Newswise — Students, faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina Wilmington have an award winning chef keeping a watchful eye on the campus cuisine.
Michael J. Obrochta Jr., UNC Wilmington's executive chef, earned top honors at the regional ARAMARK Culinary Excellence Competition (ACE) held at the University of North Carolina Greensboro on Feb. 25. As a result of this win, he will move to the next level of competition, the National ACE Competition, as part of a three-person Southeastern regional team. They will compete June 27 in Boston against other regional teams from the United States and Canada. During the regional competition, Obrochta and other chefs were presented with a mystery basket of ingredients and given three hours to prepare an entrée and dessert for the judging panel. He received the gold medal for preparing pan seared grouper, citrus mojo braised pork and plantain and wild rice cakes with grilled endive. For dessert he served peach and caramelized apple parfait with pastry cream and almond praline. "I, of course was happy. Mainly because I won but also relieved it was over. It's a pretty intense three hours while cooking," Obrochta said.
Obrochta with ARAMARK as the executive chef at UNC Wilmington since 2005 and has more than 23 years of experience in the food service industry. He oversees and works with the menus for all 12 of the campus dining locations and the catering department.
As executive chef, Obrochta creates menus that meet the nutritional needs of thousands of students and guests a day. This includes coming up with 28 different vegetables each week and several entrees. "We feed about 2,500 people a day in Wagoner, our main campus dining hall, and they all have different tastes, cultures and lifestyles that I must take into consideration when making menus," Obrochta explained.
"Since most of our items are made from scratch, I must write and convert recipes for several hundred people. It's all worthwhile when a student or parent tells me how much they enjoy the food. It makes my day!"
ARAMARK is a service provider on the campus of UNCW and is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management and uniform career apparel to businesses and universities around the world.
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