Quantity Food Production is a course that students at Texas Christian University in the Department of Nutritional Sciences are required to complete before graduating. Traditionally, this class is taught in the classroom, with built-in lab time in the kitchen. However, in 2005 the Sodexo management team came up with a great idea to deliver more value to the school, as well as the students of TCU.
This dream to partner with the University became a reality in Fall of 2006, when Sodexo began to play a key role in the Quantity Food Production class. The Department of Nutritional Sciences agreed that the class would continue to be run by an instructor, and that Sodexo would teach the class one day a week in the classroom, and provide the students with weekly hands-on experience in the kitchen. By working in the kitchen with the Sodexo team, students were able to experience firsthand what it was like to prepare food for an audience of high quantity. The students of the Quantity Food Production class worked right along our Executive Chef and employees to gain the skills and knowledge that they would one day need to work in the field of nutrition.
Teacher & Exec Chef Charlie Guajardo shares tips with his students on cooking for large groups. For more photographs, click on the picture above.
In the classroom, students have access to Sodexo’s Food Management System (FMS), and are able to build their very own recipes that will be prepared in the school’s kitchen, and then externally, for rest of the student body to enjoy later in the semester. The General Manager, Marketing Manager and the Executive Chef all take part in teaching the classroom portion of the class. While in the classroom, students learn about scaling recipes, building menus, handling special diet needs and how the operation is run.
This partnership between Sodexo and the TCU Department of Nutritional Sciences has been going for five years now, and we hope that it will continue for many more.
Kelly Raw is a marketing manager for Sodexo’s Campus Services Division.
Tags: chef, food, quantity food production, sodexo, tcu, teaching, texas christian university