Adding New Ethnics

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Foodservice operators looking to add the newest and most popular ethnic food items to their menus might ask: What are my customers bringing in from outside establishments? The challenge, then, is adapting these items for non-commercial usage. But what does that entail?

"We're always looking at what the students are bringing into the dining rooms," says Michele Gendreau, dining services director at Spartan Shops, Inc., San Jose (CA) State Univ.

One such item was soup purchased from the numerous Vietnamese noodle houses populating the area surrounding campus. It was a no-brainer as far as the foodservice department was concerned, particularly as the number of Asian students continues to increase (it's 37% now).

Three-and-a-half years ago, the department started offering customers pho, the national dish of Vietnam. Although the soup can be eaten at any time of the day, it is most often consumed at breakfast in its country of origin, served at stands or by enterprising capitalists along roads—cooked on little more than the Vietnamese version of a no-frills miniature grill.

Most people in the United States who prepare the dish use a simple beef stock, though creating a beef stock in Vietnam is a fine art—using not only beef but also beef bones. And the stock is spiced with salt, pepper, sugar, ginger, anise and other flavorings. The beefy pho is more likely served in northern Vietnam, reflecting the influence of Mongol invaders.

Fresh condiments count: As critical as the broth quality, so, too, are the variety and freshness of available condiments; customers are expected to customize their soup. Usually offered are fresh red chilies, lime wedges, marinated onion, ground pepper and fish sauce.

Customers at San Jose State can choose from five varieties of pho (based on three broths) including chicken and shrimp, chicken with lemon grass, wonton, and vegetarian. Spartan Shops offer limes, chili, garlic and hoisin sauce as condiments.

But it wasn't just the idea of Vietnamese noodle soup that Gendreau adapted. Even though customers were showing up with 32-ounce containers of soup, Gendreau started out offering pho only in 24-oz. containers. "I had a hard time believing the students would eat that much soup," she says. But a year later Gendreau began providing a larger portion and it's "flying out the door," she says. "And I get to charge another dollar!"

If you aren't yet serving pho, you may be soon. Pho shops don't just populate the West Coast anymore. There's one under the el tracks in downtown Chicago. And just outside of the Cornell Univ. campus in Ithaca, N.Y., at the Vietnam Restaurant on Dryden Road, you can find nine different pho on the menu—beef, meatball, meatballs and sliced beef, house special, chicken and fishball, BBQ pork, roast duck, fishball, and chicken.

Multi-selections count: When quick-service restaurants as ubiquitous as Chipotle Grill are offering three kinds of salsa, one doesn't measure up any more with customers.

Gendreau caters to the Hispanic population—which is not quite 25% of the campus population—plus the increasingly sophisticated tastes of her non-Hispanic customers by offering five different salsas daily. Selections include cabbage and tomato, pico de gallo, avocado, and roasted tomatoes.

"We found out that one or two salsas was not enough for our population," Gendreau says. "We have a taqueria concept where we offer three different bean selections every day: pinto, black and refried, plus four different meats including shredded chicken, ground beef and carnita. Ethnically, we need to maintain the authenticity of our market. That's the expectation."

The staff at the Township High School District 211 in Palatine, IL, a Chicago suburb, takes the "adaptation" of commercial concepts in a different direction. When one of the big chains, such as Taco Bell or Chili's, introduces a new menu item, a school foodservice manager is usually right behind the students for an on-site taste test. But the manager also closely analyzes the item's content and determines whether it's cost-effective to produce in house.

The Hispanic trend: "Our students probably wouldn't know what 'pho' is," says Ruth Jonen, director of foodservice. "But we do a lot of what I think of as Midwestern versions of Hispanic or Mexican items. We're serving items like nachos with chilies and cheese and sour cream. Our biggest seller is a make-your-own taco salad." The shells might have something to do with its popularity. The foodservice department makes its own since the ones available on the market are too thick (to keep them from breaking in transit).

Jonen says she continues to be astounded that she's buying as many refried beans as she is. "If I had ever told the students that they had to eat refried beans, it never would have happened," she says. "We don't have a very large Hispanic population. But we're going through refried beans as though they were water." Jonen has also discovered that diced tomatoes come in 25-lb. pails.

Jonen also says that the district does authentic Italian very well. "We make meatball sub sandwiches just like they do at a popular local chain."

Not only do her students not know what pho is, according to Jonen, the department probably wouldn't produce it even if the kids did. "We do really good Italian and really good Mexican," she says. "I don't think we do good Asian. We don't have the right recipes and equipment. There are good Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood that really know what they're doing and we can't compete. So we don't."

Indian menus shine: Alexandre da Silva was willing not just to adapt but also join forces with the commercial competition. As director of dining services at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, he, the foodservice staff and a few Indian students developed an Indian menu for the department's first "Around the World" dinner, which celebrated "Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights."

The group worked with chefs from local Indian restaurants to create an authentic menu that could easily be produced in quantity. Although the cauliflower and potato dish didn't hold up on the line, the Tandoori-style chicken (Tandoori Murgh), the curried lamb (Rogan Josh) and the Indian rice pudding (Kheer) received such rave reviews that they are being added to the menu rotation.