Podcast

Transcript

Josh (00:00)

All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the 5 in 20 podcast by Remarkable Academic Foods. I'm your host, Joshua Miller, where we have at least another five questions in 20 something minutes. And today's topic is going to be on sustainability and really from a general food service standpoint, not necessarily tied to a product or service like we've discussed on past episodes. And another reason that I'm excited for this episode, not only on that topic, but also our very special guest. Chef Alexandra Ceribelli AKA Chef Alex. Chef Alex has a bachelor's of applied food studies from the Culinary Institute of America, which is unique in itself.A don't care what school of food service program you are a part of in small role, large role, big program, small program, K -12 college. Trust me, there is tons of value that you can get out of this episode. So make sure you stay tuned for what Chef Alex is going to drop our way.

Alexandra Ceribelli (01:21)

Awesome. Thank you for having me. a big fan of the podcast and really excited to connect

Josh (01:26)

Awesome,

Well, getting to know Chef Alex a little bit more, you have something that sticks out to me in your headline on LinkedIn, which, two words, "Happy Kitchens" What is Happy Kitchens? Why is it on there? And what's so unique about it? Let's talk about Happy Kitchens with you

Alexandra Ceribelli (01:45)

I love to talk about Happy Ktichens So for me, telling stories through food is very important. And as a manager, as a chef, it's less about control and do what I say, and this is how we do it. We have excellent systems in place, but it really is about creating environments where people feel comfortable to critically think, to...say how they feel about something to feel comfortable enough to share themselves and their story and you know really feel as if they are a part of what it is that we're doing. And it's not only from the employee standpoint, it's from the customer and student standpoint as well. So the way that I manage is really as support. know, how do I create these environments where we are all putting in our best? And the way I do that is through

Josh (02:26)

Mm -hmm.

Alexandra Ceribelli (02:35)

creating a values -driven work environment, right? So before we know what we're going to do, we need to talk about why. And that why is so important because it brings us together around a central message. And when you have people who are from all over the world, you have people who are intergenerational. We have people that work with us that are in their 70s. We have people that work with us who are college students and are 18 years old. And how do we create an environment where everybody plays a part in creating our menus and our day -to -day interactions. And that really is my number one priority, and it's how we end up serving the beautiful, delicious food that we do.

Josh (03:18)

I love that answer and the reason why is this is a super passionate part of not only what I love to see in programs, but also my wife, which is engagement. And it sounds like a lot of that was revolved around being engaged with not only your customers, but also especially your staff that's there every day that's seeing probably you more than they're seeing their own family and sometimes of the year especially. that's definitely.

Great to hear how you bring that loop around. And I'm definitely going to come back to that a little bit later, because that's going to dive into a bigger question that I have later on to this podcast. But in terms of your work with Rutgers at Rutgers University, Harvest, let's talk about that. What is Harvest? is, like, if you had to give people that's never heard of it, never been there a high -level overview of what your location is all about, what is it about?

Alexandra Ceribelli (04:08)

So Harvest is a part of the larger Rutgers Dining So we are called a retail operation or a cash operation. So we accept meal equivalencies, which in our case is swipes from students. And we also are open to the public. We are currently open Monday through Friday for breakfast through lunch. And we serve about 1 ,200 customers a day. Have a hot line a pizza station, a smoothie bar, salads, sandwiches, and soups. Everything is made from scratch. We don't use any ultra -processed food. And we celebrate global and regional proceedings. So we focus on a culture where we have basically, know, our best ability, eliminated back -of -the -house waste.

Through cross utilization and repurposing of ingredients. We do a lot of pickling and preserving and cross utilization. So that way we keep our costs very low and our product quality really high. We are what's called plant forward. So every, which is a lot different than, you know, vegan, vegetarian. So all of our entrees, for example, are predominantly vegan, but sometimes vegetarian, sometimes will contain dairy.

And we have multiple and you can modify them with a legume fritter with a piece of fish or a piece of chicken. So we haven't removed meat altogether in our operation, but we've drastically reduced the amount of meat we procure. And if you can see on our Instagram as well, we do have an Instagram. We create very colorful, flavorful food and we always attach a story to it. We celebrate special holidays from all over the world. We really try to bring students into the conversation when it comes to menu planning. So one example is we asked on Instagram for students to pick our next menu and we got 125 responses to that story. And there's dishes from Ethiopia, from Senegal, from Korea, xejianglian. And it was really fun to see what the students were thinking would be a good fit for a Harvest and they hit it right on the head. It's like they picked wonderful dishes. And what it does is it sparks not only conversation, but it really, so in surveys and when we talk to students, what comes up again and again is that Harvest feels like home. And I think that that's really cool because we're going all around the world, really trying to celebrate the stories of food and the number one response is that it feels like home

Josh (06:35)

Yeah.

