While I’ve liked most of the Becker-Rose Cafes so far, I appreciated this one because of its relevance to my everyday life. I eat on West Campus at least once every day, often in Rose, but I rarely give much thought to the behind-the-scenes processes and people that allow me to do so. I’ve always told my friends at home about how good Cornell’s food is, but I’ve never really known why that was the case.

After listening to Chef Daniel and Paul Muscente talk, at least one of the major reasons why Cornell Dining is so great became a lot clearer. While I think their system for feeding thousands of people every day works very smoothly, they were still actively looking for suggestions for improvements from the students. Every decision that they made, from moving greens and whole grains to the center of the plate to putting out flavored water, seemed to have the best interests of the students in mind. They responded to every question or comment from the students (both positive and negative) with interest and openness. This attitude of constant adjustment based on the needs of the student body must be one of the main reasons Cornell’s food is ranked so highly.

The scope of their jobs seems overwhelming to me, so I couldn’t believe that they have time for so many initiatives in the first place, but they seem to be taking on new projects enthusiastically. I’m very grateful to have such passionate and creative people behind Cornell Dining, and I really appreciated the chance to talk with them.