Monday, February 22, 1999
Campus dining services finds its savior
ASUCLA: Executive chef Sterling Burpee hopes to spice up food
quality
By Neal Narahara
Daily Bruin Contributor
In response to concerns over food quality, the Associated
Students of UCLA (ASUCLA) hired an executive chef to oversee food
production in all of its units early this month.
"Issues were raised concerning food service quality between
locations," said James Friedman, graduate representative on
ASUCLA’s board of directors. "We have business people, but we
needed professional experience in food preparation."
Friedman, who has professional experience in food service, was
an early advocate for the creation of the corporate chef
position.
Sterling Burpee, ASUCLA’s new corporate chef, has 23 years of
experience in food service, having worked for several Atlantic City
casinos and Marriott hotels.
Burpee’s experiences range from being Frank Sinatra’s personal
chef at the Sands Hotel in Atlantic City to serving large numbers
of people – experience which is more directly transferrable to
ASUCLA restaurants.
"Numbers are something I’m familiar with," Burpee said.
"You have to have your stuff together when you’re feeding the
masses – everything has to be checks and balances," he said.
Burpee will help standardize food quality in all ASUCLA
restaurants, which were previously overseen solely by the
individual restaurant managers.
The duties of the corporate chef include overseeing all aspects
of food handling, from preparation to sanitation. In addition to
these daily duties, the corporate chef will be a resource for new
recipes and ideas for menu items.
"Having one person (to overlook food) is somewhat of a new
approach for us," said Robert Williams, ASUCLA associate food
service director. "We’ve been working the last several years to
raise the standard in everything we do."
The corporate chef is a new position to ASUCLA food services,
which has eliminated several positions in the past few years to
reduce costs.
"We had a much larger cooking staff in past years," Williams
said. "The number of people has been reduced."
According to Williams, several of ASUCLA’s many cooking
positions have been eliminated as the people that have filled them
leave the organization. Although Burpee was not hired to take the
place of the cooking staff, he should help to fill the void left by
the eliminated positions, Williams said.
Another position that was eliminated was the food service
director, whose responsibilities were taken over by ASUCLA
executive director Patricia Eastman when former food services
director Kert Evans left the association in August 1997.
According to ASUCLA officials, a secondary reason for creating
the corporate chef position was to increase profits.
"It will take a while, but it’s an investment that’s going to
have a positive impact on the association’s bottom line," said
Richard Delia, ASUCLA finance director.
Association officials hope the new position will increase
efficiency by minimizing food costs and waste.
According to association officials, restaurant customers will
probably not notice an immediate change in food at its
restaurants.
"(There are) not going to be any dramatic differences like menu
changes or renovations – maybe recipe changes and food preparation
changes," Eastman said.
Burpee started work on Feb. 1, and he still has a lot to learn
about the association’s restaurants and the university itself.
"He’s just getting familiar with what we do," Williams said. "It
will be months before he understands the whole scope of his
job."
"It’s a process of getting to know each other and move forward
as a team," Burpee said.
ASUCLA hires Sterling Burpee as its new executive chef in order
to improve dining services.
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