From Chef Mike in the Kitchen: What is Batch Cooking?

October 22, 2024

It’s me – Chef Mike! 

I’m excited to introduce a new series called From the Kitchen, penned by yours truly, to give you a behind-the-scenes look at our operation. We’re going to cover topics like local purchasing, staff, prepping for special events, and more.  

Here at Columbia Dining, we believe it’s our responsibility to feed the student community delicious food in a sustainable way. That’s why we use a process known as batch cooking, which ensures the food is fresh and helps us reduce food waste.

Chef Mike

Batch Cooking: A Win-Win for You & Me  

Batch cooking means that we don’t make all the food for one meal, or even one station, at once. Instead, we make smaller amounts throughout the meal period and serve it as needed. When we cook only what is needed, the food we serve is always made fresh for you, our plateholders. Plus, we avoid over-production and reduce food waste. 

A student serving BBQ chicken onto a plate

On Sunday at John Jay, we prepared BBQ chicken with mashed sweet potatoes for dinner at the main line. Can you guess how many batches it took us? For the four-hour dinner period, we made:

  • 8 batches of chicken   
  • 3 batches of mashed sweet potatoes 
  • 2 batches of wheatberry 
  • 6 batches of broccoli and shredded carrots 
  • 2 batches of northern beans 

And that was just the food for one station!

What Happens with Leftovers? 

Our chefs track what’s needed for each meal to make sure that very little food is leftover. On Sunday, only seven trays from the mainline were left over out of 248 trays produced for that station. That means the Dining team was able to predict – within a few pounds – how much food would be eaten by more than 1,200 people. There’s a lot of math in cooking! 

Food not served in John Jay is shared at JJ's Place with students who missed dinner service. However, any food put out in the servery for student consumption must be disposed of at the end of the night per New York City Department of Health rules. That leftover food is 100% composted.

Chef Mike in the kitchen

I’ve been the Executive Chef at Columbia for 11 years, and a food-lover for even longer – I don’t want to see any of it wasted! When I was growing up, my nonna never let anything go to waste in the kitchen. In her honor, I’ve tried to instill that mentality into everything that Columbia Dining does.