The Gryphon Gazette

By: Alexandra Clark ‘28

Have you ever wondered how your school meals are produced every day? Well thanks to the amazing Epicurean team, each school day we have delicious meals, a salad bar, soup, sandwiches and more and we also get yummy breakfast foods such as croissants or biscuits. Meals can range from Beef Bolognese with Rotini Pasta to the delicious Grilled Cheese with fries.

How do they know how much food to make?

Since we have about 400 students in the upper school, the staff normally makes around 500+ servings of food as there are a lot of people who get seconds. They also have a sheet and they keep track of how many servings they made and how much food was eaten, so they can use the sheet to help them decide how much food they should make the next time. For example, since Chicken Teriyaki is so popular, the chefs normally make around “320 pounds of chicken, 5 gallons of teriyaki sauce, and 11 trays of rice and vegetables.” (This is when there are no seniors on campus).

What is a day in the life as a chef at Crystal?

The chefs arrive at school at 5:30 – 6 am and they check the spreadsheets, so they know how much food they have to prepare for the day. Between 9-10:30, they have to cook all the food and they make all the food at school and it’s all homemade. They finish making the food by 11 and between 11:10-11:30 they make the garnishes and start preparing for the next day. Between the lunches the head chef, Chef Angel, “Does his orders and makes the menu for the next weeks.” The team normally gets a break between 1-1:30 and they finish at around 2:30. If they have catering they sometimes finish at 11 p.m.

How does Epicurean deal with dietary restrictions?

Chef Angel does the dietary restrictions himself because “he wants to make sure there are no errors or mistakes.” The items in the kitchen are also nut free to prevent any cross contamination. The team also works hard to separate gluten items and gluten-free products in order to also make sure that there are no mix ups. There is also a vegetarian option for those who don’t eat meat. Also for each meal, it tells you if the food contains dairy, nuts, etc. 

How do they decide what food to make?

The team all gets together, a week in advance and plans out the menu for the following week. They normally meet either on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and they think about the students and PAC members. They also do food based on seasons and what will be good for the winter or spring time. The main chef, Chef Angel, also sometimes creates new menu items and asks the team to make sure that they like the idea first.

What do others have to say about the food program?

One teacher mentioned that he prefers Epicurean meals compared to other food programs because he can tell the ingredients are fresh and the quality and variety of the food are incredible. A Crystal student with dietary restrictions mentioned that they always prepare the food for her right away and it is freshly made and is still warm. 

The Epicurean staff does so much for our school on a daily basis that we aren’t even aware of. These chefs are seriously determined to make sure that we enjoy our food and they are super hard working. It is incredible that Crystal has the ability to provide us with such amazing chefs that not only greet us with warm smiles, but provide us with delicious food every day along with salad, soup, sandwiches and even morning snacks.