New Dawn for Campus Dining
Look out Masa’s, Ritz-Carlton, and Postrio—the finest restaurants in San Francisco can’t hold a candle to USF’s World Fare. At least not until they open a franchise on campus.
USF has begun a cafeteria renovation that should make the food, as well as the environs, very fine dining indeed. The dining room now offers fresher, healthier food, more choices, and more efficient ways to get it. A new salad and deli bar and another self-service salad and soup bar have been unveiled on the room’s south side. Customers at the new stations can get a sandwich made to order and then whisk their USF I.D. card through a computer, paying with Dons Dollars instead of waiting to pay a cashier. Now diners sit in cane chairs and at jazzy, high-topped tables reminiscent of bistro dining, instead of the traditionally heavy, cafeteria tables and functional chairs.
“It’s much better, more stylish, more inviting,” said sophomore Aubrey Evans.
But the alterations don’t stop there. “It’s going to be a marketplace concept with 10 different food areas and fresh cooking made to order,” said Terry Stoner, associate vice president of business and finance. “It will have a different look, an industrial look.”
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University Center Renovation to Answer Students’ Needs
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By fall 2003, World Fare will be transformed: The kitchen’s enclosing walls will be knocked out and tables and chairs spread throughout the space. The current grills will remain, serving fresh Asian and Mexican food made to order, with the addition of a “classics station” or grill serving roasted meats and sides, and a large, centrally placed pizza oven. A bakery featuring fresh bread and a coffee and espresso bar now fill in the former food stations left vacant when the new salad bars were built.
“We want to be the premier campus dining facility in the country,” said Paul Diaz, general manager of campus dining. “We want students to come back from summer looking forward to eating here.”
Restaurant designer Bob Puccini, who sits on the advisory board of USF’s hospitality management program, worked with the university to create the cafeteria’s new image. Neon signs, exposed pipe, and distressed wood and metal touches carry out an outdoor market/warehouse theme, in the style of Pike Place Market in Seattle.
“The idea was to create variety and a sense of community,” Puccini said. “We tried to break up the space to give it more individuality and personality.”
The marketplace design, or the “Marché concept,” as it’s called in the food services industry, is supposed to eliminate long lines and congestion by spreading the preparation and cooking to different areas. In addition, by next year Dons Dollars or a credit card will be the only way to pay, canceling the need for cashiers. Employees will instead press item numbers on a computer and cards will automatically be debited.
The university hopes the changes will address students’ complaints of slow service, high prices, and low quality. There will be no price increases with the fresher food and some items will be cheaper, Stoner said.
New chef Tom Cerutti, an experienced hotel chef, is taking the cooking to a new level. Instead of frozen soup bases, soup stocks are now made from scratch. Sauces and salad dressings are made fresh daily and meats are marinated more extensively with more complex herbs and spices before they are rotisserie roasted.
“It’s easy to produce food and set it in a hot box,” Cerutti said. “Now we’re using produce at the peak of ripeness and cooking with the right techniques.”
As more effort goes into food preparation, the dining staff has increased from 110 employees to 125.
Students’ push for recyclable to-go cartons and fewer throw-away containers is also being considered. The university is hoping to find a more “environmentally sensitive” alternative to the plastic take-out containers currently used. Students will also be encouraged to use ceramic plates and flatware when eating in instead of paper and Styrofoam. A self-service mechanical dish washing system has also been instituted. 
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