FSD articles on partnerships between foodservice operations and Brooke Williamson, Daniel Boulud, Grace Ramirez, Michael Symon and Maneet Chauhan and Rocco DiSpirito. And Jet Tila is an honorary onsite chef at this point, as he’s been a pioneer in chef partnerships over the years, from college to senior dining.

Elior’s ‘Why Can’t We?’ question Celebrity chef partnerships are part of Elior North America’s latest initiative, “Why Can’t We,” a somewhat rhetor - ical question that sees a cool trend in fast-casual or fine dining or social media and asks, Why Can’t We try that? Elior North America’s Senior President of Education Travis Young told FSD that the partnership between Elior and Chef Fabio Viviani, a Michelin-rated chef and restaurateur perfectly illustrates the new “Why Can’t We” branding, and mentioned wanting to try a K-12 partnership with Viviani. Viviani draws on his own parental instincts (his son Gage already has his own cooking channel) as much as his culinary background when bringing out the “why” in his partnership with Elior. This “why” is something many onsite chefs can relate to, whether they’re serving kids, grandparents and everyone in between. “We’re creating dining spaces where students can relax, recharge, and actually look forward to mealtime,” Viviani said in a statement about the collab. “This is how we cook for our own children, with fresh ingredients, bold flavors, and food that makes you feel good. For parents, it’s peace of mind knowing their students are nourished, happy, and surrounded by a sense of community every day.” And celeb chefs are rightfully choosy about who they partner with, Robinson says. “When they’re looking at and considering partnerships, they want

called out for being “cringe.” So, when they attach their name to something, it’s far from “set it and forget it.” An executive chef and a foodservice director will have similar concerns. In every segment, transparency and ac- countability have clearly emerged as one of those Things that Keep You Up at Night, along with the perpetual need for “street cred,” or we could say “street food cred.” Basically, celebrity chef partnerships, when they’re successful, go into a lot more depth and intensity than just a meet ‘n greet and then see you in a cou- ple years if the concept is still here. ‘A credibility boost’ As a whole, whether we’re demanding “clean labels” with ingredients a 2-year- old can pronounce, to know whether the company’s CEO has values that match our own, it makes sense the drive for transparency and authenticity would spill into celebrity chef partner- ships as well. In fact, today’s celebrity chef partnership can “give a credibility boost” to a culinary program, Robinson says. “They can change with perception of the food they’re providing. People naturally interpret that a chef-partnered menu will be held to a higher standard.” These partnerships are also a way for culinary groups that may be feeling warning signs of a creativity rut to add a bit of razzle dazzle and glamor, which can serve to highlight and enhance- -rather than overshadow--the work that’s already happening in the kitchen.

QUARTERLY | Q4

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF BELLE COMMUNICATION

FOODSERVICE OPERATOR OF THE MONTH

T he most famous of Aesop’s Fables, “The Tortoise and the Hare,” imparts a lesson that is often frustrating yet true: Slow and steady wins the race. It was certainly true for the foodservice team at Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) in Wisconsin, as they worked to transition away from pre- packaged meals to scratch-made. With a district of about 50 schools educating 25,000 students, a speedy all-at-once switch wouldn’t have been possible, or prudent.Instead the team is easing into the switch, beginning with a scratch-made meals pilot early last year at its Nuestro Mundo Community School. Since then, the district has expanded its scratch-made meals— all while training more chefs, streamlining operations and so- liciting lots of feedback from student diners. The process has involved much more than menu planning and upskilling, says MMSD’s Director of Food and Nutrition Josh Perkins. “Completely revamping the kind of cooking you’re doing for students is not a recipe change. It’s a culture change,” he adds. Perkins had scratch-made meals in mind when he took the role in 2022, but he said he took time first to understand the operation as it stood, especially at a time when COVID-relat-

Madison Metropolitan School District: taking a slow-and-steady approach when switching to scratch- made meals The nutrition team has taken a measured approach as it works to transition from heat and serve meals to scratch-made offerings.

