Blackened catfish with fresh pineapple-ginger sauce ... shrimp tacos with avocado salsa ... chicken with cognac and pink peppercorn sauce ... pork loin with mushrooms and polenta a mixture of goat cheese, corn meal and cream -- sliced and sauteed on a grill ...
Entrees such as these have been adding spice to the Thursday dinner menu in the Calhoun College dining hall. In fact, the Calhoun chefs' culinary creativity recently helped net the operation the University Dining Halls' first "Kitchen of the Month" award in February.
Indeed, Thursdays have become somewhat of a "gourmet day" throughout campus since the fall, when Yale launched the "Chef's Choice" program, of which the Kitchen of the Month awards program is an outgrowth.
Like most institutions with large dining operations, Yale has a central recipe file and a standard menu for its residential college kitchens. There are 11, as one facility serves both Ezra Stiles and Morse colleges. The Chef's Choice program, however, gives campus cooks an opportunity to add their own personal twist to that menu by preparing a dinner entree of their own choice every Thursday. It can be a favorite dish of theirs, a personal creation or a flat-out experiment using ingredients at hand.
"The program gives more 'ownership' of the recipes to the cooks themselves," explains Jeff Trombetta, executive chef in University Dining Halls.
"It's an incentive program," adds Eric Uscinski, assistant director of Yale College Dining Halls. "It gives chefs the opportunity to be more creative." The idea for the program arose out of the strategic planning process initiated last year in University Dining Halls by Peter Vallone, associate vice president for administration.
In deciding what to prepare for their Chef's Choice, the cooks must keep within budgetary guidelines and use easily obtainable ingredients. Every other week, the Chef's Choice entree must be a vegetarian dish.
"Some of the chefs have been getting really inspired," says Mr. Trombetta. "The choices have reflected the individual talents and interests of the cooks." For instance, rounds cook Bill Ritter, who is based in the Stiles-Morse kitchen, did extensive research at area restaurants to develop an authentic recipe for General Tsao's Chicken. The dish was so well received that it has since been added to Yale's main recipe file. In addition to the entrees named above, other dishes that Yale chefs have offered on Thursdays include tofu lasagna, fried dough, made-to-order omelets, pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage, vegetable turnover, ratatouille-stuffed pepper and brown-ale beef stew.
"What's been especially exciting," says Karen Dougherty, executive dietitian for University Dining Halls, "is that some cooks have begun to stretch out of their particular comfort zone."
To maintain the "vibrancy" of the Chef's Choice program and to recognize outstanding efforts by Yale cooks, University Dining Halls established the Kitchen of the Month award program this spring. Each Thursday, Ms. Dougherty, Mr. Trombetta and Mr. Uscinski visit six of the residential college dining halls to sample the Chef's Choice. Time limitations prevent them from visiting all 11 facilities, although a second team of judges is being added this month.
When sampling the bill of fare, "you have to learn to pace yourself," notes Ms. Dougherty -- which can be difficult when a dish is particularly delicious, she adds. In fact, during the first week of the competition, the judges discovered the disadvantages of devouring six different entrees within a few hours. "Now we get one portion and three forks," she says.
After sampling the Chef's Choice and talking with the cooks and servers, the judges score each kitchen according to 12 different criteria. These include the cook's creativity, the presentation of the dish, and its nutritional attributes, taste and texture. The judges also consider such factors as the popularity of the dish among diners, the compatibility of the entree with the rest of the menu, the teamwork of the kitchen staff and the "marketing" of the Chef's Choice. The latter category includes everything from the signage and labels promoting the entree to the servers' knowledge of the dish's ingredients and their propensity to "talk up" the item.
Although they develop their individual scores based on all 12 criteria, each of the three judges has a particular focus when making their assessments, according to Ms. Dougherty. As a dietitian, she tends to look first at a dish's nutritional value, she says, while Mr. Trombetta emphasizes "what the chefs have to do back in the kitchen." She recalls one time when the Chef's Choice at one college was Chicken Francaise, which she viewed as a relatively ordinary offering. "However, when Jeff explained what the chef needed to do to make that dish in quantity, I rescored the dish based on that knowledge," she says.
Mr. Uscinski is particularly concerned with how the entrees are marketed -- particularly the servers' knowledge about and promotion of the dish. "We're trying to get away from the 'mystery food' phenomenon," he says. It is particularly important that those on the serving line know the ingredients of the Chef's Choice, he adds, because -- unlike the other entrees from the standard menu -- nutritional information is generally not provided.
As the winners of the first Kitchen of the Month competition, the members of the Calhoun College unit received a plaque and a pin that they can wear on their uniforms. Each of Calhoun's three chefs -- Curtis Greene, Ken Brown and Aldo Gargamelli -- also received a spice rack for their kitchens at home. Eventually, University Dining Halls hopes to develop a "pool" of prizes offering winners a choice of awards, says Ms. Dougherty.
The three Calhoun chefs -- who vowed beforehand that they would win the competition -- take turns preparing the Chef's Choice. The cooks consult on their choices and plan weeks in advance so they can get the needed ingredients. They even practice preparing the dish in advance. "I usually do a recipe at home before doing it here," says Mr. Greene, first cook at Calhoun. "I have to perfect it."
The cooks also make a point of talking to the people in the serving line about the ingredients in the dish and ways to "sell" the entree, says Mr. Greene, who knows from experience with his own family members how reluctant some diners can be to sample something new. "Sometimes, you have to say, 'Look, check this out' and convince them to give it a try," he says.
While the other college kitchens "also did a great job," says Mr. Uscinski, "what distinguished Calhoun was the chefs' showmanship. They brought it to a different dimension by taking the cooking out into the dining hall." This "display cooking" -- where the chefs set up mini-kitchens in the dining hall and prepare the food while diners watch -- also has other advantages, he notes. "Students get to meet the chefs and talk to them face-to-face. It makes for a better atmosphere in the dining halls."
The Chef's Choice program has earned kudos from both the cooks and dining hall patrons, according to Mr. Trombetta, who notes that cooking "with heart" is the key to culinary success. "A dish may be something more traditional, like braised lamb shank -- served recently at Timothy Dwight -- but when it's cooked with heart, it comes out right, and everybody eats it," he says.
-- By LuAnn Bishop