Beginning last semester, the ‘Ōhi’a cafeteria welcomed the Coffee Corner, which used to be the 2nd Cup Café located in ‘Ōhelo building, and a new rotating menu that has daily specials.
Students will find that the menu is a lot more well round and reflects foods from different cultures of the world, such as European, Asian and American.
“(The cafe) never used to do pot pie and chicken and dumplings,” said Dave Hamada, sous chef for the cafeteria.
Chef Diane Nazarro implemented the new menu and worked with Hamada. During the summer, they worked to bring forth the menu’s debut in the fall semester.
Nazarro came to KCC from previously running the Windward Community College cafeteria.
If students are interested in picking up a menu, they are available by the cash register.
The new additions to the cafeteria selection include a wider variety of grab-and-go foods, salads and sandwiches. The daily specials provide a vegetarian option, which is the last item listed on the designated day on the menu calendar.
“It’s (vegetarian option) been pretty well received by students,” said Hamada.
Those purchasing a daily special can expect the food to be cooked when it’s ordered. Like the coffee corner, taking the place of the Icee machine, students can find fresh baked scones, which are also sold at the KCC farmer’s market, and a coffee selection that can be found at any coffee shop.
The cafeteria also has a lot of student help this semester from the dining room service (CULN160) class. In addition, the fundamentals of cookery (CULN120) class helps out with the special orders. As part of the their lessons, three students are sent over to the cafe to plan, decide and cook the daily specials each day.
The café also has two apprentices working and about 30 percent of the workers are non-culinary students.
The menu is a six-week rotation, within those six-weeks students will not see a repeat of any one dish.
The money made from the cafeteria filters back to the culinary department and helps to offset costs, explained Hamada. In setting the prices for food, Hamada explained that they must factor in labor work, cost of ingredients and much more.
This semester the prices of fish have gone up and the cafeteria cannot provide fish dishes because of the increase.
Hamada also explained that they are trying to keep the food choices healthier.
After the first week of school, the short orders will be more abundant because the students will be coming in to prepare and cook the meals.
The cafe also helps support the International Festival by decorating the cafeteria and cooking certain foods based on the day.
The café is open Monday to Thursday from 1 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Friday’s until 3 p.m.