Students who regularly eat at Collis say the meats served at Collis Cafe are colorful, fun, and daring -- and so are the Collis chefs.
Brent Bradley and Derek Lorrigan plan and oversee the cafe's entrees while Mary Anne Milanese takes care of baked goods such as the 'Collis brownie,' famous since she brought it to Dartmouth Dining Services eight years ago.
Collis Cafe's Assistant Manager David Cornwell said Bradley and Lorrigan "give us a real eclectic blend of cooking."
"Cooks here have a lot of freedom to plan their own menu, which the cooks don't have in other kitchens," Cornwell said.
When it comes to cooking, Lorrigan and Bradley exude tremendous enthusiasm, a trait they say is shared by all Collis staff. Milanese may initially come across as a shy woman, but she becomes quite the extrovert about baking at Collis, which she said has been her favorite job yet. The three agreed they enjoy the flexibility and culinary freedom they have working in Collis, a rare luxury in institutional food service.
From Woodstock, Bradley has worked at Collis for three years and is responsible for the lunch entrees, he said.
He began his career busing tables at the Inn at Loon Mountain as a teenager and during his 19 years in the food service industry has worked at nearly every type of eating establishment, including a restaurant near Phillips Exeter Academy in Concord, which offered some fancy "French service," he said.
Raised on Cape Cod, Lorrigan made his debut as a chef at age 16 by cooking at a restaurant owned by a friend of his family.
Before Dartmouth Dining Services hired Lorrigan nearly a year ago, he worked at Shorty's in West Lebanon and at Marlboro College in Battleboro, Vt.
Milanese got her start cooking for her family. She said she would have wanted to go to a culinary school, but because she was a woman her parents never encouraged her to become a chef.
Instead she went to the University of New Hampshire, majored in home economics and earned a certificate in early child education.
Her first cooking job, combining both college concentrations, was as a baker and a chef at a child care center in Durham.
For these threes chefs, their previous jobs featured fairly standardized and inflexible menus -- not so at Collis Cafe.
"It is so cool to have a job where you can come in and you don't have to cook the same food you cooked the day before -- and the day before," Bradley said.
Bradley said what he strives for is food cooked "like your grandmother would cook it -- with a twist."
A "twist" entails using the freshest ingredients possible and combining them in unexpected ways.
Both chefs prepare intensively for a week before each quarter, brainstorming with each other, tearing through dozens of cookbooks and finally planning a comprehensive menu for every day of the term.
Planning their own menu greatly tasks them, but it lets them do what they like, Bradley and Lorrigan said.
Lorrigan said each term he works to sharpen his skills in a new style of cooking. Last term he concentrated on Oriental food, this term on Mexican, and in the Spring term he wants to experiment with African cuisine.
Cut this part before the last section:
A lot depends on the season too, Lorrigan said. Root vegetables are good in the winter, squash in the summer he said.
Lorrigan said he tries to use ingredients that are currently in season in New England, a philosophy of cooking that he learned from his mother who always cooked with homegrown ingredients.
Milanese said her baking menu starts from a "blue print" of Collis favorites, like chocolate brownies, scones, and Rice Krispie treats, but she can add new deserts and experiment as she pleases.
Both entree chefs say cooking vegetarian food is a real challenge. But it is also more fun, they say, because they have to work with color and texture to make the food look appealing as well as taste good.
Several students cited healthy food as the primary reason they eat at Collis.
"You go to the Hop and come out with a sick feeling in your stomach," said Abhishek Gangalee '00. "It feels good to eat healthy."
Gangallee added that "relative to other dining halls on campus it's more exotic."
Arnold Yim '00 said he eats at Collis nearly every day because he finds the food healthy and he doubts "anyone likes Food Court anyway."
Yim said he stays away from the more exotic cuisine. "You go for the ones you know," he said.
