This past week, we had the opportunity to sit down with the Head Chef of the Bonds Wilson Cafeteria, Louis Cruse, who let us in on what goes on behind-the-scenes We began our research by interviewing Mr. Cruse on his own culinary experience before learning about our cafeteria.
Mr. Cruse started his career as a banquet cook at a Disneyland hotel in California and later worked on the line. After doing this for two years, he began work at the Hilton Hotel in Anaheim, California. He was then promoted to work in Las Vegas, which he did for about six years. Moving on from this job, he began to work with Kroger, a grocery store company, to open up chef programs throughout the country. He continued to retire with Kroger a few years later. This was when he decided to move down to Charleston, SC, “to be closer to the beach.”
Since then, Mr. Cruse has spent four years working for CCSD. He really enjoys this job because he is able to spend lots of quality time with his family, only working 183 days a year. He also enjoys being able to see so many different students throughout his day, along with the fact that he also gets to experience having time off in summer. According to Mr. Cruse, though the cafeteria gets very busy and there is a lot of responsibility, he very rarely feels stressed. Mr. Cruse also revealed that his favorite school lunch option that is offered is the Italian pasta with a breadstick. Apparently, this is a popular opinion, as he also revealed that it is the most popular school lunch. A close second was a tie between the orange chicken and the grilled cheese and tomato soup. According to Mr. Cruse, one meal that he believes is very underrated is the Salisbury Steak. He notes that: “…with the mashed potatoes and gravy, that’s a pretty good meal.” This opinion is apparently a controversial take as the cafeteria sells less than half the number of lunches that they regularly sell on Salisbury Steak days.
Under Mr. Cruse, our cafeteria has one cafeteria assistant and 11 other employees or operators. It is also one of four training schools in CCSD for cafeteria managers, more specifically, one of two high school training schools. In order to become a cafeteria manager, chefs must train at each of these schools before they are hired to work at a school. During breakfast, during the school week, the cafeteria makes and sells around 160 to 180 meals. For lunchtime, they make and sell between 800 and 900 meals. Mr. Cruse added that the SOA middle schoolers are more likely to purchase a meal from the cafeteria, compared to the SOA and AMHS high schoolers. Overall, the cafeteria spends almost $10k each week on food, $9k on produce, and $1k on beverages. This money is spent on products from four different companies: Limehouse, U.S. Foods, Coca-Cola, and PET Dairy.
After being let in on this information, we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to take a tour of the kitchen that cooks up everyone’s favorite meals. We first stopped by the prep station, where at 10:00 am they were already busy preparing for the rush of hungry students coming their way for lunch. The prep station is very organized and kept extra neat and tidy. It was lined with trays, containers, and hotdog buns that were to hold the hotdogs for lunch that day.
After looking around the main area of the kitchen we ventured into the dry storage room, where we saw the impressive number of goods that are kept here. The dry storage room holds all of the goods that do not require being kept in refrigerators or freezers. Some of the food kept in here were things like lemon juice, oils, spices, chips, and rice, as well as juice boxes, Powerade, Coca-Cola, and so much more.
Next, we moved onto the walk-in freezer, where more food is stored. In the walk-in, the famous school pizza is stored, along with a variety of other things that were not identified as they were stored in cardboard boxes. Although we did not spend a lot of time in the freezer because it was very cold and we did not have jackets, we thought that it was one of the coolest parts of the kitchen.
A short walk later, we made it to the walk-in fridge. This is where the school’s fresh produce is stored. This includes apples, strawberries, onions, and many of the delicious sauces, like Charlie sauce. Mr. Cruse pointed out to us that the walk-in fridge was particularly empty on this day because we had school off on Tuesday of that week. As another part of the job of the Cafeteria Manager is ordering food from all of the different providers, it is important for Mr. Cruse and the rest of the team to reorganize ordering dates to make sure as little food as possible is wasted when disruptions like this occur in the schedule.
Next, we moved on to see the impressive double-decker ovens where the school pizza, along with other meals, is cooked every day. Consisting of 10 different levels for cooking, this oven system is efficient and makes it possible for everyone to enjoy some delicious hot food!
We were then able to get a view from the back of one of the front counters in the cafeteria. This happens to be the one that contains the refrigerators for salads, subs, wraps, and protein meal kits. The protein kits consist of an Uncrustable, mini pretzels, and a cheese stick. Another variation of the protein kit contains a cookie, pretzels, a cheese stick, and some peanut butter. These are both great options for a well-rounded meal if the cafeteria is not currently serving one of your preferred meals of the day. As for the wrap and sandwich options, this section of the cafeteria contains options such as ham sandwiches, veggie wraps, turkey wraps and so much more.
Although the other front counters of the cafeteria do not have these refrigerators, they do have hot bars that keep the meals of the day warm throughout the lunch periods. These are where most students get their lunches. They also have a section that is kept cool to hold fruits, vegetables, toppings, and other sauces depending on the meal of the day.
Overall, the kitchen behind the front counters of the cafeteria was much larger than we had anticipated. However, we quickly realized that a lot of elaborate work goes into being able to feed middle schoolers and high schoolers across two different schools. On that note, it is important to remember to thank your Bonds-Wilson Cafeteria Staff for all that they do and for how hard they work to make sure that everyone has the option of delicious and healthy food for both breakfast and lunch every day.