Alexandra Ceribelli (06:42)

And here in New Jersey, especially in most university campuses, these are our cultural hubs. So what happens often is that students will see a dish that we're serving and bring their friends and be like, I never thought that I would see this in New Jersey here. And it's so good. Like, this is awesome. So our menus change quite frequently. It varies based off of season. We do a full rotation of our entree line every week. But even within that week, the entrees will be different because we make sure that we use everything. So they'll have little changes to it. And that's really fun. So it truly is a collaborative.

Josh (07:22)

Awesome. And one thing that really stood out for me in terms of reducing food waste, yes, you talked about preserving food, including pickling things. think at the Many Directions you brought some pickled berries or something like that, which was very unique, but so outside the box, so simple. Why didn't I think about that before? Or even not peeling vegetables. I was like, why do I keep peeling my carrots to put in a salad? Why am I doing that? And it really made me thinking that way and more with just my cooking at home and just thinking about the impact that can make on large scale like what you're doing there is great. But having the feedback from the students is I think another key in helping you reduce waste because guess what? If you're getting their feedback of what they want, you'll serve it and they'll eat it. Versus if you're not getting their feedback and you're just guessing, throwing spaghetti up at the ceiling you're probably going to run into more food waste because you're not hitting home with what they want. So I love that aspect.

Alexandra Ceribelli (08:24)

Absolutely, and they love it. mean, we've done some surveys, we've done some tests. I mean, it really is the hot spot on campus, you know, and it's because it is a reflection of so many different people.

Josh (08:38)

Awesome, awesome. I love all of that. And the Harvest literally as well is another cool aspect to your operation there. going back to sustainability in general, you talked about happy kitchens, how it's about the people. And when we talk about sustainability, I feel like in this country as a whole, and even myself included, a lot of people go to, especially in food service, to food, to food, to food. And it's really environmentally driven. Other arms to sustainability outside of environmental. So what are those other ones that we need to be paying attention to in this industry?

Alexandra Ceribelli (09:16)

So when we think of sustainability, oftentimes we put a lot of emphasis on the environmental, as you said. sustainability has, when you think of sustainability, we like to think about it in three or four pillars. I'm going to use three pillars in this example, because it's really easy and the social pillar kind of branches off to create that

So you have the economic, the environmental, and the social. And so oftentimes when we talk about sustainability, we are usually talking about the environmental impacts and the cost associated with them or the cost associated to mediate them. Right? So those two things are kind of constantly in conversation. The social element is actually, you know, stands equally. So you think of like three intersecting circles.

And for me, it's the fabric that creates success in the other two realms. So what I like to prove out in every single kitchen that I run is that the environmentally sustainable and the social sustainable practices are so much better for your bottom dollar. So we did a project where we compared us to a similarly sized retail cafe, and we do plant based by default.

So default is really interesting, right? So like, you get a hamburger, what does that usually come with? French fries, you know, we have defaults with everything, right? You order a cup of coffee in New York City, you're gonna get it with milk and two sugars unless you suggest differently. You know, it's like you, yeah, we have these defaults. So the power of changing the default option, especially amongst college age students is a huge shift the right direction when it comes to their purchasing power. And for me, I think at the bottom line, food is the easiest sell, right? Because you can smell it, see it, taste it, touch it, feel it, and you have the hospitality that goes with it.

Josh (11:08)

it's so refreshing to hear the full circle of needs of the sustainability for all of us as human beings. It's so easy to get caught up in one aspect of it. And it's so much more. And at end of the day, it's about the people, whether it all loops to the people. Every single aspect of it does. So, so important. And hopefully people will get some takeaways from that and really looking at their program holistically, not just the environmental and the food aspect

Alexandra Ceribelli (11:38)

Absolutely, and understanding that it is a lot easier than it seems because when you invest in people, it's work that they want to do. You make it interesting. And I think we lose a lot of good ideas by not supporting them in our environments. So if you can really give a platform for people's good ideas, you get a three -dimensional object versus just one way of seeing things.

Josh (11:55)

So true.

