At Cannon Memorial Hospital, in Pickens, S.C., the first day of cold weather marks the start of soup season.
“Once the leaves start to turn in October, we’ll begin testing the waters with soups one or two days a week. As it gets colder, we’ll do up to a soup a day,” says Director of Food Service John Unsworth. Typically, he’ll strike a balance between heartier stews such as beef burgundy and lighter options such as parsnip and leek, but the one constant is his dedication to using high-quality ingredients.
“If you’re going to make a from-scratch soup, don’t cut corners,” Unsworth says, and that means using fresh ingredients. By switching to a smaller distributor, he has been able to get fresh produce delivered six days per week.
South Carolina’s warmer average climate means that Cannon Memorial’s soup season tends to wind down by April. But in more northerly places, such as Northeastern Illinois University, in Chicago, soup is often on the menu year-round. Sean O’Donnell, executive chef at this Aviands account, says his operation goes through as much as 14 gallons of soup per day in the winter. But even in the warmer months, production stays nearly as high, at 11 gallons, he adds. Lighter, broth-based options such as gluten-free minestrone, corn and black bean soup and vegetarian chili work for every season.
Year-round soup is also the norm at the University of New Hampshire, in Durham, N.H., where Executive Chef Todd Sweet serves up to 10 varieties daily. In the winter, it’s all about chowders and stews, such as Green Chile Turkey Stew, served with corn tortillas and pinto beans. Broth-based offerings such as Asian noodle bowls with pork or chicken are popular regardless of the season, while the summer months feature cooling favorites such as Chilled Wildberry Soup with Mint.
Sweet says fresh vegetables and aromatics are the key to a delicious soup. To coax out even more flavor, Sweet’s team makes soups in the morning and holds them at 165 degrees for several hours to encourage ingredients to mingle. For cream-based soups, Sweet says he adds a starch thickener to minimize separation.
At the Elizabeth Jane Bivins Culinary Center, in Amarillo, Texas, Executive Chef Rocky Dunham has a different approach. Because the center churns out hundreds of gallons of soups per day for local schools, childcare centers and healthcare facilities, Dunham says it makes more sense to chill soups after cooking and then reheat them on-site.
To make soups such as Homestyle Pork Stew, French Onion Soup, Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo, Texas Chili and Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Dunham relies on cook-chill technology. His 100-gallon capacity kettle features four computerized inner paddles that simultaneously act as bench scrapers and whisks to keep soup moving. The automated technology allows Dunham to produce high volumes of product safely and cheaply. Cook times and temperatures are programmed and logged electronically, while the large kettle size keeps production costs lower.
“I can make 100 gallons of soup without having to wash ten 10-gallon pots,” Dunham says. “Traditionally, chicken noodle soup would cost me $1.13 a portion. With cook-chill, I can get that down to [about 15 cents] per portion, so we’re saving quite a bit of money.”