TCU has partnered with a local chef to prepare new dishes that are available to students at a dining hall on campus. Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman is a James Beard-recognized chef, owner of El Eledi and culinary director of Ohhi Hospitality.
This week, she is working with the food services company, Sodexo, and has introduced new dishes at a dining facility at TCU's Gutierrez Hall. Among new items are Carnitas Torta, Pastel Azteca, Aguachile Verde, and Elote.
"The team here has just been really incredible with being able to scale my recipes," Quiñones-Pittman says. "I've been complimenting everyone just on the flavor and size of it."
"These are all her recipes that are personal to her. We took those and just expanded on them," says Lamont Meriwether, general manager for resident dining at TCU. "Luckily for us, expanding and scaling recipes is something we do on a daily basis. When we're introducing new items, it does become a bit of a challenge, but we were able to work through those in a couple days, and we're pretty pleased with the product we ended up with."
Meriwether says the Aguachile Verde is similar to a ceviche but "more of an avocado sauce." he says the aguachile is made with shrimp, red onions and cucumber salad. Carnitas Torta is served with tomatoes, avocado and crema served on a ciabatta roll. He says Elote is served with tajin and a dressing on top.
"Monotony breakers are big for us. You dine in our dining facilities every single day while you're here throughout the school year," he says. "It's really important to us to think outside the box, show them something new, show them fresh flavors, show them what can be achieved in a dining hall. It's not just your traditional chicken strips every day. That is not the message we want to project to our students."
Meriwether says he hopes events like this can show students TCU has "true culinary talent" on staff.
Students were getting their first tastes of the food Wednesday and say they were glad to see a variety of options.
"I know there are going to be a lot of plates I can try that maybe I wouldn't be able to try back home," one says.
"For me, it's so exciting to see all these foods," another says. "I'm an international student, and seeing the pork carnitas and elote, I just want to try all of it."
Quiñones-Pittman says she has been working with Meriwether and the food services company Sodexo to make sure she would be able to serve recipes to hundreds of students daily instead of the few dozen who might stop at her restaurant on a given night.
"It's incredible to see the transition of a recipe coming to life from our normal recipe at the restaurant that consists of maybe one or two gallons to their recipes of 800 gallons. It's something that's truly unique," she says.
Quiñones-Pittman says they have also been working to fine-tune recipes to appeal to students and ensure dishes would taste the same for thousands of students and staff. She says she gave the chefs at TCU six or eight ideas, and they all agreed a Mexican cuisine would be most popular.
"Everyone was very, very happy with the spice-level we came up with," she says. "We even pushed it a little bit further than what I was used to, so that was good to know. Students here really love their spice."
Quiñones-Pittman says she has catered large parties, weddings and quinceañeras, so the dishes she suggested were all items she knew would be easily scaled up to prepare for lots of people.
"A lot of the recipes we make are geared toward a large audience," she says. "There's always going to be a favorite. I think today it's the Pastel Azteca, which is just layers of tortillas, chicken and tomatillo, creamy sauce. It's one of my favorites, and it's definitely been a favorite here so far."
Sodexo says the work at TCU can highlight its effort to train and develop culinary teams as part of an "investment in local communities, culinary innovation and team development."
