By: ISB Cafeteria
cafeteria@isb.ac.th
Did you ever wander into the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat, or take a peek at the Elementary School online menu, and ask yourself, I wonder how the menus are created? Food is a language of the world, a common ground where we can all come together. And yet, it is also something extremely personal, each one of us attaching a certain meaning to it and enjoying an array of different tastes which are often not the same as that of our neighbor in line. As a School Caterer our aim is to walk a middle line and hold our arms out wide to create balance as we serve over 60 different nationalities and cultures, all with differing needs and requests. Over 1,700 meals are served throughout 2 cafeterias daily.
In order to achieve this balance, we put our focus in 6 areas: 1) Dietary & Religious requirements, 2) Quality & Health, 3) Scope of Service, 4) Cost, 5) Balance & Variety, and last but certainly not least is 6) the Environment. We cater to all dietary concerns as Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Egg Free on a daily basis in both cafeterias. Our campus is nut free, therefore this consideration is automatic.
So what are some examples of choices we make given these considerations when we put them into action? The 100% organic rice served in Elementary School is one example. Given the fact that: 1) rice is consumed daily by just about 99% of all students in the Elementary School, and 2) that most of Thailand is covered in rice agriculture, we know putting our resources into this area has an extremely wide and positive impact for our health, scope of service, dietary requirement, the environment and local communities. This choice ticks all of 5 out of the 6 focus points mentioned above. It is an absolute win/win. On the same token, when asked if another organic or superior ingredient at a higher cost could also be added with less impact, we chose to remain focused on the former in consideration of balance. A second example is with the elimination of beef from the weekly menus. Beef, which is raised and prepared for mass consumption, only ticks 1 of the 6 factors above, which is variety, therefore it has been removed because of the large scale negative impact it has all around on health and environment when looking at mass farming.
Sometimes we are asked why everything served in the cafeterias, especially the produce, can not be organic? We do serve pockets of organic produce in the salad bars, mostly the lettuces. However, given the availability for our scope of service for organic, the cost, and all the difficulty raised with all the different kinds of labels that exist for organic and what they really mean, the choice to be complete organic does not tick many focus points at present in Thailand.
Our menus are in constant development and always a work in progress, just as food, agriculture and food science is around the world. We take pride in our ongoing considerations of all points above, especially being part of an educational institution which is looking to create a sustainable and better world. We look forward to touching upon more of this in following bulletins. Enjoy.
(Kindly note that all food pictures accompanying the bulletins are of actual cafeteria fare).