Dining Services' Local Foods Recipe Takes Top National Honors

For the third consecutive year, a specialty recipe developed by UConn Dining Services has received first-place honors from a nationwide organization of collegiate food service providers.

We pride ourselves on doing everything possible to support sustainability, especially local agriculture. We are now the largest user of Connecticut-grown produce in the state. — Robert Landolphi

This year’s recipe, a bibimbap steak and egg burrito, won the gold medal for Best Local Foods Recipe from the National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) in the organization’s 2017 Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards.

Dining Services will be honored in July by the association for that award, along with the bronze medal it also won this year in the Residential Dining Concepts category for the Putnam Refectory dining hall’s renovation.

NACUFS and other groups have consistently honored UConn over the years for the quality of its food, including locally sourced, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and other specialty offerings.

Last year, Dining Services won the NACUFS gold medal for 2016 Best Vegan Recipe for its “Not so Crabby Vegan Crab Cakes with Remoulade Dressing,” which uses hearts of palm to emulate the texture and flavor of crab. In 2015, Dining Services also brought home top honors in the Best Local Foods Recipe with a gold medal for its sweet potato gnocchi, made with eight different local ingredients.

The bibimbap steak and egg burrito that earned UConn Dining Services its gold medal this year is a mixed-rice dish – as suggested by “bibimbap,” the Korean word for the phrase – with ingredients that come from on-campus sources or farms in the region.

It’s a popular offering at the Food for Thought food truck, which is often parked in front of the Homer Babbidge Library during the academic year. Unlike most bibimbap dishes served in bowls, UConn’s is a hand-held wrapped version so it is easy for students to eat while walking across campus after buying it at the truck.

Wrapped up neatly in a 12-inch flour tortilla, the burrito is “made with a delicious marinade of sautéed fruit and vegetables on top of white rice, sliced beef, and an over-easy egg drizzled with Korean gochujang dressing,” its description reads.

The beef, Asian pears, and shiitake mushrooms in the burrito come from area farms, while the vegetables, eggs, and honey are sourced on campus and at UConn’s Spring Valley Student Farm.

Dining Services has increased its purchases of Connecticut-grown food by 35 percent in the past few years, having established strong relationships with local farmers and the produce distributor who informs those farmers before the growing season – when prices can be locked in – of the specific items that the University will want to buy.

“We pride ourselves on doing everything possible to support sustainability, especially local agriculture,” said Robert Landolphi, UConn’s culinary operations manager. “We are now the largest user of Connecticut-grown produce in the state, and have begun purchasing as much livestock from local farms as possible.”

Dining Services serves about 185,000 meals a week at its eight dining halls at the Storrs campus, and also operates a network of cafés on campus, a food court, and a fine dining restaurant, Chuck & Augie’s.

One of those eight dining halls, Putnam Refectory, won this year’s bronze medal in the NACUFS awards in the Residential Dining Concepts category for its recent renovation and expansion.

The renovation included expanding the dining hall to two floors with food stations on both levels, providing space to serve about 700 students at a time.

It also includes a new juice bar, lounge-style seating areas where students can study as they eat, and an EnviroPure disposal unit behind the scenes that turns food waste into grey water through grinding and aerobic decomposition.

The dining hall also has what are known as “Living Grow Walls,” two areas where more than 100 varieties of herbs are grown under artificial sunlight and can be added to recipes as they’re being prepared in the kitchen. Each plant is watered with a hose that runs on a timer, making them largely self-sustaining, other than the occasional need for dining hall workers to trim the plants to promote their proper growth.

“Putnam’s renovation allows us to provide excellent service and quality to students in an atmosphere that emphasizes the importance of sustainability,” says Dennis Pierce, director of UConn Dining Services. “Many people throughout UConn worked very hard to make this project such a success, and we’re honored that NACUFS has recognized those efforts.”

More than 75 colleges and universities across North America competed in six categories in the NACUFS competition this year, and a team of six judges examined each entry carefully and selected the top candidates in each category.

“The entries submitted by the various NACUFS institutions showcase some of the best trends and ideas in college and university dining service programs across the country,” says Dawn Hearne, director of dining services at Hendrix College and the NACUFS Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards chair.

Each year’s winning contest entries are displayed at the NACUFS national conference, and award winners are publicly recognized at a luncheon culminating with the announcement of the Grand Prize winners. Grand Prize winners also receive recognition with a feature article in NACUFS’ magazine, Campus Dining Today.

Bibimbap Steak and Egg Burrito
Makes 25 servings

Bulgogi Beef
Wash hands and change gloves when changing tasks throughout recipe.

6 pounds beef shoulder Teres Major (Four Mile River Farm)
2 cups pineapple juice
1½ cups soy sauce
3 Asian pears, cored (Lyman Orchards)
2 tablespoons garlic cloves (Spring Valley Student Farm)
½ cup onions, chopped (Spring Valley Student Farm)
¼ cup ginger, grated
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup honey (UConn Apiaries)
¼ cup toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place Teres Major in freezer for 30 minutes. Then using slicer or sharp French knife, slice into very thin slices. Place in bottom of hotel pan.
Combine pineapple juice, soy sauce, Asian pears, garlic, onions, ginger, brown sugar, honey, sesame oil, and black pepper in a food processor. Blend until combined, and pour over thinly sliced beef. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to marinate.
Just before assembling burrito, heat the flat top grill to high. Add meat to flat top (without marinade) and cook until slightly caramelized and charred 2-3 minutes, flipping with a spatula. Remove from heat and hold in warmer until ready to build burrito.
Cook ground meat (beef, pork, etc.) to 155 F for 15 seconds. Hold hot potentially hazardous foods at 140 F or above.

White Rice

1½ pounds white rice
1½ quarts water

Rinse rice under cold water until rice runs clear.
Combine rice and water in half pan and place in steamer until cooked about 20 minutes.
Place in warmer until ready to use.
Cook non-meat entrées to 140 degrees for 15 seconds. Hold hot potentially hazardous foods at 140 degrees or above.

Vegetable Blend – Spinach, Carrots, and Mushrooms

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoon canola oil
2 teaspoon garlic, chopped (Spring Valley Student Farm)
1 pound carrots, julienned- (Spring Valley Student Farm)
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (Chatfield Hollow Farm)
2 pounds fresh spinach (Spring Valley Student Farm)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Sauté garlic in sesame and canola oil over medium high heat for 20-30 seconds.
Add the carrots and mushrooms, cooking for 1 minute, and then add the spinach, salt and pepper, cooking until wilted.
Add in the sesame seeds, mix well and hold in pan in warmer until needed.
Cook non-meat entrées to 140 degrees for 15 seconds. Hold hot potentially hazardous foods at 140 degrees or above.

Gochujang Sauce

1 cup gochujang paste
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
½ cup water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined.
Transfer to squeeze bottle and set aside until needed.

Miscellaneous

25 shell eggs, cooked over easy (Held in warmer until needed)
25 (12inch) Flour Tortillas

To Assemble Bibimbap Wrap

1 flour tortilla
½ cup white rice (about 3 oz.)
3 ounces cooked bulgogi beef
1½ ounces vegetable blend (spinach, carrots, mushrooms)
1 each over easy egg
Drizzle gochujang dressing (about 1 tbsp.)

Lay flour tortilla on flat surface.
Add a 3 oz. scoop white rice followed by 3 ounces thinly sliced cooked beef, 1½ ounces sautéed vegetables, 1 over easy egg, and a drizzle of gochujang dressing.
Roll up burrito style and cut in half on the bias.
Place in paper boat and serve.
Optional garnish – using squirt bottle, drizzle gochujang dressing over cut side of wrap.

UConn Today

Dining Services’ Local Foods Recipe Takes Top National Honors

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