 Are you interested in networking with culinary and hospitality professionals? Are you looking for an opportunity to cultivate your professional development skills? Join our Culinary Ambassador Program, presented by FAMU and Metz Culinary Management's Food Service Committee! This will also be a great opportunity to provide your insight and opinions about the current dining services on campus. As a plus, all participants will enjoy delicious fresh food provided by Metz Culinary Management! National Chef Appreciation Day is Wednesday, September 25th. In honor of this year’s Chef Appreciation Day, we are honoring Chef Robert (Robbie) Joynt! Chef Robbie knew he wanted to be a chef since the early age of three when he made cheese & cracker hors de oeuvres for his mother’s Tupperware parties. When Chef Robbie was 14, he began working at his best friend’s pizza parlor and French bistro café. Upon finishing culinary school at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale in 1996, he moved to Tallahassee, Florida to attend Florida State University’s (FSU) School of Business. As a student at FSU, he worked at several locations including, University Center Club & Kool Beanz Café. In 2006, after winning first place in Tallahassee’s ACF culinary competition, Chef Robbie opened his first restaurant. Fusion Café was an instant success providing fresh local farm to table ingredients. Within a year, Fusion Cafe won several awards including first place for the 2007 Tallahassee Chef Sampler and voted best restaurant by the Tallahassee Magazine. In 2009, Chef Robbie sold his share of the business and started working in the health care segment of the food service industry. “The goal back then”, Chef Joynt states, “was to change the bad perception people have of the food they are served in hospitals. If a chef can do that, he can do anything.” From 2010 to 2016, Chef Robbie traveled the United States visiting health care food service accounts and assisting the dietary departments achieve that goal. In 2016, Chef Robbie decided to leave the health care sector of food service to start working in higher education as the Director of Operations for the dining halls at FSU. After his time at FSU, Chef Robbie began working for Metz Culinary Management as the Executive Chef for Florida A&M University in January 2019. He has been here at Florida A&M University (FAMU) since. During his short time at FAMU, Chef Robbie has added the following to our dining services program: specialty themes to lunch and dinner menus as well as demonstrating cooking demos to students during Earth Week and Healthy Campus Week. Chef Robbie and his extended experience has been very beneficial to FAMU and his willingness to incorporate cooking demos for the students has helped build a community between students and the culinary staff. We are excited to see what the future has in store!   On Friday, April 27, Metz participated in the “Earth Month Celebration at the SEED.” The celebration included a ribbon cutting for the SEED: Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) campus garden and outdoor sustainability classroom. SEED, which stands for Sustainability Education and Engagement Destination, is an outdoor living and learning space where students, faculty, staff, and community members participate in growing food plants, pollinators, and fruits; composting and building soil, and engaging in various workshops to learn about sustainable living. Leading up to the Ribbon Cutting, Metz partnered with FAMU’s Sustainability Institute to provide more than 850 pounds of food trimmings for the garden’s compost. The trimmings were collected weekly from excess waste in the Residence Dining Hall. At the ribbon cutting, Tripp Goodwin setup a beautiful colorful display in the refreshment tent. To align with the theme of the event and eliminate waste, Goodwin ordered utensils that were Eco-friendly and could be thrown in the compost after they were used. The guests were excited to learn about other sustainability and Eco-friendly initiatives that Metz implements. Students also seemed really excited about the re-usable containers that are offered at the Chef’s Table, Orange Room, President’s Dining Room. Earth Day was April 22, 2018. To celebrate, this year the Marketing team planned a week of events to educate and inspire the FAMU community to include more sustainable activities in their day to day life. The theme of Earth Week was “Discover the Power of Plants.”
During the week of April 23 -27, the Marketing Interns setup an information table with helpful tips on conservation as well as an Earth Week on-line trivia game. For participating in the trivia game, students received a flower blossom kit and a corn pen. There was a lot of great feedback about the blossom kits. Also during the week, the Culinary team prepared plant based recipes to be used in the Residence Dining Hall. Those recipes included: Zucchini chips with smoked paprika, vegetarian butternut squash chipotle chili with avocado, wheat berry with tomato and basil vinaigrette, North African vegetable stew, quinoa stuffed sweet potatoes, fingerling potato salad. All the students enjoyed the recipes but especially the vegan and vegetarian students. |
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