"Chicken wings were kinda gross," "Screw wings, chicken fingers!!!,""I love you. You rock my world," "Bring back the pumpkin bread pudding," and "Is the radio ever coming back?" represent a random sampling of the dozens of complaints and comments written by students on Terrace Dining Room comment cards every day.
Ted Canto, the caf? manager at TDR, goes through as many as 40 cards before he leaves work and responds to many of them.
"Sometimes it can be an overwhelming number, but this helps us tremendously, as we pay special attention to those who give honest responses," Canto said. "It gives us a database on which to rely."
Canto said he can categorize the types of comments he receives.
"There are three types of comments that people post," Canto said. "The first group is generally encouraging. The second is usually oriented to a specific interest, so we rotate our selections to satisfy those specific requests. The third group is either hostile or humorous."
The comments help the TDR staff keep a pulse on the campus for growing trends, such as "comfort foods" - including fast food and home-style cooking.
Another trend is the greater variety of vegetables, including "fresh food, an organized, nutritious and balanced diet, and a strong vegetable and vegan program for those who consume our products," Canto said.
Julie Weber, executive director for Housing and Dining programs, said she was pleased with the relationship between Bon Appet¡t and AU.
"[Housing and Dining and Bon Appet¡t] share a focus on operational issues, such as student/customer satisfaction, programming, and collaborative problem solving," she said.
Weber said that AU switched to Bon Appetit after concerns about the previous food service's quality of food and animal and human rights issues.
"Our former food service before Bon Appet¡t was Sodexho/Marriott," Weber said. "One reason we switched services was because the original one was linked with the prison industry ... there were also issues with the Financial Division because of declining satisfaction and, as a result, the number of meal plans dropped and there were more complaints from the comment cards and from families."
The comment cards have helped improve Bon Appetit's service, according to Canto.
"TDR is a great place for both AU and us," Canto said. "It gives both us and the students multiple venues, and thus plenty of variety, and gives us a chance to run our full program. So we can make it as broad as we want it to be and see what people like and what they don't like."
Canto, who has worked for Bon Appet¡t food service for nine years and at TDR since last March, said he the comment cards also provide entertainment.
"Sometimes, we do get comments that are quite humorous. I think someone had an elaborate request for eel once, so I replied 'Geez, I'd like to have that, too. Meet me on Wisconsin Avenue tomorrow and we'll go to an Asian restaurant,'" he said. "We do not respond to any comments with profanity," he added.