From Chef Mike in the Kitchen: What is Batch Cooking?
It’s me – Chef Mike, the Executive Chef of Columbia Dining!
I’m back for another installment of my favorite e-series: From the Kitchen. This email gives you - our plateholders - a behind-the-scenes look at our operation.
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.
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.
On Sunday at John Jay, we prepared baked ziti with garlic bread and broccoli rabe for dinner at the main line. Can you guess how many batches it took us? For the four-hour dinner period, we made:
- 3 batches of baked ziti
- 3 batches of garlic bread
- 1 batches of farro with roasted veggies
- 2 batches of broccoli rabe
- 1 batch of white 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 eight trays from the mainline were left over out of 113 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.
I’ve been the Executive Chef at Columbia for 11 years, and a food-lover for even longer! 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.