| Summary: | PHOTO BY MARISA JACKELS Chef Phillip Edwards recently joined the Dining Services staff as head chef. His love for travel and cooking led him to 13 different countries, including the continent of Antarctica. Family Cobbers celebrate family weekend on campus CONCORDIAN CAMPUS NEWS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 3 New chef acids zest to DS BY MARISA JACKELS Staff Writer There's a new mastermind behind the food Cobbers eat everyday in Dining Services, and his name is Chef Phillip Edwards, a well-traveled cu-linary craftsman who could be the one cafeteria-weary students have been waiting for. Edwards was hired three weeks ago to be Dining Ser-vices' new head chef, and with him he brings a world of expe-rience to channel into his work at Concordia. Edwards originally ap-plied to be sous chef - a new position for the Dining Ser-vices staff. However, after a selection process which re-quired an on-the-spot cooking test, the board of supervisors decided Edwards would be a great candidate for the head chef position instead. Paul Dosch, assistant di-rector of Dining Services, said Edwards won the board of supervisors when they gave him a beef tenderloin with in-struction to create a meal with whatever he could find in the kitchen. The result was grilled filet mignon, portabella demi, whipped Russet potatoes, and summer vegetable hash. "We actually had just started looking for a new head chef but the position wasn't even posted online," said Sa-brina Zimara, marketing su-pervisor for Dining Services. Edwards was the right person at the right time. Zi-mara said his diverse experi-ence as a chef was exactly what Dining Service was look-ing for. "We want to continue in the direction of high quality food," Zimara said, "and us-ing his past experiences, Phil can bring new culinary trends here— keep things fresh. He's been a lot of places." Edwards has cooked or vacationed in 13 countries and every state in the U.S. In fact, part of the reason Edwards became a chef was because of the travel opportunities. "Cooking and traveling go hand in hand," Edwards said. "You can cook any-where." Such ambition led this small-town Arkansas native to the Culinary School at the Art Institute of Colorado in 2001, where he enjoyed cooking and snowboarding, a lifestyle he described as "a pretty nice ex-istence." Edwards has cooked at a cooking school in Thailand, served scientists in Antarctica and R&B singer R. Kelly in Chicago. But what he describes as his weirdest experience as a chef was back in Chicago as a chef for American Girl Place. "Everything was pink and heart-shaped, with lots of tea sandwiches and little girls with high chairs for their dolls," Edwards said. "I learned more than I ever thought I would know about American Girls." Edwards most recently served as executive chef at The Independent, a popular restaurant and bar in uptown Minneapolis. He worked there for over a year, as both he and the restaurant gained much popularity. In fact, in Janu-ary of this year Chef Edwards was twice featured on KARE 11 as a culinary guest and named "The Indy's Favorite Celeb Chef." When Edwards and his wife moved to Fargo this year, Edwards was quick to apply to all the big hospitals and hotels as well as Concordia. Although cooking for thou-sands of college students may not be every chef's dream, for Edwards it's his favorite way to cook. "Here I know that every day at lunch, 1,000-some-thing people come through the door," he said. "It's excit-ing— more interesting than a restaurant." Edwards said meals at a cafeteria are as they would be at a normal restaurant, except everything is tripled and qua-drupled in size. As a result, the menu must be planned over a month in advance. "The meal you will eat today was planned over a month ago, the data for the ingredients to be shipped here was sent two weeks ago, it was cooked yesterday, and served today," Edwards said. "It's a delicate business keep-ing the meals as fresh as pos-sible." As for the menu itself, Edwards said there are over 3,500 recipes written by the chefs themselves. They choose which items to serve based on popularity. "A big part of deciding what to cook is hearing stu-dents when they talk," he said "If people like it, I leave it alone. If they don't, I try to change the recipes to make them better." Edwards plans on bring-ing all his experience and channeling it to give Dining Services a better cuisine. "I do plan on adapting a lot of my recipes from the restaurant for Concordia," he said. "When you're coming to the same place to eat three times a day, variety is very important. Gotta mix it up. Keep it interesting." INTERFAITH: Project will increase dialogue Senior Elise Tweten, another member of Better Together, said that out of all of the student activities Concordia has to offer, she choose Better Together because of her passion for interfaith dialogue. 'When I talk to a Muslim," Tweten said, "1 get a sense for what it is that I hold dear, and I can learn to understand what she grounds her own life and decisions in. When I talk to a Hindu, I am inspired by their deep relationship with their chosen god or goddess and the feminine divine energy that pervades all things. It's exciting. It's important to my own well-being to learn and be struck with wonder". Jacqueline Bussie, director of the Forum on Faith and Life, who is new to Concordia this academic year, is the faculty advisor for the Better Together campaign. Before she got involved here, she worked to foster interfaith dialogue in every aspect of her life and wants to continue that here on Concordia's campus. "Our mission. statement says that we are to send out thoughtful and informed men and women into the world," Bussie said. 'Well, the world we live in is a religiously diverse world, and we are responsible to care for each other in this way, by caring about other people's religions." Bussie wants to encourage people to recognize differences but to not allow them to divide us. `We don't have to agree on the doctrine of the Messiah in order to grow tomatoes together," Bussie said. Better Together hopes to serve as a gateway for students to overcome their differences in order to unite in cooperative action. Those who are interested are encouraged to sign up at the Better Together booth Sept. 28-30. Those who are participating will meet in the atrium at 1:30. Just NI in the blank below with Your favorhe menu Item, I ! I may or may not have spent most of my college tuition money on video games and energy drinks. So in my attempt to save some cash, rve gotten wise to the coupon craze, Look who's getting 20% off at. Paradiso. Yep, that would be me, PHOTOS BY PHOTOG (ALL CAPS) Clockwise from top; Mollie Lackman seranades the audience at Family Weekend Showcase, Junior Lauren Monteforte sits with her grandparents at Family Weekend brunch, and Lauren Wingert scoops Offer **ref 12/31/11, Raspberry sherbert for Family Weekend's Ice Cream Social. Ly More FAMILY WEEKEND N Page 4 fkRo,',,' 801 38th St 5, Fargo, ND www,parachso corn
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