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Cooking hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of good meals on a budget is a challenge that few kitchens seem to master. The spectrum is surprisingly wide. Some fai

Cooking hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of good meals on a budget is a challenge that few kitchens seem to master. The spectrum is surprisingly wide. Some fail utterly while others produce decent fare on a comparable scale and budget. Hospital food and university cafeterias in Germany are pretty comparable in that each have similar budgets per person. The worst offender that I encountered was a kitchen that only had a very limited set of standard dishes and they still predictable failed to prepare them in exactly the same way each time. Some meals were charred black when they were supposed to be lightly fried, the pizzas had an inedible crust hard as concrete, and so on. And that went on for years... I also wonder how long the increase in quality in Havelhöhe can last before some beancounter sweeps in and turns the system on its head again based on some pretext. I hope that this never happens, but reality has a way of throwing a wrench into the works every time.

jlg23 8y ago
> I also wonder how long the increase in quality in Havelhöhe can last before some beancounter sweeps in and turns the system on its head again based on some pretext. I hope that this never happens, but reality has a way of throwing a wrench into the works every time. I would not expect much bean counting here besides scientific studies and their results: The hospital is part of Charite[1] and as such has the status of a research/university hospital and an anthroposophic[2] orientation in which food arguably plays a role beyond what is scientifically proven. I also have to say that I did spend quite some time in German hospitals and my rule of thumb: The bigger the hospital, the better the food. Never was it as a bad as the regular in-flight meals in cattle class. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charit%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charit%C3%A9 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophic_medicine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophic_medicine
Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
You may appreciate this video on Japanese school lunches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5s1SlqB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5s1SlqB8
leetcrew 8y ago
> Cooking hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of good meals on a budget is a challenge that few kitchens seem to master. the part that confuses me here is the "on a budget part". i attended two very different schools for undergrad, but the meal plan pricing and food quality was very similar. when divided by the total number of swipes, meal plans at both schools cost about $11-13 per meal. the food was not inedible, but it was far worse than an $11 meal would be pretty much anywhere else. both schools offered a la carte cafes run or chains that would take cash and charge about half that for a filling meal that was much tastier (and was able to accommodate pretty much any allergy or dietary restriction). the universities will always say something like it costs extra to be make enough food to feed everyone without knowing who will dine there on a given day, but don't all restaurants face that problem to an extent? is there some genuine reason why it has to be so expensive/bad, or are they all just taking advantage of the mandatory freshman meal plan to subsidize other parts of operation?
- SECProto 8y ago
  Meal plan at my school (Canada, about a decade ago) was 2800$ Canadian for 19 meals a week, for two semesters (checking, it is now about 3600$CAD). Worked out to somewhere in the range of 4 or 5 dollars a meal - what a bagel and a coffee would cost at a cheap chain place. That being said, I think you did point out something interesting - the pricing and food quality doesnt vary much between different schools in similar situations (markets/locations). In what I've seen, this is because most of these are run by the same big corporate chains - Sodexo or similar.
  - distances 8y ago
    Don't students in the North America cook at all? In university I used to eat a subsidized lunch, and take care of my breakfast and dinner myself.
    - SECProto 8y ago
      Depends - many students live in students residence for their first year in university, and cooking isn't an option there (anything besides a microwave/kettle is not allowed). But most students move to private apartments later, and do most/all of their own cooking.
specialist 8y ago
Running a kitchen is real work. I was riveted by an interview with a 5-star chef that decided to fix public school lunches. She's as much an engineer and accountant and diplomat and project manager as a chef. How she repeatedly figured out how to make healthy, fresh meals that kids loved is testament to humanity ingenuity and can-do attitude. For instance, to stretch their food budget, they'd buy apples in season and store them in leased fridges. Sorry, I can't quickly refind the interview. IRCC, it was on Chow food network (?) and the chef moved from NYC to Portland OR.

jlg23 8y ago

> I also wonder how long the increase in quality in Havelhöhe can last before some beancounter sweeps in and turns the system on its head again based on some pretext. I hope that this never happens, but reality has a way of throwing a wrench into the works every time. I would not expect much bean counting here besides scientific studies and their results: The hospital is part of Charite[1] and as such has the status of a research/university hospital and an anthroposophic[2] orientation in which food arguably plays a role beyond what is scientifically proven. I also have to say that I did spend quite some time in German hospitals and my rule of thumb: The bigger the hospital, the better the food. Never was it as a bad as the regular in-flight meals in cattle class. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charit%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charit%C3%A9 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophic_medicine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophic_medicine

Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago

You may appreciate this video on Japanese school lunches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5s1SlqB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5s1SlqB8

leetcrew 8y ago

> Cooking hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of good meals on a budget is a challenge that few kitchens seem to master. the part that confuses me here is the "on a budget part". i attended two very different schools for undergrad, but the meal plan pricing and food quality was very similar. when divided by the total number of swipes, meal plans at both schools cost about $11-13 per meal. the food was not inedible, but it was far worse than an $11 meal would be pretty much anywhere else. both schools offered a la carte cafes run or chains that would take cash and charge about half that for a filling meal that was much tastier (and was able to accommodate pretty much any allergy or dietary restriction). the universities will always say something like it costs extra to be make enough food to feed everyone without knowing who will dine there on a given day, but don't all restaurants face that problem to an extent? is there some genuine reason why it has to be so expensive/bad, or are they all just taking advantage of the mandatory freshman meal plan to subsidize other parts of operation?

SECProto 8y ago
Meal plan at my school (Canada, about a decade ago) was 2800$ Canadian for 19 meals a week, for two semesters (checking, it is now about 3600$CAD). Worked out to somewhere in the range of 4 or 5 dollars a meal - what a bagel and a coffee would cost at a cheap chain place. That being said, I think you did point out something interesting - the pricing and food quality doesnt vary much between different schools in similar situations (markets/locations). In what I've seen, this is because most of these are run by the same big corporate chains - Sodexo or similar.
- distances 8y ago
  Don't students in the North America cook at all? In university I used to eat a subsidized lunch, and take care of my breakfast and dinner myself.
  - SECProto 8y ago
    Depends - many students live in students residence for their first year in university, and cooking isn't an option there (anything besides a microwave/kettle is not allowed). But most students move to private apartments later, and do most/all of their own cooking.

specialist 8y ago

Running a kitchen is real work. I was riveted by an interview with a 5-star chef that decided to fix public school lunches. She's as much an engineer and accountant and diplomat and project manager as a chef. How she repeatedly figured out how to make healthy, fresh meals that kids loved is testament to humanity ingenuity and can-do attitude. For instance, to stretch their food budget, they'd buy apples in season and store them in leased fridges. Sorry, I can't quickly refind the interview. IRCC, it was on Chow food network (?) and the chef moved from NYC to Portland OR.