The Collegian

Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Kevin Kirwan

At 11:10 a.m. Monday, a Saga, Inc., employee scurries across the floor to deliver a bin of tomatoes to the sautée station at the front of the servery in Knorr Family Dining Room. At the back of the room, a half dozen people gather around a table to assemble chicken-patty sandwiches. The pizza man rolls dough. Hamburgers fry. Steve Casai leafs through papers at his booth near the door.

In the corner, General Manager Kevin Kirwan, clad in white chef coat and rubber gloves, surveys the activity and glances at the clock.

"I think we're in good shape," he says.

He pauses to greet two students setting up in the adjacent private dining room for a catered Koch Foundation lunch, then strides toward the skillets between the pizza and pasta stations. He drizzles oil into three pans and turns the burners to 225 degrees.

"Mis en place," he says. "Put everything in its place. You want to make sure everything is set and in place before the meal starts."

This day, he must make doubly sure he abides by his motto. He's short four workers -including Production Manager and Chef Roger Jermeay, who is home sick - and Monday meal times are the week's busiest.

Kirwan nods toward the station where chicken sandwiches are starting to pile under heating lamps. They will be a popular selection, he says.

He should know. He planned the menu.

Kirwan has had his fingers in Saga food since 2005, when he arrived at Hillsdale after decades working for Marriott International as a chef and as a manager for several colleges and a city club.

When plans formed for the new dining room's construction, Kirwan chose every piece of cooking equipment. He knew what to look for - his team won a design award four years ago for its work on the kitchen redesign at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame.

"What does a plate want to look like when I'm done and how do I want to do that?" Kirwan says it's a question he asked himself while choosing his kitchen equipment.

"Remember how we had chicken patties every Monday?" Kirwan asks, recalling the menu cycle from Curtiss Memorial Dining Hall. He shudders. "I hated Mondays."

In the last three weeks, he's planned meals that included 320 different entrees. And chicken patty sandwiches have only been served twice, he says. The new kitchen has opened up a world of possibilities for versatile foods.

Now that the kitchen and servery are in place, he brims with meal ideas. He has almost made it through his first month-long menu cycle. It's been an adventure of careful planning and spontaneity, he says.

Continued...

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