Culinary Exchange - Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, Red River College

Culinary Exchange

Paterson GlobalFoods Institute

Red River College – Exchange District Campus

http://www.rrc.ca/index.php?pid=460

May, 2013

People talked about the good food available at Red River College’s Hospitality and Culinary Arts Centre at the Notre Dame Campus; however, its remote location limited the number of attending visitors.  After Red River announced its relocation to the new site at the Exchange District Campus, downtown workers salivated in anticipation. 

Almost as quickly as it opened the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, daytime denizens flocked to the cafeteria in search of discounted dining experiments.  Today’s Grab&Go cooler features various muffins and pepperoni pizzas priced at $2.25 for an individual-sized serving.  If you choose to eat-in and/or order fresh, the institute features two kitchens—alternating in operation, depending on the day of the week. 

I love being on campus, any campus.  The atmosphere penetrates you, filled with hope and aspirations for a grand career and a better future.  Some of those hopes will even come away uncrushed after a few years in “the real world.”  Every time I walk on campus, I reminisce of a time when I too aspired to wrestle life to the ground and score a decisive pin.  I have great faith that these culinary students try diligently to nail the perfect meal—and I’m happy to receive it. 

In addition to the energy, the Paterson Institute offers the bonus of being a combination new building and restoration of the former Union Tower (Royal Bank) Building.  The enormous marble-white Greek columns (sorry, I don’t know the differences between the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian) augment the glass wall in supporting the soaring ceiling.  An observation walk crosses the entire dining room, allowing students to have an eagle’s view of the diners below.  The dining capacity looks considerable but between the students with their laptops and the area workers, the room fills up fast, so you should try to arrive early (or late).  Depending on the day of the week, the cafeteria opens at either 11 am or 11:30, so don’t arrive too early or you’ll waste time gawking at the menu board, like we do. 

The menu board changes frequently so you never know what to expect.  Today’s menu features a delicious leek and asparagus with bacon soup.  This rich and flavourful soup has lots of depth and complexity, but oddly, it has little of its namesake essence—I barely taste any asparagus or leek.  The smokiness of the bacon comes through powerfully, almost too much where it dominates the dish.  The base stock is also a little too salty, likely as a result of the bacon influence.  Despite the overwhelming flavour, you have to search intently to find chunks of meat.  Since we arrive right at opening, I expect the soup to be fresh off the burner.  In a couple of hours, after some of the liquids evaporate, if they don’t add a dilution, this will become a Dead Sea-like brine. 

The soup and the side salad come with my meal today.  The salad features spicy greens in a sweet dressing.  Don’t ask me what the dressing is made of since all I taste is sugar.  So much dressing sloshes around my plate where I can hear the green leaves crying for rescue, bobbing in their lifejackets and preservers.  With a lighter hand, this could have been a wonderfully fresh salad with a spicy edge and a sweet contrast. 

The chicken salad wrap comes with equally fresh lettuce and plenty of delicious chicken.  Unlike most chicken meats, this rendition comes heavily smoked and oozes of Bible Belt barbecue.  The lightly portioned mayo ensures the sandwich remains moisture, despite the smoking process, which can easily leave meats dry.  The only change I would make is to ease off a bit on the salt again.

The nicely seasoned beef burger comes quite plain, with just lettuce, tomato slices and cheese.  I can’t stand the plasticky processed cheese and thankfully, they use the real cheddar.  However, the cheddar comes shaved as thin as tracing people, equally revealing and translucent.  You can’t call a cheeseburger, a cheeseburger when the cheese looks like a veil of soap film.

The patty comes beautifully seared, charred on the outside and relatively moist on the inside.  One minute less on the grill and this would have been a perfectly cooked patty.  I like the whole wheat bun, although most people I know prefer the standard white.

The burger comes with a side of fries, which are dry and ungreasy.  The rough-cut fries have the skin but not the hard texture that sometimes comes with it.  Although nice and golden brown, the fries are missing crispness that I like to see. 

The burger’s lettuce and tomato slices come crisp and fresh, although the tomatoes are a little too crisp.  Now how can you make tomato too crisp?  Simple, add some plastic!  In this case, the plastic comes in the form of a bread bag enclosing clip.

At least I know the bread’s stiff fresh as I can read the “before May 14” ink on the clip.  I’m thankful that I chewed on it flatwise, rather than on edge (and imagine if I would have got the clip claws around my tongue!).  I bring the uninvited visitor to the attention of the head cashier, who promptly and apologetically refunds the price of the burger and offers to bring a replacement.  Out of courtesy, I advise the cashier that I’m a critic and that I will cite this odd ingredient.  She assures me that the manager would speak to this error but from then to the time we finished our meals and left, no one approached us.

Of course, I expect the bread clip to be a one-time error and I do not hold that against the Culinary Exchange’s efforts.  There are some imperfections here but after all, these are not professionals who prepare the food.  The cafeteria prices are not discounted and comparable to other cafeterias, so I have the same expectations.  This is not a sit-down, full service restaurant so I do not hold it to the those standards.  For the upscale experience, next time I will try the sister restaurant, Jane’s—but for a cafeteria, I had an enjoyable meal.

*** /5

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