Considering the strict meal plan requirement at Wesleyan, it’s fair to say that every student has eaten a meal at the Usdan Marketplace, gotten a coffee from Pi Café, ordered a salad at Summerfields, or picked up groceries at Weshop. All of these eateries are run by the Bon Appétit Management Company. The organization has onsite restaurants at over four hundred locations, including colleges and universities, corporations, and specialty venues.

In addition, Bon Appétit has been increasing its activity at Wesleyan recently, which has included holding regular farmers markets, fostering its commitment to local and sustainable agriculture, and, most recently, winning a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) award for its vegan cuisine.

Last week, we were lucky enough to chat with executive chef Brian Dagnall, who offered an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the inner workings of Bon Appétit.

Although doors to Usdan don’t open to the public until 8:00 a.m., the dining service runs nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first shifts of employees arrive at 5:30 a.m. every morning to begin preparing for breakfast. This includes preparing cage-free eggs, breakfast pastries, hot and cold cereal, and fruit, as well as an assortment of other options. Everything is made from scratch, except for the croissants and scones, which come pre-packaged and frozen. As the chefs prepare the morning meal, trucks begin to crowd around the loading dock (a feature of the Wesleyan facilities which Dagnall describes as a “luxury”) to unload about $20,000 worth of food each day.

Although the crews and cooks rotate throughout the day, the activity never stops. As soon as breakfast is finished, lunch begins, and this routine continues until the last dishes of Late Night are cleaned and put away.

As Dagnall led us through the countless rooms of the main Usdan kitchen, we were surprised by the size of the space dedicated solely to preparing food. Located in the basement of Usdan, the kitchen is used to cook the food served at Usdan marketplace, Usdan Café, Pi Café, and Weshop. Although it is huge, every inch of space is utilized. For instance, there is a room containing hundreds of sodas and other beverages, a room just for paper goods, and a room dedicated to catering equipment. That doesn’t include the rooms for produce, bakery items, vegan items, and condiments. There is also a separate kosher kitchen, storage room, and freezer.

Take a walk upstairs and you’ll find yet another kitchen located within the Marketplace with even more rooms storing burgers, ready-to-serve baked goods, and drink machines, as well as an expansive dish room. In addition, the Daniel Family Commons (the exclusive third floor of Usdan) has a separate kitchen as well.

This isn’t even counting the smaller stations located inside of the main cafeteria itself.

With all this space, the Bon Appétit staff has the potential to prepare the vast amounts of food necessary to feed the Wesleyan community. For instance, 30 to 40 pounds of cookie dough and 35 pans of dessert bars are made and subsequently devoured by the hungry student body each week. It also doesn’t take long to go through 50 thousand pounds of tomatoes, a key ingredient in many of the dishes at the Marketplace.

Dagnall says that freshness is paramount when it comes to the food he serves. The inventory turn on dry goods is only seven and a half days, with most food coming in fresh daily. The burgers, for instance, are free-range, organic, and of the highest quality and freshness level.

“We pay top dollar for those burgers,” Dagnall said. “They’re out of upstate New York and come in seven days a week.”

Bon Appétit’s dedication to environmentally friendly practices set it apart from other university food management companies. At most other schools, you won’t find such a strong commitment to supporting local vendors.

“We’re number two on most locally purchased produce for Bon Appétit on the entire East Coast,” Dagnall said. “Wesleyan is second only to American University in Washington D.C.”

Dagnall prides himself in working for a company that is so committed to providing fresh and sustainable food. Having worked at restaurants all over the country before settling down in Middletown, he claims the dining at Wesleyan parallels that of many restaurants; the only difference is in size. To uphold this standard, Dagnall tries to bring in as much quality food and as many talented chefs as his budget will allow.

For example, the University’s dining service boasts free-range meat; dairy from local Ronnybrook Farm; several homemade dressings; bread products from D & R Baking, a New York distributor; and gluten-free pastries from a Connecticut company called Shanya B’s and the Pickle.

Most astonishing, however, is the one man who prepares essentially all of the baked goods consumed on our campus from scratch, Wesleyan baker Dennis Lazicki. Lazicki actually ran his own bakery before beginning to work at the University.

“He’s probably one of the most talented bakers I’ve met,” Dagnall remarked. “He could be a pastry chef in Boston or New York.”

Even though Lazicki has been on the job for five years, he frequently invents new recipes to please the student body, tailoring pastries to fit students’ tastes.

“As long as we get positive feedback, that’s what we make,” Lazicki said.

One of his new favorite recipes is for cupcakes, which made their debut at Usdan Café and Pi at the beginning of the year. He also makes the oversized cookies at Pi and Usdan Café, including the delicious cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies.

It’s not an easy job to serve thousands of students and faculty each day, but the staff of Bon Appétit does an exceptional job. The employees work tirelessly preparing food, transporting it, researching it, testing it, and so on. So next time you’re in Usdan piling your plate with barbeque seitan, waiting in line for sweet potato fries, or breaking off a bite of a Congo bar, take a second to think about how much time, produce, and effort went into the enormous amounts of food we consume at this school. We guarantee it will taste that much better.