Inspire me with a Menu
 

I accientally started this same thread in another section, but I wanted it to be seen by a broader group. I am a chef for a sorority house at UNC. One of my challenges is keeping the menu varied and interesting. Certain favorites are expected to be repeated but by and large I like to try to menu meals with as few repeats per semester as possible. I would love to hear from some sorority girls, both students and alum, with their favorite sorority house meal. I need Inspiration!! I also need some vegetarian ideas too.

Have you thought about contacting some of the other house chefs on campus? They will probably be able to help out with recipes, etc.

i love vegetarian 9 bean soup! my stepmother makes it and it's just full of flavor and so great for a cold day. i'd think if you googled it there's a recipe somewhere. and good lord, some sorority houses have chefs? i've never seen it before!

Become intimate with firm tofu... Seriously... Stirfry with ginger and garlic and sesame oils and lots of vegetables.

Your replacement for butter is either olive oil or flax seed oil.

Quorn and Veat products are very tasty to us vegetarians.

Most large chapters with houses do - they offer meal plans for the sisters in house and sometimes out of house. Often times eating at the sorority is less expensive and tastier than eating on campus. My chapter has less than 20 women live in so it doesn't make sense for us, but on campuses where there are 50+ (or in many cases, 100+) women living in the house, it's a better idea than a mass free-for-all in the kitchen every night!

yes, and i wish i could live there again! we had breakfast, lunch and dinner m-th(dinner was sit down) breakfast, lunch and buffet dinner friday, continental brunch on saturday and sunday. fraternity boys were servers(they set the tables, set the food on the table, refilled glasses, bussed the tables and washed the dishes. they got to have lunch and dinner for free as payment.

lasagna, spaghetti, fried chicken, bar-b-qued chicken, pot roast were pretty standard fare for us.

i have a vegetarian chili recipe that is very tasty and easy. of course, this is not geared for a crowd, but maybe you could change it for the amount you need.

1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. cumin, 1 tbsp. chili powder, 2 cloves garlic, minced, i medium onion, chopped, 1 green pepper, diced, 2 cans(14 1/2 oz.)tomatoes, 3 tbsp. lite red wine herb and vinegar salad dressing, 1 tsp. ground oregano, 1 can (15 oz) black beans, 1 can (15 oz) pinquinto beans, 1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans, 1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans.

heat oil in dutch oven, add onion and bell pepper. saute'. add garlic. add tomatoes, salad dressing, seasonings and beans. stir well to combine. cover and simmer 5-10 minutes. offer shredded cheese, avocado slices and plain yogurt for garnish.

i also have a rice, black bean and feta cheese salad that is very good.

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 (3.5 oz) package crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup each chopped celery and green onions
1/2 cup italian dressing
2 tbsps. chopped fresh parsley

mix all ingredients. refrigerate. serves 5.

Yep. Larger chapters tend to do this. When I was in school, only ZTA did this on my campus but I've heard that a couple of more chapters have added a meal plan since I graduated. The meal plan was included along with our dues which consisted of lunch and dinner Monday through Friday. Our chef made everything from popcorn chicken salad to lasagna to chicken cordon bleu. We also had a salad bar and desserts. It was great and I'm one of my few friends who actually ate healthy all through college!

I loved LOVED the sweet and sour chicken that our chef would make. I would eat at the house every time that was on the menu.

The chapter of Gamma Phi Beta I advise has an Executive Chef who prepares all of the meals for our girls.

Chef has made a lot of effort to ask the girls about what they want and even distributes a survey at the start of each year. She asks them about what they like to eat, asks *them* to share a favorite recipe from home, their favorite kind of birthday cake and so on.

Because she is part Irish and part Chinese, she loves to share her heritage with girls and often cooks great Chinese dishes for them. Chef goes to great lengths to make the meals from fresh ingredients where possible instead of relying totally on Sysco or other prepared food services (cuts down on fat and salt). And, as an officer on the House Corporation Board, I am happy to report that she (usually!) stays within the budget. :)

It's because of her personal effort and great cooking that the members adore her.

