The Sweet Taste of Victory
Now that the Homecoming Week is but is a happy memory, it was a sweet victory weekend. It was a big weekend for UMass Athletics, from football, hockey, and Men’s Swimming & Diving team, to women’s soccer; we emerged as a winner everywhere, not to mention, there was a ground breaking activity for the beloved marching band’s new building.
Here at UMass Dining, we were busy all week from catering, events at the University Club and the Blue wall, to our dining commons. To make things even more interesting, we were able to have the Executive Chef from UNH to prepare food for us on Friday night before the football, on Saturday. UNH has a great football team this year and is ranked 4th nationally, compared to UMass Football’s ranking of 20th. How often does one have the chance to have the Executive Chef of the opposing team come to cook for us before a big game? It happened since we are friends with UNH Dining and have been for many years. Dave May and his managers are great and are always willing to support our requests. We co-created the now-famed Visiting College Chef Series and executive Chef Ralph (from UNH) was the first chef that kicked off the event three years ago. We realized that we lost to the UNH football team last year and subsequently did not make the playoffs. The stakes were high this time since UMass football lost last week to Delaware. The tag line on our advertising flier, “We maybe rivals on the field, but we are friends in the kitchen” said it all. We thought having the guest chef from UNH would also provide some further motivation for our football team. What’s more, we also sent some of Chef Ralph’s special dishes to the football team during their dinner, Friday night, at the Campus Center. I told our football coach Kevin Morris about our scheme; he just smiled and thought it was a good idea. Chef Ralph was well received by the students during the dinner and we also noticed several UNH students were at Berkshire, before attending the game on Saturday.
After Friday night’s dinner, UMass Dining was the sponsor for the hockey game against BU at the Mullins Center. The announcer recognized our management team during the first intermission; and in the spirit of goodwill, we were able to sneak Chef Ralph in a management team photo, as he was part of the UMass family, if only for a day. I enjoyed riding on the Zamboni around the outer ring of ice, and I gave it my best effort to throw t-shirts into the crowd. We won against BU and it was so nice to see so many UMass students in the crowd, wearing white t-shirts emblazoned with the UMass Dining Logo and The Sweet Taste of Victory wording on the back – sweet it was.
During the football game on Saturday, I was either busy checking on our concession operations or too afraid to watch the game. At one point, I chatted with three of our students on the sidelines and they told me how much they enjoyed the food the previous night. I left during the half time to be at Berkshire DC as we prepared for a big crowd after the game. In fact, Berkshire was busy all day with parents, guests and alum. They seemed to really enjoy the wild Alaska salmon, prime rib and more. It was great to chat with customers while peeking at the score board every once in a while. Our minuteman football toppled our rivals in the last quarter and UNH Wildcats almost came back to beat us with 3 seconds left – it was another sweet victory for us.
It was a rewarding day. I noticed that several football players joined us later for dinner. They told me it was a hard fought game and we were just lucky to win.
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong