FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick

Andy Mettert, foodservice director at University of Dubuque is a busy guy, and tough to pin down for a podcast! Dozens of emails passed between us but he managed to find the time recently to get us caught up on what’s happening with the dining program at the University of Dubuque. We also get into Project Rooted  a community-based culinary collaboration with the goal of bringing nutriti...

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, special guest Chef Carrie Richardson spins the yarns that come from researching recipes in dusty corners of school offices and cracking open cookbooks that hold secrets to the next hot LTO. Wait, what? That’s right, an old recipe from the 1970s that fell out of favor and almost became lost to time was revived by Richardson. She recreated...

Renee Christoff’s job is to keep employees across the world engaged and enjoying the workplace—and what that looks like is still taking shape. She shares her perspective on working with T. Rowe Price’s foodservice contract company, CulinArt, and what B&I foodservice teams can do to engage with the ever-evolving workforce in a meaningful, useful way.

A frequent visitor to the U.S. via events like Menus of Change and NACUFS conferences, Head of Bars and Dining at the University of Reading Matt Tebbit shares his impressions on college dining here vs. there and reflects on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the country’s mourning period, which coincides with the start of the school year.

Chef and GM Michael Cleary has taken a deep dive into fermentation at St. John’s College in Annapolis, experimenting with housemade hot sauce, pickled mushrooms from the Noma cookbook and plenty of student engagement with a blog and the new Kimchi Club.

A new line of plant-based, sustainable (and wildly creative) bowls is the result of back-and-forth recipe development between Chef Jason Patel of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and HHS (Healthcare Housekeeping Systems) Chef Marta Hernandez.

Tuesdays through Thursdays are the best bet for business dining. That’s just one little nugget of B&I intel Jon Pye shared with us in the latest podcast. We talk about what corporate dining looks like now and how Pye sees it shaping up for the rest of the year, as new accounts open for American Dining Creations across the country. “It used to be, ‘What’s tomorrow going...

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we get into a great conversation with K-12 Chef to Watch Andre James, who, along with the Maschio’s Food Service team, is currently feeding kids over the summer. We talk about students returning to school to find more scratch-made menu items, gradually phased into a dozen schools. James walks us through the process of reuniting 80 employ...

When a burger is smashed into a screamin’ hot griddle, the lacy, almost-burnt edges are the delicious result. Take that same burger, make it grassfed and blend it with mushrooms…the result is a healthier—yet still amazing—result. The foodservice team at San Francisco’s UCSF Health has been making burgers this way for a few years and has just recently got recognition...

The kitchen, sadly, has often been marred by verbal abuse from chefs who thought that was the thing to do. Chefs like Stanford Dining’s Christina Betondo have risen to leadership positions through listening to employees rather than screaming at them.

In this earthy episode of FM On Demand, we break up the big topic of food waste into actionable bites with Lexie Raczka, Aramark’s sustainability director for higher education. At Boston University (BU), BU Dining has set an ambitious goal of reducing food waste by 50% by the summer of 2023 (which is closer than you might think!)  We talk about everything from policy menu planning to cu...

Chef Don McIntosh started out managing a KFC and is now getting kids to try new things at Westmont Hilltop School District in Johnstown, Pa., including cool noodle bowls and smoky barbecue made with USDA ingredients.

Talking with HHS (Hospital Housekeeping Systems) Chef Brittney Horn about her award-winning kielbasa recipe, her creative process for healthcare dining’s many aspects, what it takes to run the business side of a foodservice operation and her culinary roots in Southern Illinois, the home of deep-pan pizza.

Aladdin Campus Dining Executive Chef Eric Credle is sparking excitement for healthy eating at Bowie State University in Maryland. He’s got lots of good ideas, and a winning philosophy for leadership.

Founder/CEO Jeff Grass of office catering firm HUNGRY talks about how the company’s new café & coffee bar service is designed to operate in the new business dining environment .

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) is a sprawling 120-acre complex engaging in collaborative research, clinical care and education activities among member institutions, but like just about every workplace it found that changing work habits combined with the need for fresh, healthier, more appealing options challenged the resources of the onsite dining program, especially in the wake of the...

Increasing the number of meatless menu options has been a priority in a variety of onsite dining venues, from colleges, where vegetarian and vegan students often form a powerful interest group, to healthcare facilities where the reported health benefits of eating less animal protein are putting more focus on plant-based dining. Meanwhile, K-12 schools already have a mandate to serve a certain amou...

In this One on One podcast, Aramark’s Executive Chef Brittani Ratcliff of Morehouse State University talks about the challenges (staffing) and the joys (great food and teamwork) of bringing campus back to life this semester. As one of FM’s Chefs to Watch , Brittani Ratcliff regularly shares with us special behind-the-scenes stories of what it’s really like to lead a campus dining...

Shane Lynch, vice president of culinary excellence for management company Thomas Cuisine, discusses the firm’s commitment to its scratch-cooking focus and how that is maintained in the face of the challenges posed by the COVID and post-COVID environments.

Recently, Canteen Vending Services announced a partnership with Le Bread Xpress to install and manage Bake Xpress robotic bakery vending machines throughout North America. Bake Xpress is a sophisticated vending solution that offers a selection of pastries, pizza and artisan sandwiches that are freshly baked at time of order. Canteen has been piloting Bake Xpress machines at corporate and universit...