Hunger pangs to end as food service arrives
by Connie Yu, Managing Editor

   With a variety of food service experiences, the four new campus cafeteria managers vow to revive the TCC community’s confidence in on-campus dining.
   They are in for many challenges.
   To carry out a successful operation, the managers say they will need to sustain a profit while providing the community with quality food, professional services and affordable prices.
   They will need to regain the community’s trust after Weber’s Catering, the college’s last vendor, failed with its unappetizing food and poor services, which eventually resulted in a red-ink bankruptcy.
   Moving to a college known for its reliance on alternative dining options, they also will need to compete with neighboring restaurants and diners.
   In all, they will need to bring the college community back to the cafeterias, they say.
   “My goals are to have people not afraid to come to eat and talk to me and the staff,” Toby Tindall, manager of the South    Campus cafeteria and the director of district catering, said. “I want them to be happy about coming here.”
   Working his way up from washing dishes, the seasoned chef said he has thumbed through all aspects of food service.
   “I started cooking when I was 9 years old in my grandfather’s restaurant,” he said.
   Aside from quality food and services, Tindall said he believes that having a creative menu and good quality food will help retain the community’s attention in campus dining.
   “I am going to start with the basics,” he said. “Then I’ll take it as far as the students want. Eventually, we are going to train our cooks to think outside the box and make it a little more fun.”
   Derrick Perkins, cafeteria manager of NE Campus, agreed.
   “We are going to try a little bit of everything to see what [the community] likes,” he said. “I want to see some diversified menus come about.”
   The Louisiana native said he wants to bring forth his experience in Cajun-style food and enrich the atmosphere of on-campus dining.
   “We just want to have a warm and friendly atmosphere where people will feel comfortable to come.”
NW cafeteria manager Louis Camper said he brings a different perspective to the management team.
   The 22-year Navy veteran in military dining has been a business student on SE Campus since this summer and will continue school part-time as he begins his new job.
   “Being a student,” he said. “I kind of know some of the likes and dislikes of the students.”
   NW Campus had held the lowest customer volume in the district, and Camper said he would like to see that figure changed.
   “What we want to do is to provide a landmark for the students and staff here,” he said. “We want to put NW Campus back on the map.”
   The college and Educational Catering, Inc., TCC’s new cafeteria vendor, have invested more than $75,000 in renovations and technical and staff support for the cafeterias, Frank Ricupati, company president, said.
   In addition to the new management team, Ricupati said he plans initially to apply at least five to six times more staff power than his predecessor, as well as a computerized card system that will allow customers to pay for their meals with a prepaid dining card.
   The company is here to succeed, Ricupati said.
   But its success will depend on its ability to keep the food cost down and draw and retain large enough campus crowds to sustain a profit.
   “Food service is the same,” Tindall said, comparing his new job to his experience working in other restaurant facilities. “The challenge here is that we are having lower prices and quality food, and that is going to be a challenge.”