BY JULIANNE PEPITONE

QUARTERLY | Q4

PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT

FOODSERVICE OPERATOR OF THE MONTH

Perkins says they also conduct inter- views with students, focus groups, and other proactive outreach, but the quick surveys helped collect lots of useful data without asking too much of a time com- mitment from student diners. COMMISSARY EXPANSION That student feedback helped the team shape their plans for expansion. Not every MMSD school has its own kitchen facility, so they planned to cook more scratch meals at MMSD’s commis- sary that serves as a warehouse, stor- age, and distribution center. They knew it could be the major driving force in spreading scratch-made items much more widely throughout the district, so they planned to make and send meals to the district’s 26 elementary schools starting in the 2025-26 school year that began this fall. This meant many months of planning that included extensive recipe testing, widespread culinary training and up- skilling, and experimentation to ensure dishes maintained their quality even af- ter transportation and reheating. “The training focused on being really detail-oriented in your cooking,” says Shannon Jacobson, a Cook II at MMSD who is French-trained. “If you’re bring- ing in product that comes in a bag, you basically put it in the oven and you’re done. We had to teach mise en place, how to slow down and measure everything out, to know what your plan is before you start to execute it, and how to be consistent every day. Once you start to build the muscle memory, it gets easier.” Training focused on the foundation- al and ran the gamut: how to tempera- ture-check food, learning which items could stay in a cooler longer than others, knife skills, and tips and tricks like using a spoon to de-seed cucumbers quickly. “When you have that part down you can move to more complex skills like tasting, but palette is a little bit more dif- ficult to teach,” Jacobson says. “You get there with experience and time: ‘This

ed challenges were only just beginning to ease. He began with small steps, like bringing back salad “Garden Bars” and sourcing some local produce. By the end of 2023, however, they were ready to begin that culture change. Perkins was awarded a Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship from the Chef Ann Foundation, a nonprofit that supports scratch-made school meal programs. And the elementary school Nuestro Mundo was a perfect place to start: The school had already offered a limited number of scratch meals prior to the pandemic, it had recently moved buildings so operations were changing anyway, and its principal Josh Forehand was excited about the prospect of serv- ing in-house meals once again. In the beginning of 2024, Nuestro Mundo’s two nutrition employees began

culinary training about how to prepare the new recipes—which came to includ- ing pollo loco chicken drumsticks with cilantro-lime rice and roasted broccoli, honey-ginger tofu that became a sur- prise runaway hit, and lo mein loaded with vegetables. “We started by serving these new things just a couple times a week, and we slowly ramped up as the year went on,” Perkins says. “It wasn’t just about educating our staff, but our students too: Some of them were used to grab- bing these prepackaged trays, and now we were asking them to try things that looked and tasted brand new.” The team solicited feedback from stu- dents in multiple ways. The most com- mon was a quick survey in which stu- dents could simply circle after a meal that they tried it, liked it, or loved it.

QUARTERLY | Q4

FOODSERVICE OPERATOR OF THE MONTH

needs more acid, so let’s get in a little more lemon juice.’ But you need those basics first.” That’s the core of Perkins’s and Jacob- son’s advice for other operators looking to begin or expand their scratch-made offerings: Go slow and steady not only with your rollout, but with your training for less experienced staff. “It’s easy for a director like me with a strong culinary background to come in and say: ‘Here’s the new recipe, just follow the instructions,’” Perkins says. “But when you’re working with large teams across a range of buildings, some- times with spartan equipment setups and sometimes with not that much ex- perience, that doesn’t work. They need to be supported, trained, and given the tools to execute.” GET TO KNOW MADISON MET- ROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT’S JOSH PERKINS See what’s in store for Perkins’s oper- ation, which was named FSD’s Sep- tember Foodservice Operation of the Month. Q: What is it that makes your opera- tion excel? One word: commitment. Our team is very talented, which is important—but I will say that talent can get you through only so many 12-hour days. It’s the commitment that helps you get through the challenge of all those lit- tle things that come up in a foodservice operation every single day. This is a team that is that does not flag in the face of a challenge, and at an op- eration the size of ours, they do come up. The team relies on each other, and we all have each other’s backs. When it comes to planning and execution, they’re are constantly communicating with each other: “This is where I think I’m going to run into a tough time. Can you help me with this or that? What can we do together to solve this problem?” And that’s really what gets you through, day to day.

Q: What are your goals for the operation in the coming year? We’ve only just pushed the ship into the water with school opening, so at this point our front-and-center focus is on making sure these new menu options are exe- cuted correctly with the same quality every time. Our Nuestro [Mundo Community School] pilot also helped us see the desire for more vegetarian options, so we we’ll continue to expand what’s available. We want to make sure our new menus are really inclusive and have something that makes every student say, “I want to come back here to eat.”

