It’s a golden moment…
Last week, I was in Chicago to attend the Nation Restaurant Show, billed as the largest single gathering of restaurant, foodservice and lodging professionals in the Western Hemisphere. I was looking for new food trends, and to gather new ideas; and I was on a panel with several of my colleagues representing the National Association of College and University, on the topic “Waste Stream Management: Best Practices for Reducing Front of the House Waste in Collegiate Foodservice Operations”. It went as well as expected and you know me, I would never pass up any chance to promote UMass Dining and share some of our best practices. I focused on the areas of going trayless and our “small plate, big flavor” program.
One of the highlights during the week was attending the Silver Plate Award Celebration. For 56 years, the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) has sponsored the Gold and Silver Plate Awards program. The awards continue to pay tribute to excellence by recognizing the most outstanding and innovative talents. From among nine winners of the Silver Plate, one is chosen by secret ballot to receive the industry’s most coveted recognition, the IFMA Gold Plate. It’s like Oscar in our food service to recognize the best of the best in the industry.
Tim Dietzler, my peer and friend at Villanova University was one of the winners of a Silver Plate for the college and university category. I was so happy for Tim, not only does he manage a great food service program, he is a highly respected professional in the industry for his dedication and innovation for food and services. One of our family friends’son is studying at Villanova and has mentioned to us several times how good the food is. Tim also sent his chefs a couple of times to UMass as part of the Visiting College Chef Series. We have a great relationship with Villanova.
On the night of the presentation, Tim asked me to join his management team for the Villanova table; I was honored to be part of it all and I also volunteered to be a photographer. I also wished him the best of luck for the secret ballot selection. I met his supervisors and management team during the photo session, and let me tell you, they are professional, humble and the nicest people that you would want to know.
I was busy taking numerous pictures during the celebration and sat next to his assistant at the table. I asked her whether or not Tim had an acceptance speech ready just in case, she said no because he did not expect to win Gold.
Then came to the announcement of the Gold Plate winner after dessert; it was the final moment of truth. We all had high hopes for Tim, when the chair announced someone from the Wildcats struck gold, we knew it was Tim. The 500 some crowd cheered at the announcement. Tim is the first college & university operator to win a Gold Plate since IFMA switched from a single award to multiple silver plate categories in 1968.
With tears in his eyes, Tim accepted the award and attributed his accomplishment to his staff, his team at Villanova and his family. It was a golden moment to all of us and I felt fortunate to be there. Way to go Tim!
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong