In The News

College and university operators across the country typically feature potatoes as a side dish in some of their campus locations just about every single day and for every meal part. From mashed to baked, from French fries to hash browns, students love the economical spud in most every iteration. But when it comes to featuring potatoes front-and-center as an entrée, operators are hesitant. John Soules, Sodexo’s general manager at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, shares his reasoning: “This is Idaho!” Potatoes are on the menu all the time, but it’s hard to use them in an entrée for young folks since many consider potatoes to be an ‘add on’ or side. I’m in my 50s and that was well-accepted by my generation. With that said, we still do have several center-of-the-plate items featuring potatoes that are popular with today’s students.”

Soules and his foodservice staff serve approximately 3,000 to 4,000 students daily throughout the campus, plus an additional 10 percent who are warmly encouraged neighborhood walk-ins. He primarily utilizes Idaho® Russets and Idaho®-grown Yukon Golds (about 50 percent of the time), with the emphasis being on regional purchasing.

“Cheesy Potato Soup goes over very well in the residential dining hall,” Soules reports, “and it’s filling enough to be a meal in itself.” To prepare, Yukon Golds are baked, skin-on, sliced, then tossed into the soup, a combo of sharp cheddar, salt and pepper, with a bit of chicken stock.

The good shepherd: Shepherd’s Pie Casserole, served on the line in the residents’ dining hall, remains a popular standard. At UI it includes cubes of beef or lamb, or sometimes ground beef, combined with assorted vegetables; fresh mashed potatoes provide the traditional “pie crust.”

With more than 60,000 students enrolled at Ball State University inMuncie, IN, including 6,500 on meal plan and campus dining that’s open to the public, Jason Reynolds, CCC, chef, Tally Student Center, aims to keep his finger on the pulse of what’s “hot,” especially in menuing his International program. “Korean dishes are on the rise now, and our Korean Grilled Meatloaf, priced at just $5.95, believe it or not, is a very popular entrée,” he points out. Cubed Russet potatoes (skin on) are coated with sesame seeds, a touch of soy sauce for saltiness, plus a bit of sugar (white) for sweetness, then oven roasted. With that underway, Reynolds prepares the meatloaf, a combo of ground beef, Korean chili and garlic sauce (a prepared product), diced raw onions, salt and pepper, eggs, very fine breadcrumbs, plus a bit of Worcestershire sauce. “We mix it together (by hand) in a large bowl, form it into a loaf on a sheet pan, roast in a 350°F oven (until an internal temperature of 155°F is reached), then cool and chill,” he says.

Once it’s chilled, Reynolds slices the loaf width-wise and grills each slice to mark and provide a nice crust on both sides. “I place a little pile of potatoes in the center of the plate with a drizzle of soy sauce on top of them; next comes a layer of fresh spinach leaves that I’ve sautéed in sesame oil along with a bit of sesame seeds and sugar. Then I lay the grilled meatloaf (one thick slice or two thin ones) over the potatoes and spinach with a final squirt of the chili and garlic sauce (from a squeeze bottle) over the top. This is a case of a Midwest meat-and-potatoes dish meeting the East or West coast, where trendsetting dishes usually originate. We’ve kicked it up a notch!”

Savvy students: When the Chef’s Station was created at Ball State, the intended customers were members of administration, faculty and staff, but Reynolds has been pleasantly surprised to find that more than 90 percent of his approximately 100 daily customers at this station are students...and they thoroughly enjoy his Pan Fried Tilapia Over Crabmeat, Yellow Mashed Potatoes topped with citrus beurre blanc ($5.95). To prepare, Reynolds dredges the tilapia filet in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan-fries it in a buttery vegetable oil until it’s golden brown on each side. He then mashes boiled yellow potatoes along with butter, heavy cream, kosher salt and black pepper. “We stir in crabmeat - real claw crabmeat from a can, not surimi - into the already mashed potatoes,” he says. Then he prepares a classic beurre blanc. “To plate the dish, I’ll put a scoop of mashed potatoes in the center, pan-fried tilapia on top of the potatoes, then drizzle beurre blanc over the fish.”

To bring his bottom line into better alignment (i.e., to balance the food cost of tilapia, crabmeat, etc.), Reynolds creates low-cost pasta dishes several days a week; Gnocchi Bleu Cheese Gratin ($4.95) is definitely a filling meal in itself, and a vegetarian fit.

“I’ll menu this once or twice a semester since I’ve created so many other dishes,” he explains. “Basically, you’re cooking frozen potato gnocchi three to four minutes in boiling water until they float. I mix it with bleu cheese cream sauce - like an Alfredo with bleu cheese - then put it in a pasta bowl, top with some more bleu cheese plus buttered bread crumbs, then run it under the salamander or broiler to brown the top.”

TGIF surprise: Every Friday, Reynolds is up for the challenge of what to create from items he didn’t use during the previous week; The Chef’s Specialty Pizza is his very popular solution and his Barbecue Bacon Potato Salad Pizza is a perfectly yummy example. Using red skin potatoes for the potato salad, he cooks them (skin on) to fork tender. Once they’re cooked and thoroughly chilled, he adds a 75/25 mix of mayo and barbecue sauce - always Sweet Baby Ray’s, his favorite. “I throw some sliced green onion and celery into the mixture along with the potatoes, then well-season with kosher salt and black pepper, plus cooked crumbled bacon or without bacon for vegetarians,” Reynolds says.

Building on a 14-inch by 14-inch flat bread crust, Reynolds spreads a coating of barbecue sauce as the base followed by a layer of the potato salad mixture. “I top with the shredded Parmesan and mozzarella, then finish with a generous sprinkling of French’s crispy onions from the can because I like that onion flavor as a garnish on top of the cheese,” he says. “Then it goes into a 425°F oven until the crust and cheese are both golden brown. It’s always fun since it’s a different specialty pizza every Friday.”

Elsewhere on the Ball State campus, Lucas Miller, manager of menu development and the test kitchen, is busy creating additional potential crowd-pleasing recipes. With many center-of-the-plate au gratin casseroles in his menu data bank, he cites Potato Goat Cheese Gratin Casserole with chipotle cream sauce as a particular favorite among vegetarians and carnivores alike; generally, it’s served from a steam table pan, or a ramekin for a nicer presentation, at the Comfort Food station. “The cheese is mozzarella and Parmesan, with chipotle cream sauce - that’s made with sour cream, garlic and chipotle peppers - added to the casserole,” Miller says. “We use baking potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks and boil or steam them until they’re half-way cooked; we add chipotle cream sauce plus the cheeses and bake as a casserole. We have many other gratin recipes and everybody loves potatoes.” 

Latin influence: There’s a brand new station called Latin Comida that’s up and running this fall semester at the University of Colorado-Boulder; executive chef Kerry Paterson, CEC, is thrilled by the addition of this highly interactive location within the marché-style food court. “We’re menuing Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian entrée that features a petit tender marinated in garlic, soy sauce and cumin seeds,” Paterson says. “We sauté the beef with onions, jalapenos and tomatoes, then combine it in a bowl with cilantro and crispy, deep-fried French fries (3/4-cut, a prepared product). The tomatoes and onions are all cooked a bit beforehand, but the beef and fries are cooked to-order.”

For those seeking a vegetarian entrée at the Latin Comida station, Paterson recommends Locro, or Cheese Potatoes, a popular soup dish in Ecuador and Peru. “It’s like a cheese soup we used to serve, but we knocked back on the liquid a bit to make it more of a stew or casserole,” he explains.

To prepare, one-inch diced Yukon Gold (often from Idaho) are added to sautéed onions and garlic along with vegetable stock, milk, salt and pepper. “Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer,” Paterson says. He cooks the potatoes until tender, strains them out, then stirs in queso fresco (i.e., the cheese) and garnishes with parsley. “We’ll put the potatoes and queso fresco (and parsley) into a five-quart casserole dish or au gratin dish to be self-serve; we do this in batches since it can hold pretty well.”