Alexandra Ceribelli (12:03)

When we did a survey for the students as to why they come to Harvest, there was a bunch of options. So had 150 respondents in a week. we had one of the questions was like, why do you choose Harvest? And the options were, it's healthy, I'm avoiding ultra -processed food, I'm vegan vegetarian, the hospitality and the environment, the food is delicious. And I feel like I might be missing one more. But overwhelmingly, the food is delicious was the highest. It's like 145 out of 150. So the number one reason is the food is delicious. And the second one was the hospitality. When you walk into this space, you can feel the love.

Josh (12:35)

Nice. That helps.

Alexandra Ceribelli (12:46)

The food tastes like home. feels like home. And everybody's smiling. Everyone will greet you. And it's not because there's someone in the back being like, you need to smile at all the customers. And you can't be on your phone and follow what it's like. No, I'm really happy to see you. I can't wait for you to have this. It's delicious. And like I said, it's not just students, it's the public as well. And it's, it's the best feeling ever. You know, and I get messages all summer, like, are you open? You know, our employees are like, we miss the food.

Josh (12:54)

Yeah, right.

Alexandra Ceribelli (13:15)

So yeah, the number one is the food is good and the hospitality. All the other stuff is just a bonus.

Josh (13:20)

Yeah, is. Yes, it is. It almost follows, right? It really almost follows in line after

Alexandra Ceribelli (13:28)

Exactly. having that be the priority, to lead with that deliciousness and be like, you know, it's awesome when I give these presentations, I'm like, here's the food. You're like, this is amazing. And then you talk about what it's all about and where it comes from and what our goals are and what we do and what our financials look like. And then it's like, okay, all right, wow.

Josh (13:39)

Yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. So I want to talk a little bit about some of what you've done at the CIA. So food systems instructor. Like, let's talk about that. What is that course all about when you were doing

Alexandra Ceribelli (14:11)

I love that course and I miss teaching it. So I'm actually gonna go a little backwards to go ahead. So I started something at the Culinary Institute called the Menus of Change Kitchen. And it started as a grant that was given to the CIA to kind of bring this nebulous program to life. And it really is like baby Harvest in my mind. Like it really is Harvest 1 .0.

And the menus of Change Kitchen came from my past experiences. So I've gone from Michelin restaurants all the way to shelters and schools. And I find that my passion is really in creating beautiful foods in the places where you least expect it and the difference that that makes to people. It's just so fundamentally queer. So I've had some pretty amazing experiences kind of before the CIA that I can maybe get into a little bit what drew the inspiration for the menus of Change Kitchen. But basically, we created this kitchen that took surplus ingredients from all of the other kitchens because like art school, know, food there is a medium, right? You're making more food than anyone could possibly eat because the students need to learn how to prepare it. So it was the same thing as you go to art school, you have your paints, you have your brushes. It's like if you need to learn how to cook steaks to temperature, you need to cook a lot of steaks to temperature in order to know the difference between a rare, a medium, and a well. So if you think about that, having something like the Menus of Change Kitchen that's responsible capturing that surplus ingredients and making a kitchen out of them, it was the best. It fit really well into the program. And actually my sous chef and another sous chef who works at Rutgers University now, were both former students in the Menace of Change kitchen. So they came with me to Rutgers and Lance Biscoso, he works here at Harvest with me and he's a graduate of CIA worked in the Menus Change Kitchen for years, I see Chef there. And it was a place where students, again, could play, you know, it's where, and it's funny because I was told by my mentor, who is there, Brendan Walsh, you know, was like, stop saying the word creative. Stop saying creative, you know, at first he was like, people get a little scared by it, you know.

But it didn't work against the program. It was a way for students to understand. Like, it's like, hey, you screwed up your emulsion in class today. Let's make a bunch of them. Come on, let's go. Let's do it without the book. Let's practice these things and gain confidence. And that's what happened. The Menus of Change students ended up excelling in their class. And it would be like, OK, here's a bunch of ingredients. I would always start them with a salad. I'm like, make a salad. They're like, well, do you want it this way? I'm like, you're in culinary school. Just make a salad.

I'm not going to micromanage your salad if you have any questions, if you want some tips. And it would evolve into students really developing their menus and planning them out. And then we would convert them and get everything we needed, you know, and really bring themselves to the table. And, you know, every student that's worked in the Menu to Change Kitchen is doing incredible things now. And it was great, you know, it the really the first plant forward kitchen that we had at CIA Hyde Park, and it was an honor to bring that to life. And I was just back there recently for the Menu to Change conference, and I spoke at the Healthy Menu R &D Collaborative on beverages, and talking to my former colleagues and knowing what an impact that had in their curriculum is incredible. So I taught a class called Introduction to Food Systems, and it was…

It's a really important class. So anytime you teach a 101 class for me, it's about getting people excited. Because if people are excited about the thing, then they are a thousand times more likely to, yeah. And they'll, you know, if you're interested in something, if you're passionate about something, anytime you grow in a field, right, you are going to, you're going to face challenges.

