This week I attended the Rose Cafè with guest speaker, Chef Hans of Rose dining hall. Immediately, I could tell he was extremely passionate about cooking and had his own “vision”, as he called it, about food. A lot of thought and hard work goes into every meal, especially house dinners. I don’t think we realize how lucky we are in terms of dining hall options- most schools either only have one dining hall, serve stagnant meal choices and/or just use food straight out of a box (the same that’s served in prisons nonetheless). Chef Hans doesn’t even use frozen vegetables- the dining hall staff chops up fresh heads of broccoli,m cauliflower, etc. for us every night. The menu isn’t random, it’s carefully planned in order to accommodate a variety of people (ie. vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free, etc.) and changes when something isn’t working- in other words, our opinions matter.
Overall, I was very happy that I attended this talk. Chef Hans was very open and friendly and genuinely seemed to value our feedback. The dining hall staff works very hard for us and we can easily show our appreciation by smiling and thanking them, disposing of our food and utensils properly, and being respectful.
I could not agree more! We are incredibly lucky to have such high quality dining on West campus. As a vegetarian, I really appreciate the special emphasis the house chefs take to design meals that incorporate a variety of quality dishes for people with dining restrictions.
This was really nicely put and I will definitely remember to be extra courteous at the dining halls. I don’t know what I would do without the hard work of our chefs to ensure quality meals for us. After all, Cornell ranks #4 on Business Insider’s list of top 20 colleges with the best dining halls for a reason.