Aramark under fire: YDS chefs speaks out

On Wed., Feb. 14, Yale Dining Services' (YDS) top chefs came out against Aramark, manager of Yale's dining halls, blaming the company for what they claim to be a severe decrease in food quality. The Herald talked to three YDS chefs: Mike Schoen, first chef at Berkeley, as well as two other chefs, Vincent* and Jonathan*.

EUGENE WONG/YH

Yale Herald: What are some changes that you have noticed under Aramark?

Mike Schoen: [Aramark] came in the fall of 1998, and we noticed some changes right away. They had certain items taken off the menu. We used to have tenderloin steaks, but they saw that everyone was taking two or three of them, so they said, "Okay, we have to get rid of that." Or they would put out grilled cheese with the steak so maybe [students would] take one of each, things of that nature. In Commons, they started ["Eli Classics"] where they would have, on any given night, pizza, pasta, or burgers, to take pressure off the more expensive items.

Vincent: All the higher cost items are gone. I mean, how many times a week can you eat pizza? French bread pizza one day, Mediterranean focaccia the next. It's always pizza, pasta, and mashed potatoes. They're loading you up on starches.

MS: You know, Aramark has even started writing up employees for having a little bit of food left over after a meal. Usually when we have some cans of food left over, we'll utilize it later or send it out as leftovers. But Aramark has said they're going to write up the managers and the employees for having any food left over. It's discipline.

YH: Can you give some specific examples of Aramark's cost-cutting procedures?

Jonathan: I remember one night when there was beef stew on the menu, and one of the Aramark representatives came in to the dining hall and criticized the way the line was set up. He said: "We want the rice to come be

fore the beef stew," so that we served the beef stew over the rice, to build it up and make it look like more food. They're nit-picking. That's why they push the starches—the rice and the potatoes.

V: Sysco (the food vender used by Aramark) has an "A" list and a "B" list, with higher quality products in the "A" list. We don't get the "A" list. We're tired of cooking this garbage. Yale is renovating these buildings, spending millions and millions of dollars putting beautiful equipment in, and what are we doing? We're cooking pasta every night.

YH: Is Aramark doing something wrong if it can't sustain a profit and deliver a quality product?

MS: To my understanding, the dining halls have always run a deficit. The problem is that they ran over the expected deficit. The bottom line is that we don't believe that, for the amount of money students pay for their meal plans, they're getting their dollar's worth. Additionally, we're worried about job security. What does it take to put a pan of rice in a steamer? What do they need all of us cooks for, if they're going to constantly get all vendor [pre-made] items?

J: Aramark realizes that once they can't [cut costs] with food, they're going to start cutting labor. That's why they've been bringing in vendor products, to eliminate people's jobs. They're sending us stuff like pre-made mozarella sticks. The other week I tasted them, they were salty and gross, like the kind of stuff you'd get at a snack bar in a bowling alley. It shouldn't be. We have the people. We have the skills. Let us do our job. If you don't buy quality stuff, then it doesn't matter how well you can cook. If they're giving us pre-packaged shit, what can we do?

YH: Has Aramark's reliance on large-scale vendors like Sysco hurt local New Haven businesses who used to supply you?

MS: We used to get our produce from the Long Wharf and pasta from local factories— really fresh stuff. They would literally wheel it down onto our trucks. You still get some cheaper items from better local brands. But I heard the managers are going to try to stop getting anything from local brands, just items that they somehow can't get from Sysco.

YH: Are your problems with Aramark going to be an issue of contention when you re-negotiate your labor contract in 2002?

MS: Our union president, Bob Proto, has already told Aramark that we're not going to negotiate with them. We're going to negotiate with Yale. Aramark is not our employer.

V: It's all about money. The union's position is that Yale has more than enough money, there is no crisis, its endowment brings in $7 million a day, it can afford to have quality food.

YH: Any suggestions for what students can do?

MS: The outcry has to come from the students and their parents, because they are the ones who aren't getting their money's worth. The freshmen who have come this year, they don't know anything different. But people who have been here longer, juniors and seniors, they've seen what has happened. The word has to be put out that this wasn't the way it always was.

V: I want the students to be aware of what's going on. I heard a rumor—I'm not sure how true it is—that the menu after spring break is going to be even worse than it already is. I think the students need to put up a fight for this. It's your food, and it's your money that's paying for it. * Names have been changed to protect anonymity.

Do you think the quality of the dining service's food has declined?

Back to Opinion...