What's for Dinner at Brewster Academy?

What’s for Dinner?

Delicious, Nutritious Meals are Always on the Menu at the Estabrook

By Marcia Eldredge

E

ach day Executive Chef Chris Dill and his culinary team serve

1,200 meals in the Estabrook Dining Hall – that’s 8,400 meals a week!

Dill’s team includes 14 full-time and seven part-time staff as well as a

separate 12-person catering crew for internal and external events around campus, including nine weddings last summer.

Although regular Brewster diners can attest to the careful attention and delicious ingredients that go into menu planning, including American,

nouvelle, vegetarian, and ethnic cuisine, and everyone’s favorite comfort foods, the uninitiated need a little convincing.

One of the most common questions new families ask, according to

Admission Director Lynne Palmer, is “What if my student doesn’t like the main entrée?”

Dill has a hearty answer. In addition to the main entrée, all lunch and

dinners include a vegetarian option; a full salad bar; two or three specialty salads, such as Caesar salad, insalata caprese, Belgian endive and apple salad; a deli bar; and homemade soups. There are gluten free options,

fresh fruit, and soft, chewy cookies that students and staff grab as they hustle off to class.

“Sometimes we will have ‘Mark’s dinner.’ If a student has a favorite recipe from home, and he or she can give us the recipe, we will try to make it,” Dill explains. “Anything that feels like comfort food for them, what’s

going to make them comfortable, we like to do these small things for them.

“Our philosophy in the kitchen is that we are always open,” Dill says.

“This is why we have a dining committee set up through the kids. I try to

get them talking as much as possible. It allows me to get to know the kids, which allows me to say ‘Hey let’s do a sushi night, or French cuisine or

flambé...’ the more open we are in the kitchen, the better we can serve the students.”

hard to accommodate those with different allergies as well.”

Baker noted that many beverage options have disappeared this year.

“I think we need to bring back Powerade for one.” With ongoing

conversations between students and the dining services team that just might happen.

Baker’s favorite dining hall meal: the chipolte bar and her favorite dining hall dessert: ice cream.

Sunday Brunch Dill admits brunches are pretty special. It’s well known, at least among

the Brewster community, that the Estabrook has the best Sunday brunch

in Wolfeboro. “It’s Tom that’s the special part,” Dill says, referring to Sous

Sydney Baker ’13 (North Conway, New Hampshire) was a member of the dining committee last year. “I personally worked with Chris Dill and the rest of the kitchen staff to change the way we walk in and out of the dish

line. This was something every kid did [the opposite way] so I decided to take initiative and change it.”

On January 1, 2012, the dining services program became an official Academy department. Previously a contractor had run the dining operation. Chris Dill, executive chef, took the helm of Dining Services and most of the staff stayed on to continue providing exceptional service to the community.

14

She added, “I like how friendly the staff are and how they have worked

BrewsterConnections – Fall 2012

Chef Tom Kelliher. “He treats every person like they are his best friend and the kids warm up to him immediately. By himself he will throw out 200

made-to-order ‘Tomeletes’ on average. With the Grateful Dead playing in the servery and dining tables draped in white table clothes, students and

faculty are treated to omelets; fresh fruit; homemade granola; warm, fresh pastries; lox and bagels; waffles and pancakes; eggs Florentine; and more.

More Enjoyment, Less Waiting With 30 minutes for lunch on class days, students want to spend as much of that time relaxing with friends and enjoying their food, not waiting in line for it. With this in mind, there are plans for a new design and flow to the Estabrook. Eventually the dining hall will be expanded outward onto the current patio, which will open up the seating area providing more space for community dinners and other events. The first stage of the new design, however, will focus on more immediate, efficient service to the students.

“For us to get them in and out in 30 minutes, we are creating a brand new kitchen that’s more conducive to the number of kids we have and helping them get their meals within five minutes of entering the dining hall,” Dill explains.

Throughout this winter and spring the dining hall will receive a facelift.

The servery – the area between the kitchen and the dining room where students select their meals – will eventually undergo a significant layout change. There will be duplicate hot and cold service areas, so waiting time should be cut in half. The area outside the servery, currently home to

From the CIA to the Estabrook

C

hris Dill is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York City. After graduation he worked for

four years as a chef de cuisine at Four Seasons Resort in Kona, Hawaii. He then worked as a personal chef to celebrity clientele at Honuala’I, an oceanfront estate on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast. “It was basically a big hide-a-way for A

list movie stars, and I came with the house,” he explained. Among his clients: Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette.

He also worked for Ocean Sports Hawaii where he was a chef on private charter sailboats and whale watch cruises.

made-to-order sub sandwiches and the soup bar, will become an enclosed

After 10 years in Hawaii, Dill missed the change of seasons. He moved

walk-through area for beverages and snacks and will remain open and

to Crested Butte, Colorado, and became an executive chef at a mountain

accessible to students all day. There is already a self-serve express entrée

lodge where he was a fly-fishing guide in the morning and a sushi chef

line to help expedite lunch. The dining area will get updated flooring, lighting, and furnishings.

in the afternoon. He then opened his own restaurant, Suzette’s Fine Southern Cooking, in Fort Collins, Colorado, but after working for “a straight solid two years” with hardly a day off he went corporate. “I got

Buying Local and Organic Aside from the physical changes, Dill wants to offer students a complete awareness of what they are eating. “We are at a good time for this awareness because everyone is hyper aware of how food arrives at the table,” he says. Dill’s goal is to offer the community the best ingredients he can and to make people aware of how to eat properly.

all the sushi bars up and running at Kroger grocery stores.” Then, it was his wife Chani’s career (she’s a professor at St. Anselm’s College) that brought him east and to Brewster Academy.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve got it all.”

“Before making purchases I ask a lot of questions of vendors. I’m looking for local [ingredients] and hormone-free meats and produce. Where is this beef slaughtered? I won’t take it from a feedlot. How far does it travel?

All of our beef, pork, and chicken is hormone free and mostly from New Hampshire. Our eggs are from New Hampshire cage-free chickens.”

Although buying from local and/or organic sources as much as possible can be more costly than non-organic or purchasing meat from distant, large distributors, Brewster has a volume advantage. “Because Brewster is such a large account, we have a lot of buying power,” Dill says. “We are able to get all these nice organic products at a competitive price that you or I wouldn’t necessarily get.”

Even the napkin holders will soon hold some nutritional value. Students will see QR codes on the napkin holders, which they can scan to learn the nutritional value of what they are eating or what they need to eat. Dill explains, “If I’m going to be a ballerina what do I need to sustain myself?”

Whether it’s a Tomelet, a specialty salad, a vegetarian entrée, a thoughtfully prepared “comfort meal”, or a warm, chewy cookie, the table

“The focus this year is on awareness, complete awareness of what they are

has been set at Brewster and the dining services staff continue to sustain

eating. This is what your are eating and this is the nutritional value.”

the community with an abundance of healthy options.

www.brewsteracademy.org

15