Scott Rattan, CEC, executive chef, and John Brite, CEC, general manager of dining and conference services, both based at Capital University, aParkhurst Dining Services account in Bexley, OH, have each recently earned their Certified Executive Chef (CEC) designation from the ACF. Rattan happily recalls the role a potato-based entrée played in one of his certification tests. “We serve about 1,200 students on meal plan here, and we’ve done Potato Cakes and Potato Hash Patties that incorporate vegetables and can be served as an entrée, so on one of my tests I did Artichoke Potato Hash. I use fresh artichokes in season, but you could use canned,” he points out.

After cleaning the fresh artichoke, he boils it, cuts it down and incorporates it into hand-shredded par-boiled potatoes. Next, he forms the mixture into a mold that’s typically used in pastry making. After he browns the patty in a pan or on the grill, he plates it atop roasted red pepper cream sauce and garnishes with shredded Asiago.

G-F, too: “Since I have a Gluten-free station, I’m always trying to substitute potatoes or beans in a casserole, so we’ll do an Idaho® Potato-Broccoli Cheese Bake,” Rattan reports. He steams off diced Russet potatoes and blanches chopped broccoli. “We make our own cream sauce, a mixture of cheddar, onion, celery and seasonings including nutmeg, then combine all ingredients and bake as a casserole.”

Rattan is a proponent of taking traditional potato salad - perhaps a German Potato Salad - and transforming it into a hot entrée. “You can make the whole salad nice and hot, or just heat individual ingredients and put them together on the plate - perhaps hot green beans and hot potatoes,” he suggests. “For a Hot German Potato Salad as an entrée, we use skin-on baked Idaho® Russets, then I sauté them because I like the caramelization and color on them for a good presentation.” No surprise that - like any center-of-the-plate entrée - potato dishes must look as good as they taste for broad appeal.

Indian masala: With a small but rather vocal vegetarian population on campus at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, Cynthia Lategan, senior executive chef, residential dining, has many vegetarian/vegan options available. Of the potato-centric entrees she offers to the 5,600 resident student customer base, Aloo Gobi is a favorite. This Indian dish of potato and cauliflower (with or without kidney beans) also boasts tomatoes, onions and chili peppers. “We make a blend of spices starting with garam masala, then add coriander, turmeric, ground ginger and garlic,” Lategan says. To prepare, she cuts skin-on potatoes (large dice) and sautés onions and cumin in oil, adding ginger, garlic and tomatoes to simmer, then adds potatoes and cauliflower to the pan. “Finally, add the garam masala spice mixture, stir and that’s it. Let it stand for about an hour before serving; it comes out with a very interesting yellowish/red look and is a quite delicious side dish or entrée. It’s on once in our three-week cycle at one of our two Gluten-free stations,” she says.

Lategan reports that “probably the all-time most popular” potato “entrée” is Baked Potato Soup served in 10-ounce bowls and available at least once a week at an action station in any of four campus venues; it’s prepared to-order so students pick and choose add-in ingredients. “Baked potatoes, perhaps leftover or freshly baked for this purpose, are used,” she says. “This soup is on the chunky side, so I bake the potatoes for one-and-a-half hours (vs. one hour for a regular baked potato); peel and cube them, then sauté some onions, add chicken-flavored vegetarian stock, roux, margarine and milk. Boil, then reduce the heat to simmer, add potato cubes, salt and pepper, then simmer until potatoes are soft and falling apart.”

Since CSU locations are all-you-care-to-eat, students rarely stop after enjoying a portion of Baked Potato Soup or another extremely popular vegetarian entrée option, Garden Stuffed Potatoes. Basically these are twice baked potatoes that here incorporate soy milk instead of cream or milk.

As Sodexo’s Soules at UI found, there are indeed potato “sides” that can become substantial and pleasing center-of-the-plate entrees for today’s college-age generation, plus there’s a world of international recipes to be tapped.