Try asking the members of the chapter to share a recipe from home and then try and see which ones you can work in to your menu plans. Also, maybe try and work in one or two of your "specialties" and take the time to tell the girls the story behind your favorite dish.

.....Kelly :)

Chef~ Have you thought about putting together an advisory panel to meet with you once a quarter to share ideas and get feedback? Professionally, I serve on such a group for our university caterer, and they use that time to learn from us what we think about food quality, service etc. In addition to surveys, a panel could help guide you on a more regular basis. And, of course, the panel should be a cross section of your diners.

Also, how engaged is the sorority's house manager? In some houses, this is the person who would help approve menus and provide feedback.

Thanks for all the comments. Just so you know, the chapter has a food liaison with whom I meet regularly. At the beginning of the fall semester we survey the girls asking what meal they would most like to see on the menu. We get good results from that. The sisters all know they can request specifics from me and that I am open to new ideas. I ask about meals you may remember from your days in a sorority because frankly I do not like repeating meals too often. I have tried things like Vietnamese Table Salad with Lemongrass Chicken (went over great) just to push myself and see the response. We try to do special dinners a few times per semester, our most recent being a Dinner at Hogwarts for Halloween. This year I have had to become much more vegetarian conscious so me and the tofu and tempeh are pretty friendly. I have actually done a most heinous desecretion: Tofu Pot Pie. The Tofu fanatics like it but somehow its so wrong. As for talking to other chefs in houses on campus, while the house directors have opportunities to network, I rarely see my fellow chefs (maybe once a year). The house mother last year and before was a great resource, too, having served in 4 different houses on 4 campuses over her many years. But in the end I always find that I can learn something new from people from other places with other experiences.

Just as way of information, the chapter I cook for has about 130 member with 40 in residence in the house. I am automatically the meal plan for all sorority members. I do approx. 40 for breakfast, 80 - 100 at lunch (buffet), and 100 - 110 for dinner (family style Monday and Wednesday, Buffet Tuesday and Thursday).

Thanks for the input and keep it coming.

Wow, do you live at the house, or are you just there from sun-up to sun-down? You prepare breakfast, lunch AND dinner there?

See, this is what we missed having to live in the dorms at Penn State. Damn brothel law. ;)

No, I don't live at the house although I had a sister the other day say that they were starting to consider me their "house dad". That being said, it's fairly obvious that I'm basically the only male in an all female environment. I do have an assistant whose job it is to open and fix breakfast (7:00 am cold breakfast out, 7:30 am hot breakfast, available until 9:30 am). I come in around 8:30 to 9:00 and fix most of lunch and dinner. At 4:00 pm the first of 2 evening assistants come in. The other arrives closer to 5:00. Once I have the meals out, either on buffet or on the table and have shown the evening staff what is what I leave, usually around 5:45 to 6:15. They deal with putting food away and cleaning up. It's a nice system which allows me to focus primarily on the food and not the other details. This is my 3rd year with the house and while it can be one of the most frustrating jobs I've ever had it has also been without a doubt one of the most rewarding.

one of our all time favorite desserts is something we called "ant hill pie" . so easy, yet so delicious. crush a bag of oreos. pour half the bag in a 13 x 9 pan. spread softened peppermint ice cream over the oreos. sprinkle remaining oreos over the ice cream. freeze and serve on chilled plates or in parfait glasses.

you can get fancy and drizzle chocolate sauce on the plate before the ice cream or drizzle some on the ice cream.

we had one cook who did breakfast and lunch and another who did dinner. they were both good cooks.

Your chapter is very lucky to have you. When I graduated, I coerced our house cook (we LOVED Sheila) to give me her recipe to Peanut Butter Bars. They are like Reese Cups, but made in a pan.

They were so killer good and we wanted them every week.