And that passion is going to be able, is the thing that is going to drive you to try again and again and again and again to get through those challenges, to get through that wall, to navigate and do things differently because you care. If you don't care, you're going to hit that wall and you're going to say, yeah, maybe, maybe this isn't for me. I'm going to go do something else. And when it comes to the amount of options that we have within this network of food, mean, your podcast alone speaks to right? There are so many different opportunities and places for us to be. And so in that class, the thing so each session has a different theme. And what I try to get across most importantly is that the food system is responsible for one third of all greenhouse gas emissions. So we have a responsibility as chefs as culinarians to do our part and in navigating that the best that we

So I give them really the ins and the outs and I give them the tools in their toolbox to say like, hey, you know, I heard about this and this is what I can do. And then they were able to experience it with the menus of Change Kitchen. So it would be like, hey, like who's eating at the Menus Of Change Kitchen? You know what we're all about. Like this is, you know, and that really drove that home. It's like, yeah, it's the best food. well, this is the purpose. We would talk about, plant biology, we would talk about purchasing, we would have them make a menu. So they would look up the New York Department of Agriculture website and see what's in season and design a menu based off of seasonal ingredients, like local seasonal ingredients. So it made them do research into how to procure food locally, which is a great project. We talked about ocean acidification and how that, like that, the pH levels of the oceans are changing and becoming more acidic, and that affects our wonderful calcium -based shellfish and things like this. We talk about climate change head on. mean, it's pretty early in the program. We talk about that it's not a political issue, that this is a scientific issue, that 99 % of scientists, well, actually more than that. you know, recognize and this is what we can do. I used to work on fishing boats that were contracted to NOAA research scientists in the Arctic Circle. So I did that for three seasons and I would go out for months at a time and we would go up to the Arctic ice and it like I would, the scientists would explain to me what I was seeing. I was seeing what's called baby birds and thinner ice…

There was a year where the walrhy didn't have enough ice to land on. So they were just going to the shore and droves and dying because there was no place to go. I've seen a polar bear and it's like, well, a polar bear looks pretty hungry. And that's a hard thing to see, right? So you're in this place that's incredibly magical with climate scientists who are studying all sorts of different aspects, marine mammals. the icebergs, the salinity temperature and depth of the ocean and, you know, learning the statistics on food and what our system, the resource intensiveness of our system really kind of captured for me, you know, what my purpose is, you know? It was like, OK, I think I never planned on becoming a chef. And it was all these experiences that it kind of compounded to really set horse because I'm a very purpose driven person and I love like you said bringing these things to life and really hitting what they call it the triple bottom line of that so

Josh (22:36)

I love all of that. And that's one real great reason on why I brought you on because it wasn't like you got into this industry with the first thing you ever cooked, such as myself. It kind of grew onto you and you really got passionate about this portion of the industry. And I love that. And I'm hoping that everyone that is tuned into this episode has got some value out of it. I have no doubt that they have. But if anyone wants to continue the conversation, I know that I want to,

As with everything that's great must come to an end. How can people connect if they want to continue the conversation?

Alexandra Ceribelli (23:12)

Awesome. Well, you can see our Instagram. It's @HarvestIFNH and I'll send you the links and can post it. Or you can shoot me an email, which I'll provide as well. If I say it out loud, it might be long. So you can type it out. So feel free to send me a message through LinkedIn, through my email, or through the Instagram.

Josh (23:23)

Yeah,

Awesome. And as part of your journey that is continuing, I see that you're part of the Master of Business in Science with a concentration in sustainability. So I commend you for that. It speaks again, volume to what the work that you're doing and are going to continue to do. So best, I wish you nothing but well in this endeavor and many more to come. And everyone, thank you again for tuning in for another episode of this podcast.

Alexandra Ceribelli (23:51)

Thanks

Josh (24:00)

You are all ambassadors. Chef Alex is an ambassador of remarkable academic foods across the country. Thank you for tuning in. And hopefully, start thinking. Get those wheels turning in and implement some of this, even if it's just one thing. Everything, small little pieces, if we start making changes, will have a big impact across the country. So until next time, everyone, I'm your host, signing off