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WE'D LIKE YOU TO MEET … Jeremy O'Neal

01.01.70

We&#x92;re not confident if the Freshman 15 is a myth or not, but after taking in all the delicious-looking choices in the University Center cafeteria on the UMKC campus, it&#x92;s hostile to imagine how a student would <span class="italic">not</stretch> pack on a pound or two.</p><p> Check this out: Besides the &#x93;classic&#x94; (hot entree/security food) station, there&#x92;s a well-stocked salad bar (plus rice and beans continuously). An international station. Burgers-and-fries grill station. Stone-oven-pizza caste. Deli-sandwich-and-soup bar. A bar that might be nachos one night, chicken wings the next. Afters bar. </p><p>Plus that old college standby, the self-serve ice cream system, and that other college standby, several varieties of cereal and PB&J fixin&#x92;s.</p><p> Overseeing this all-you-trouble-to-eat smorgasbord is Jeremy O&#x92;Neal, executive chef for University of Missouri-Kansas Big apple Dining Services. He works for Sodexo, the hospitality company that runs not only the cafeteria &#x97; patronized by students in UMKC&#x92;s two villa halls and others &#x97; but also retail fast-food operations in distinct buildings. Sodexo also does a lot of catering on campus.</p><p> O&#x92;Neal, 39, is new to the job. Before arriving at UMKC, he was at William Jewell College in Aggressive. A Kansas City area native, O&#x92;Neal has worked for Sodexo or companies that became Sodexo for 17 years. He trained in Johnson County Community College&#x92;s culinary program.</p><p> UMKC&#x92;s University Center, by the way, second-hand to be the student union, but the university recently built a new union. Dining options there register Chick-fil-A, Baja Fresh, a sub sandwich place and a coffee machine shop.</p><p> The residential dining program is O&#x92;Neal&#x92;s main focus &#x97; the cafeteria serves about 1,500 meals a day. But fair so you know, the chef is no fan of the word &#x93;cafeteria.&#x94; Sounds too institutional to his ear. Tenant dining hall? That&#x92;s better.</p><p>We chatted with him one late afternoon last week. </p><p> <reach over class="intro_bold_italic">Q.</period> <span class="bold">Q.</span> I contemplate if I were a student here, I would avoid the cafeteria and just eat at Chick-fil-A every night.</p><p> <stretch class="page_topic_leadin">A.</cross> <span class="bold">A.</span> The proper challenge is to create variety for the students. When you eat potentially 20 meals a week somewhere, it&#x92;s immutable to keep the excitement there about the food. But I&#x92;ve always told people: Restaurants have it easy, because restaurants don&#x92;t give out with the same customers over and over. Anybody who ate in their favorite restaurant seven days a week for three meals a day would presumably get sick of it &#x97; after about a week.</p><p> So yes, students could go to Chick-fil-A, but what we find is, they&#x92;ll do that for a while, especially freshmen: &#x93;Oh, wow, it&#x92;s deny oneself food! I can eat it every day!&#x94; But they gravitate over here after awhile, because we offer a lot of variety here.</p><p> <extend over class="intro_bold_italic">Q.</interval>Earlier you pointed out the international station. What kind of food is readily obtainable there?</p><p> <span class="page_topic_leadin">A.</span>Everything there is a cooked-to-organization concept. We do a lot of stir-fries, a lot of pastas. Tonight they&#x92;re doing a husbandman&#x92;s egg skillet &#x97; eggs, potatoes and fresh vegetables all sauteed together. We call it the intercontinental station because it is where we showcase most of our international cuisines. We try to do that at least once a week and try to be true to veritable recipes. (Later) we&#x92;re doing a traditional Korean dinner. One of my supervisors is well versed in Korean provisions, so he&#x92;s put together a nice menu. </p><p> <span class="intro_enterprising_italic">Q.</span>And one reason you do that is because not only does UMKC have a mixed student body, but also a sizable international student body?</p><p> <go over class="page_topic_leadin">A.