Not only does house-roasting sandwich meats allow culinary teams to control quantity and quality, it also provides a greater opportunity to use products already on-hand. David Gauvin, Unidine executive chef and dining services director at Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, Mass., roasts turkey and chicken breast on the bone with fresh herbs grown on-site. The meat then is used for salads, soups, stews and pot pies, and the bones are combined with vegetable trimmings left over from production to make stock.
“Once you commit to this philosophy, it becomes a way of life for the kitchen team, and the clients and customers are ecstatic—particularly as demand for fresh, healthy [and] unprocessed foods continues to grow,” Gauvin says.