Features
What's cooking at Capitol Campus?
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It was one of those daily things
you just don't question. But as I
stood before the Potpourri special
in the Lion's Den one day, it hit
me: "Where does this stuff come
from?"
I figured someone had to find
out, so I assumed I had been
specially chosen and took off to
find out what happens on the
other side of the Lion's Den and
Dining Hall counters.
"Most of the food we prepare
from scratch," said JoAnn Col
eman, Food Service supervisor.
"It's not like we. just bring it in
and zap it."
Penn State has its own recipe
file, she said.
"We use standardized recipes
and they're developed in the test
kitchen at main campus."
Standardized recipes and menus
allow for uniform quality
throughout the university, Col-
eman said, adding that's not
always true, because of the varie
ty of cooks.
You might wonder just what
goes on in that test kitchen up at
University Park. Whose taste
buds decide what's good or
ghastly?
"Most of the food we
prepare from scratch.
It's not like we just
bring it in and zap it.
JoAnn Coleman
Food Service Supervisor
"Whenever they try a recipe at
the test kitchen," Coleman said,
"they have saMplings."
Students sit in on samplings
and give their Opinions, she said.
Not only does University Park
supply the recipes, it also supplies
the raw materials. Coleman told
me a butcher shop at main cam
pus supplies the meat and a
bakery there supplies bread,
pastries and cookies.
"The only things we do pur
chase locally are milk, produce
and ice cream," she said, adding
potato chips and soft pretzels to
that list.
Well, part of the mystery was
cleared up. I knew where the
recipes were from, and I knew the
Student worker Louis Panzarella helps prepare Cornish game hens for a holiday dinner
origins of the "scratch"
everything is made from. One
piece of the puzzle remained: who
turns all this into lunch?
Now, we have all seen the peo
ple preparing our food right in
front of us at the grill in the
Lion's Den or in line at the Din
ing Hall. But we never see the
people making the Lion's Den's
Potpourri specials or the Dining
Hall dinners.
I visited both the Dining Hall
kitchen and the other side of the
Lion's Den counter.
In the Dining Hall kitchen, I
met Guy Zeigler, food preparer.
He was making stuffing for a
special holiday dinner featuring
Cornish game hens and Seafood
Newburg.
"I've been doing this since I
was about 16 years old," said
Zeigler, who has been cooking at
Capitol Campus for six years.
"I've cooked in hospitals, in
the Navy, a couple of convales
cent homes, Cocoa Inn over in
Hershey (now closed)," he said.
Zeigler, along with Kay
Walker, are the main cooks in the
Dining Hall. Their kitchen
prepares both the Dining Hall
fare and the Lion's Den's Pot
pourri special.
The Potpourri special: that's
where this whole quest had
started. I remembered someone
had told me the special was simp
ly last night's Dining Hall lef
tovers. I asked Coleman about
this.
Indeed, she said, the Potpourri
is sometimes left over from the
Dining Hall. But often it isn't.
"If we have casseroles, we tell
them (the gooks) to make six, and
they'll make eight and not cook
two," Coleman told me. The next
day, those extra casseroles would
be cooked and served as the Pot
pourri special.
With my newfound knowledge
of Capitol Campus food, I
started to wonder about the other
side of the counter, the students'
side. I wanted to know what
students eat, when given a choice,
and what they say to the workers
about the food.
I often eat in the Lion's Den
and, for some reason, I feel the
choice between the Potpourri and
the grill is a sort of test. I feel
like I'm eating right if I have the
Potpourri special and that eating
In the Dining Hall kitchen, food preparers Jeff Bratina (left) and Guy Zeigler (right), prepare a special
holiday dinner.
Page 13
too often at the grill is being like
a little kid, eating what he wants
regardless of nutrition. I
wondered if other students felt
that way.
Probably not. Mary Alice
(Harv) Pittman, a cook in the
Lion's Den, said, "I think most
ly, the students eat at the grill."
• "It depends on what you're
serving but I think the majority
of the students eat things like
cheeseburgers and fries," she
said.
Pittman said she enjoys dealing
with the students in the Lion's
Den.
"We joke around with the
kids. That's the nice part of
working down here," she said
"We have time to talk. Not too
much, though."
When the students talk to the
workers about the food in the
Lion's Den, Pittman said, "They
kid. They say it's greasy this or
greasy that."
But the students do say they
like the food, she added.
Coleman said things are the
same in the Dining Hall. The
students have a lot of pent-up
complaints from their day, she
said, and they let them out by
complaining about the food.
"We're there all the time, and
they see us more than anybody
else," she said, so the workers
hear a lot of grumbling about the
food.
Still, students do give some
compliments, she said.
"On special dinners, they'll
say, 'Thanks, that was very
nice,' " Coleman said.
"Even though you get those
complaints, one or two of these
compliments makes up for it."
Photos b Jim Kushlan