By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 3, 1997

Food service workers work hard to 'ensure quality meals'

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Pat Lopez, an entree cook in the Memorial Student Union kitchen, mixes stir-fry vegetables for Louie's Lower Level.

Anybody who has worked in the food service industry will agree that a lot of work goes into the preparation of a meal. Working in a large kitchen is not a job for the squeamish, as was evident walking into the cavernous kitchen of the Memorial Student Union dining facility.

It was the noon lunch-rush, and the energy level in the food-preparation area was high. The place resembled an active beehive, with food service workers rushing around. It seemed that anyone not paying attention stood the chance of colliding with a cart of dishes on the way to the sink room, or running into the soup cook, causing a shower of scalding hot vegetable beef soup to rain on anyone within spilling distance.

Large-scale food service operations require an army of reliable cooks, prep-cooks, line servers, bakers and custodial workers.

In the dining facilities of the Student Union, about 38 employees work every day to ensure quality meals are put out hot and on time.

For many of these workers, their day begins well before the dining facilities open at 10 a.m. Jerry Groch, manager of dining services, said most workers in the kitchen arrive before 5 a.m.

Kitchen workers spend most of the day on their feet, and the work is such that the worker's time is, except for short breaks for food, completely occupied for their entire eight or nine-hour shift.

Groch said that there are more than 2,000 students to be fed every day in the Louie's Lower Level and Fiddlee Fig Eatery dining facilities alone. To feed this many people day after day, many meals have to be prepared in advance, some entrees need to be started the day before they are going to be served.

According to lead baker Frank Montaño, bakers arrive as early as 3 a.m. to start preparations for the various types of bread, which are baked fresh daily.

Montaño, who is also a cake decorator, has worked in the bakery department for almost 14 years.

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat Rosalita Ruiz, a food service cook, places plastic wrap over chicken that has just been grilled, sliced and counted, for dinner in the Fiddlee Fig Eatery.

Besides preparing the food for the dining facilities, a cook is chosen to cook the food for University of Arizona football players.

Peter Mendivil was preparing 100 portions of Italian meat sauce for spaghetti last week, which were to be sent to the stadium.

According to Mendivil, food is sent to the players every night during training unless the players are on the road.

Mendivil said the menu for the football players consisted of 100 portions each of spaghetti and meat sauce, all-beef hot dogs, hamburgers and bratwurst. According to Mendivil, there is also salad, fruit and ice cream, all on an "all-they-can-eat" basis.

While looking at the menu for the players Mendivil nodded and said, "Man, them guys eat good."

Mendivil has worked in food service for more than eight years. Referring to the management he said, speaking loudly over the clamor of background noise, "This year, there's a lot of change."

He said new supervisors, including Jerry Groch, are "trying new recipes, and new ways of serving the food out there."

In fact, Groch can sometimes be seen serving food out on the line himself. Last week he was behind the serving counter in the Fiddlee Fig dishing out eggplant parmesan, one of the new recipes the dining facilities will be preparing this semester.

Pat Lopez, a cook who has been employed by the kitchen for five years, agreed with Mendivil about the promise of the upcoming semester. "We have been having a lot of changes," Lopez said, "It has been getting better."

According to Colleen Cummings, a worker in the dining room, there are many new supervisors, but they have actually come from other sections of the Student Union dining facilities.

Greg Stinnett was behind one of the grills in the Fiddlee Fig last week, preparing a grilled steak and cheese sandwich for a customer.

Stinnett starts his day in the kitchen at 4:30 a.m., starting on the grill at around 6:15 a.m.

Working the grill is one of the most demanding areas of the kitchen. The work is fast to move customers through the line. Stinnett said, "A lot of times ... I'm stuck behind this grill for like eight hours at a time."

In spite of the high demand of their jobs, the employees in the Student Union dining facility have positive attitudes about their work. Colleen Cummings said that the main priority is to "serve the customers, do the very best job we can."