Uncommon Tastes by Mary Shipp Bartlett
TOP: Teo Ibarra. BELOW: Guadalupe Gonzalez. FAR RIGHT: Chef Dale McDonald.
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YOU CAN USUALLY SPOT EXECUTIVE CHEF DALE MCDONALD surrounded by students during the lunch or dinner hour at the Malott Commons, pen in hand, taking notes, often on a paper napkin.The tall, thin chef in the tall white hat and chef ’s coat makes it a point to find out what students like—or don’t like—about the food he serves. He has a discerning clientele with definite tastes and preferences. “That’s where I get my best information,” he says. “Most of the time the students are very helpful. I try to accommodate them whenever I can.” Only occasionally does Chef Dale get an outrageous request or question.The one he’s heard at the start of every academic year since he arrived in 2001 goes something like this: “Is it true that the College makes you put starch in the salad bar lettuce just to bulk up the students?” “It’s hilarious,” responds McDonald.“Basically, I tell them it just doesn’t happen.”Then he goes one step further and shows them.“I ask them if they want to take a tour of the kitchen and the prep stations downstairs. I’ve given plenty of tours to students.They see people chopping lettuce, putting it in the bins, taking it upstairs directly to the salad bar. All of a sudden, it’s ‘Oh!’” “If you deny it and don’t open up [the process] to them, then it looks like you have something to hide,” he adds. “I have nothing to hide. I also tell them, whenever you’re ready, come check it out.You’ll see for yourself that everything we do is fresh.” Indeed, fresh produce arrives at Scripps every day.Teo Ibarra, production supervisor since the Malott Commons opened in 2000, orders most of his produce from Bentley’s Produce in Claremont. Each day, the kitchen uses up to 14 cases of lettuce (at 50 lb. each), four cases of spinach, three cases of bananas, two cases of oranges, two cases of apples, and 22 cases of melon. And that’s just the top of the list. “The best part is that they eat it all,” says McDonald, who is one of five Sodexho employees who serve in food management positions at the Commons; the remainder of the food service workers are directly employed by the College. One reason the food at Scripps tastes so good is that the kitchen does what it calls “batch” cooking. Ibarra, who oversees breakfast and lunch preparations each day, says, “I don’t like to bring stuff in the house (the Commons) and just have it sit around. I order as needed, and the cooks cook as needed.” Perhaps it’s that attention to freshness that resulted in CollegeProwler.com giving Scripps College an A+ for food, based on student surveys; only Cornell and Boston Universities received such high marks among the nation’s colleges. Aside from making sure that the food tastes good, Chef Dale makes sure it has the proper nutritional value.Trained at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, McDonald analyzes each item he serves, determining caloric value, fat content, carbohydrates, cholesterol, sodium, and fiber—and then posts this information for all to see. “Today’s Nutrient Data” is
PHOTOS: BILL YOUNGBLOOD
Scripps gets an A+ in food. How do we do it? There are no secrets in Chef Dale’s kitchen.