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PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT

TRAVEL

Los Angeles performing-arts center announces partnership with Sodexo Live! Catering programs at The Music Center venues will be handled by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne of The Lucques Group

T he Music Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday announced a new multi-year partnership with Sodexo Live!, which will handle food and beverage programming at venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum, as well as onsite restaurants, cafes, and more. Chef Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, founders of The Lucques Group, will take over catering as Hope & Grand Events by Lucques. “We are so excited to continue working with Sodexo Live! to bring our food and wine program to the event catering and Founders’ Rooms at The Music Center,” said Styne, who also serves as president and wine director of the group. “We BY LEIGH ANNE ZINSMEISTER

love being so intimately involved with this beautiful campus and the many different types of performance and events that The Music Center offers.” In addition to events spaces, The Music Center is home to restaurants Kendall’s Brasserie and Abernethy’s, wine and cocktail bar The Mullin Wine bar, the Concert Hall Café, and more. A fourth restaurant will open next year in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall. “Bringing together world-class performances with top talent in the culinary world is central to The Music Center’s vision as a premier cultural destination in Los Angeles,” said The Music Center president and CEO Rachel S. Moore. Other events and venues served by Sodexo Live! include the Eiffel Tower,

the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Tour de France, and last year’s Paris Olympics and Paralympic games. Sodexo Live! is also a partner of the Hollywood Bowl and other Southern California venues including The Ford, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and Descanso Gardens. “It’s an honor to join forces with The Music Center, a true cultural cornerstone of Los Angeles, to bring a new level of excellence to guests,” said Sodexo Live! CEO Belinda Oakley. “With the support of our wonderful partners and culinary legends Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, we look forward to creating experiences that will enhance and complement the world-class performances across this iconic campus.”

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARIO DE LOPEZ FOR THE MUSIC CENTER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OLE MISS AND U OF ARKANSAS

SENIOR DINING

St. Luke’s University Health Center Network finds antidote to elderly isolation

With Metz Culinary Management’s new program, the network is getting seniors out of the house for food and fellowship and letting “early birds” keep the late afternoon downtime busy.

BY TAD WILKES

T he simple concept of afford- able, home-style meals for older adults has grown into a community rallying point for seniors at campuses of St. Luke’s University Health Center Net- work. The Older Adult Meal Program, operated by Metz Culinary Manage- ment, draws seniors in increasing num- bers to nine hospital cafeteria locations for a nourishing dinner, along with com- panionship and health education. The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based network’s aim is to address two of the major issues confronting an aging popula- tion: access to good, affordable meals and to give otherwise lonely, isolated seniors fellowship with others in their age group. “The initial impetus of the program was to get Older Adults comfortable leaving their homes again post-[the COVID-19 pandemic],” says Matt Furlan, district manager for Metz Culinary Man- agement, which operates the cafeterias on all St. Luke’s campuses. “Concerns about exposure led many older adults to avoid grocery stores, congregate meal sites or restaurants, which further limited their access to healthy, affordable food.”

QUARTERLY | Q4

PHOTOS COURTESY OF METZ CULINARY MANAGEMENT

ENERGY + FLAVOR + COLOR

There’s a radiant new way to recharge.

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SENIOR DINING

A recent study by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Poli- cy and Innovation, of six years of data from the National Poll on Healthy Ag- ing, found that as of late 2024 loneliness and isolation among older Americans had mostly returned to pre-pandemic rates, but more than one third of people age 50 to 80 still feel lonely. And those dealing with major physical health or mental health issues continue to have much higher rates of loneliness and so- cial isolation than others. Metz saw sim- ilar trends in its operations. “We had some internal data from Warren Campus, which had run this program prior and had seen some suc- cess,” Furlan says. “COVID halted all of our visitors to the hospital, but once the visiting restrictions were lifted, we started again on a small scale and the program grew and grew.” Furlan reports that the popularity of the program has exceeded expectations. Nine St. Luke’s locations now host sen- ior meals, serving up to 250 meals a day in some cafeterias. “And that’s in the late afternoon, which used to be a very slow period,” Furlan notes. The meal period is from 4 to 6 p.m., but guests usually start arriving earlier; Furlan says they see two to three dozen guests around 3:30, sitting at the tables with their trays, silverware and napkins laid out, drinking a cup of coffee and vis- iting until serving starts. Seniors who partake of the program tend to prefer American comfort food, Furlan says. Favorite meals include meatloaf with mashed potatoes, pasta with meatballs and chicken Parmesan. More recently, the program has in- corporated health education, from once a week to once a month, in the form of an informal presentation by a St. Luke’s doctor on an age-appropriate health matter, such as heart or joint health. “The guests and family members love the program,” Furlan says. “We have a large percentage of repeat customers. They call ahead to ask about menus, so they can plan their week’s dinners based on what we are offering.”

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PHOTO COURTESY OF METZ CULINARY MANAGEMENT

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