Theft-worthy knowledge from the University of Illinois foodservice team
By Dana Moran on Feb. 13, 2017Here’s a very short list of things that inspire Dawn Aubrey: triple-point chemistry, the founding fathers, black currants, invasive species, international cuisine, pickles, and her own staff and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These topics and more came up during a recent day-long visit with the associate director of dining services for the Champaign, Ill., university, picking her brain and watching her in action. My goal: to root out stealable ideas.
In a job where there’s no typical day, Aubrey was having a particularly atypical one. Because campus dining halls were closed for the winter session at the time of our visit, we didn’t have a chance to pop down during lunch to observe students in action. Instead, it was a day of meetings: a vendor site visit to talk about everything from spice blends to baked goods, and a teleconference training session for NACUFS. Boring, right? Not in the slightest—rule No. 1 of stealing ideas is to keep your eyes and ears open at all times. You never know what might provide that spark of inspiration.
Behind an open door
One of the first things I noticed upon entering Aubrey’s office was the door, which was wide open and affixed with a sign on the outside that read: “Meeting in process.” The only time I saw that door closed all day was when a meeting actually was in process—the moment Aubrey got off the phone, she got up and reopened it. The message was clear: Open communication is invited here. It’s a sentiment that continued even after we evacuated the building because of a fire alarm; Aubrey and a few team members held an impromptu outdoor meeting to finalize plans for a trip to Chicago the following day.
Steal this idea
Don’t be an island—keep yourself available for casual communication with colleagues by working in an open office, with an open door or with clearly posted office hours.
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
“I’m a big founding fathers fan,” Aubrey says, a fact that’s apparent from a simple scan of her whiteboard, which is littered with quotes from Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Their spirit of ingenuity and curiosity has inspired some of her own experiments—how can foodservice directors use the raw materials around them to solve an existing problem or, better yet, kill two birds with one stone?
It’s a journey down a foodservice rabbit hole. Because 23% of U of I’s students are international, many of them have open minds about eating species that Americans just aren’t used to. Enter the grass carp, a subspecies of the invasive Asian carp that’s made headlines in recent years for clogging Midwestern rivers. Aubrey said that while getting students to eat the maligned fish requires some education, she’s filleted 4,000 pounds of it to blast-chill and serve fried, grilled and in tacos.
Steal this idea
Use abundant resources as an excuse to get creative. Another invasive Illinois species, the autumn berry or autumn olive, may become a menu staple as the U of I team tests out a variety of applications including soft-serve, fruit leather and jam.
Team spirit
The U of I dining team employs a small transit vehicle to whisk groups of staffers quickly across campus and to nearby sites, like the vendor we visited that particular day. The mini bus isn’t just a way of getting around—it’s a relationship and idea incubator. The four assistant directors discussed their best Christmas presents, ribbing one team member about receiving $250 in coffee gift cards, and half-jokingly lamented their return to the office. It’s a culture that’s been 10 years in the making, Aubrey told me later that afternoon, adding that she actively enforces the policy that no idea is dumb, and no one can be put down.
“[Creativity means] having the ground to be fertile for [a great idea] to take on a life of its own,” she says. “You have to have people who truly like and respect each other, and are comfortable and confident.”
Steal this idea
Let your team meet with potential job candidates ahead of you. When Aubrey recently posted a job for a new administrative assistant, her direct reports interviewed a first round of applicants, narrowing them down to six, who met with Aubrey. Each person then ranked their choices and met for a discussion; the No. 1 pick was unanimous.
From grant to gold
The concept of planting 7,000 black currant bushes at one college farm might seem overwhelming; but the reality of the yield from 7,000 black currant bushes is almost unimaginable. Aubrey says that when the plants, which are “terrific for soil,” come to maturity in two years, they’ll produce 10 tons of berries. “There’s only so much jelly you can make,” she says.
With 50 gallons of currants in storage for experimentation, Aubrey’s team has been testing the berries with items like popsicles, syrup, barbecue sauce, tomato paste, baked goods and blended burgers. The school’s Food Product Development Club also has been tasked with developing interesting smoothie recipes. “We’re encouraging biodiversity,” Aubrey says.
Steal this idea
Be open to letting your ideas build off each other—don’t stop with just one. U of I has also applied for a grant for equipment to make its own smoothie product and bottle it, using the black currants and other campus-grown items like apples and pears.
Local flavor
The vendor we met with to discuss possible partnerships with U of I Dining is somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades; in addition to owning a produce distribution company, he recently acquired a spice house, a freight farm and a bakery. While the vendor already produces a proprietary U of I spice blend for quesadillas as well as a house mix, it’s the vertical freight farm that really steals the show. Row upon row of lettuces line the former shipping container, and we were encouraged to examine and taste each one. As we browsed, Aubrey and the farm manager reviewed varietals that will be used in a U of I salad mix, which will be transported to campus in reusable plastic crates instead of cardboard boxes for increased sustainability and airflow.
Back on the mini bus, Aubrey’s team was buzzing with excitement about everything they’d seen, felt, tasted and smelled. “Now that they’ve seen [the freight farm, folks] are already thinking of applications for it, especially in relation to our new renovation and how we could use it there,” Aubrey tells me later. Seeing the farm in action, it seems, was a huge boon to their creative process. “It has to happen naturally—it can never be forced,” she adds.
At the vendor’s bake house in a different part of Champaign, we watched as bakers cut slashes in the top of loaves to distinguish between the different types of bread before carefully sliding them into the oven. While that part of the operation is working like clockwork, the new bakery, housed in a former event space, has somewhat of a pastry problem. Try as they might, the business has been unable to regulate the temperature in that area of the building, and it’s often far too hot.
Steal this idea
Organize informational displays by topic. A large whiteboard in one corner of the bakery is labeled by item (breads, cakes, etc.) with an area underneath each for notes and news so employees can quickly find what they’re looking for. Included is a section with diagrams of each bread cut as a refresher.