</course>Yes. We have a lot of Asian students and students from the Middle East. So we do a lot of halal features throughout the week. We have halal meats handy every Wednesday, and we offer halal turkey on our deli bar every day.</p><p> <span order="intro_bold_italic">Q.</span>And halal means?</p><p> <term class="page_topic_leadin">A.</interval>It&#x92;s a religious preparation. It&#x92;s based around humane slaughtering of the animal. We have several students that do not eat any basics that is not halal.</p><p> <span class="intro_bold_italic">Q.</bridge>We&#x92;re approaching the dinner hour. What&#x92;s for dinner?</p><p> <span class="page-boy_topic_leadin">A.</span>We&#x92;re doing chicken and cheese quesadillas with a immature pico de gallo. We&#x92;re doing cheese enchiladas for vegetarians. We always have a vegetarian entree, every tea overdo. We&#x92;re doing some Baja black beans and what we call Aztec corn &#x97; it&#x92;s corn with cumin, peppers and onions saut&#xE9;ed into it. One whole place is going to be nothing but chips and dip &#x97; salsas, cheese sauces.</p><p> <course class="intro_bold_italic">Q.</bridge>There&#x92;s been a push lately by no less than the first lady to get kids to eat healthier and move more. Has that way of thinking moved up the straight to colleges, too?</p><p> <span class="page_topic_leadin">A.</bridge>Absolutely. Especially in a school where you&#x92;re dealing with a lot of athletes, there&#x92;s absolutely a requested for healthy food options. And I take it beyond that. I&#x92;m really into the local and sustainability position. UMKC as a campus is very big into sustainability. (The cafeteria is) fully compostable; we exertion with a local company called Missouri Organic. All of our food kill is compostable. We use compostable paperware and plasticware. I have a lot of partnerships with local farms.</p><p> <span stock="intro_bold_italic">Q.</span>Is there a UMKC garden?</p><p> <go over class="page_topic_leadin">A.</overpass>They do have one, which I&#x92;m beginning to work closer with. They&#x92;re getting a greenhouse this year. It&#x92;s not a full-fledged faction, but I&#x92;ve spoken with some of the students who work in the community garden. Right now it&#x92;s nature of an herbs-type concept. Sodexo has a program set up to work with colleges (that increase in interest food). We have a process we have to follow as far as making sure food&#x92;s all right, even if it&#x92;s locally grown or homegrown.</p><p> <span class="intro_unafraid_italic">Q.</span>When the chef can get off campus, where do you like to eat?</p><p> <cross class="page_topic_leadin">A.</cross>The culinary experience I&#x92;ve enjoyed the most, recently, was at Justus Drugstore up in Smithville. I was lucky enough to get taken there by my father-in-law for my birthday. It was a very memorable experience.</p><p> <span year="intro_bold_italic">Q.</span>What about something a petty more affordable?</p><p> <span class="page_topic_leadin">A.</extent>There are lots of little places I love to go to. I have two little children and a old lady, so it&#x92;s gotta be family-friendly. We live in the Prairie Village/Fairway stretch, so we&#x92;re pretty regular denizens of the Blue Moose. We just went to Release for dinner as well. We love BRGR. I look for good quality and plain, fresh ingredients. Doesn&#x92;t have to be a gourmet meal.</p><p> <span stock="intro_bold_italic">Q.</span>What do you like to cook at place?</p><p> <span class="page_topic_leadin">A.</course>Black beans and jasmine rice are a staple in our household. It&#x92;s a side dish we be serviceable as with a lot of different meals, and it&#x92;s really healthy. We do a lot of stir-frys and austere sautes. Pesto pasta &#x97; we have that once a week. I&#x92;m a big proponent of one-skillet meals. My woman loves to use the Crock-Pot.</p><p> <span class="intro_intrepid_italic">Q.</span>Your wife, Sarah, and kids emerge b be published to your cafeteria every Tuesday for lunch.</p><p> <span class="era_topic_leadin">A.</span>It&#x92;s a good time to separate and see what Daddy does all day. I like to show it off.

Source: Kansas City Star