UMass Dining brings in guest chefs to instruct staff on the nuances of various global cuisines.

“I want UMass to be one of the best campuses in the country,” says Toong, who has orchestrated a Dining Services turnaround during his 10 years at the 25,000-student Amherst, Mass., university. Toong is proud of the fact that UMass Dining has boosted its local purchasing to more than 20% of the produce it uses and that dining facilities sponsor “skip-a-meal” charity events and serve only sustainably raised seafood. But he knows that the heart of dining services is delivering a great foodservice experience for students day in and day out.

“At the end of the day, we want dining to become entertainment and have an educational component,” Toong says. That's why UMass Dining coordinates a blitz of special events each school year—including, for 2007-2008, a visiting-chefs' series featuring chefs from other universities across the country, a Blueberry Week in February to give students a taste of summer in the middle of winter, and, new for the spring semester, Cooking 101 and Baking 101 classes with UMass Executive Chef Willie Sng and Pastry Chef Simon Stevenson.

“Every time we get together, we always say to ourselves, 'Hey, let's do something different,'” Toong says. “My philosophy is 'Try new things.' If it doesn't work, fine, but let's try it.”

That enterprising spirit registers strongly with students, who have welcomed such dining-hall additions as an all-you-can-eat sushi bar and a Breakfast on the Run grab-and-go concept. UMass senior Matthew Sochat, for one, appreciates Dining Services' embrace of experimentation and menu diversity.

UMass Dining Director Ken Toong says he wants to “change the culture of what dining services is supposed to be.”

As other schools experiment with stir-fried tofu and couscous salad, UMass menus seitan Bourguignonne, wilted cabbage with toasted cumin, and sweet-potato quesadillas. Fried chicken is a staple of college foodservice; at UMass, students enjoy Thai fried chicken. The basics—pizza, burgers, spaghetti marinara—are there; they're just not the items on which UMass Dining hangs its toque.

“Our passion in culinary is pretty strong,” Toong says. “Students love good food.”

Director of Auxiliary Services Ashoke Ganguli says that an attitude that welcomes change is necessary for maintaining a superior level of service. “Our job is to break the monotony of a meal period,” he says. “That's the key challenge we face.”

Dining Services receives no subsidy from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so it operates “just like a private business,” Ganguli says. An annual budget of $52 million covers such diverse expenses as student-newspaper and radio advertising, waste removal and utilities, and the hosting of the Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference each summer. For the current school year, meal-plan participation—required only for freshmen and sophomores—is at an all-time high of 13,522 students.

Success breeds success, Toong notes. Transferring menu control from the school dietitian to an executive chef shortly after Toong's arrival on campus set the tone for a transition to a more-adventuresome and cuisine-focused dining-services program. Toong brings in chefs from Asian restaurants to train staff on sushi service; over spring break, he had Chef Ernesto Torrealba of the late El Naranjo restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico, instruct staff members on the nuances of regional Mexican cuisine.

“One of the challenges I had for [Toong] was to produce on a daily basis restaurant-type meals for our students,” Ganguli says. “That's what he's done over the last decade.”

Better options for students—improved food quality and variety, weekly themed events and extended operating hours (the school's Berkshire Dining Commons is open until midnight Monday through Thursday)—means greater buy-in from diners and staff members.

“When [student workers] start to see some good results, the food getting better, they show pride in what they're doing,” Toong says. “They also realize they need to do a good job because these are their friends and this is UMass. It has a ripple effect.”

Demonstrating to the UMass community an honest enthusiasm for dining services is crucial in the drive to, as Ganguli says, “sustain excellence.” Toong eats dinner in the dining halls each night and writes a weekly blog that features everything from tips on preparing steel-cut Irish oatmeal to updates on Dining Services' goals for the year.

“Quite a few students know me,” Toong says. “If you listen to them, they give you lots of directions.”

One major focus for students and Dining Services: expanding the selection of more-healthful but flavorful dishes—recipes that incorporate locally grown produce and whole grains, lower-sodium items, small-plates fare. Toong notes that at a dinner in early March, when students were offered a choice of brown or white rice as a side dish, 30% chose the brown rice. “We control what students eat,” Toong says. “When you make those [healthful options] available, students start to choose them.”

Toong and Ganguli recognize the challenge of wowing a new group of incoming freshmen every year and keeping interest level high among upperclassmen. What helps UMass Dining meet this challenge is a belief that the program itself should be an eager student of culinary and consumer trends—not just willing to change menus or operating styles in response to specific requests, but excited about the possibilities of surprising and impressing students.

“Each meal has to be better than the last,” Ganguli says. “I tell [staff], 'We have to consistently be on the innovative edge, change with the times.'”

Or, as Toong states, “That's great that we won the Ivy, but we need to make sure we do something even better next year.”