Brown Dining Services

There might be a chill in the air, but at the Supper Club, students and Dining staff met over a warm weather favorite: Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos. This recently introduced recipe from Chef Aaron is a new style of dish the Dining team rolled out in response to student feedback. This year we're committed to better coordinating main entrees with their accompaniments. For this meal, diners at the Ratty were able to pair the fish tacos with mango salsa, guacamole, tomato salsa, diced jalapenos, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Along with sharing a meal, the diners at the Supper Club met to discuss food topics and offer feedback on campus dining. One issue students are often curious about is how we manage food waste. We address food waste in several ways. First, our culinary team uses a progressive cooking technique; this means our chefs cook throughout the meal period and adjust the amount of food prepared for the traffic and volume of customers. When we do have leftovers, we collaborate with We Share Hope and the Food Recovery Network to donate food to local shelters including Crossroads Rhode Island and the McAuley House. And lastly, we compost food scraps. While we've been composting kitchen scraps for a very long time, new this year, we're composting plate waste from our diners as well. From our discussion, it does sound like students are interested in learning more about these methods and the behind-the-scenes story of dining services. Stay tuned for Nutrition and Sustainability blogs, coming soon, where we'll discuss such items or check out the "Eat Well" section of our website and follow our Facebook page.

Another reason for bringing us all together at Supper Club is to help the Dining team learn what we are doing well (we'll continue with those things) and what we can improve on. A few new items students brought to our attention were vegan desserts – as in we could stand to add a few more. In response, our in-house Bakeshop is going to work on developing recipes and menuing vegan desserts more often. We're also looking for a non-dairy, vegan ice cream dessert to add to the menu. Stay tuned!

Finally, we discussed some of the repetitiveness of our menu options. The good news is that our team can address this one immediately: the menus are reviewed weekly with the whole Dining team, (culinary, the front of house managers, nutrition, and purchasing teams), just sitting around a table discussing these very things. We will pay specific attention to items that are popping up just a little too often.

We appreciate you spending another dinner with us. In November we may be having Supper for Brunch, so keeps your eyes peeled for a twist on Supper Club. Happy Halloween!

– Jessie Curran, Administrative Dietitian for Brown Dining Services

Return to Homepage