{"id":66247,"date":"2008-02-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/hope-commons-cooks-with-chef-bob\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T18:19:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:19:31","slug":"hope-commons-cooks-with-chef-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/02\/hope-commons-cooks-with-chef-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Commons cooks with \u2018Chef Bob\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Students line up for president\u2019s culinary creation<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 February 20, 2008 \u2013 Seeing a skillet sizzling with butter, shrimp, penne, peppers and mushrooms was no surprise to the 溏心vlog免费B站 students who lined up for lunch on Presidents\u2019 Day at Hope Commons dining hall.<\/p>\n

But they were surprised when they saw President Robert L. Carothers decked out in a white chef\u2019s hat and jacket.<\/p>\n

Presented his personal chef duds, complete with \u201cChef Bob\u201d emblazoned on the jacket, Carothers cooked his favorite dish, a shrimp and penne pasta stir fry, for two hours during peak lunchtime for a seemingly endless line of students.<\/p>\n

Many students came away uniformly impressed with the president\u2019s willingness to get in the trenches with the dining staff and his culinary creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool that he wanted to get involved with everyone,\u201d said freshman Nicole Nolin of Pawtucket.<\/p>\n

Justin Schumacher, a freshman from Long Island, was surprised to see the president working the Home Style station, but when he tasted what the president had prepared, he smiled and said, \u201cIt was really good; it was dynamite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore Anice Barbosa, originally from Cape Verde and now of Providence, was impressed with the president\u2019s work. \u201cIt was so nice for him to take time out of his busy day to cook for us,\u201d Barbosa said. \u201cHe is so friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fall River sophomore Sandra Davin agreed. \u201cIt was a fun surprise and it is very good. The president is very personable, and it\u2019s nice to see him in a real-life situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also fun and an education for \u201cChef Bob. \u201cSome of the students seemed a little shy at first, but I think it gave them something to talk about over lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Viscusi, a freshman from Long Island, said he got the president\u2019s pre-game take on the Rams\u2019 game last night against Xavier. \u201cI asked him if he was going to the game,\u201d Viscusi said. \u201cHe seemed excited and enthusiastic because we were 11-0 at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carothers said he gained some valuable insight into jobs performed by Dining Services workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the hardest part is the continuing demand to keep the food coming,\u201d the president said. \u201cOur chefs and cooks have to be creative in their planning and keep smiling through it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that since preparing and sharing meals are ways that families, friends and communities come together to share their stories, support each other and enjoy a few laughs, the Presidents\u2019 Day experience was very gratifying.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201dIt helped me feel connected to the students, and giving them something they really enjoyed felt pretty great too,\u201d Carothers said.<\/p>\n

He even had a chance to serve members of his staff, including Cathy Sears, one of his executive assistants and Cheryl Tefft, his executive housekeeper. \u201cThis is the only time he gets to work for us,\u201d Sears said jokingly.<\/p>\n

Dining Services Director Kathleen Gianquitti said the idea for having the president cook on Presidents\u2019 Day came out of discussions she had with many of her staff. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about some special events to liven up the dining halls, and we thought having our own president cook for the students on Presidents\u2019 Day was unique,\u201d Gianquitti said \u201cAs soon as we asked him, he said yes. He liked the idea that he was going to be dressed in full chef\u2019s regalia, and just to make sure everything went smoothly, we paired him with one of our principal cooks, Bill Joyce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianquitti said the event was not just fun for the students. \u201cOur staff was excited to have a chance to work with the president, to talk with him in their environment and to show him the pride they take in serving our students the best possible meals. You could see smiles everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, with such strong reviews, could this become an annual event?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I really enjoyed it,\u201d Carothers said.<\/p>\n

Pictured above<\/p>\n

COOKIN\u2019 PRESIDENT: 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers is ready to cook \u201cPresidential Penne\u201d for students on Presidents\u2019 Day at Hope Commons dining hall. At left is Bill Joyce, principal cook. Photo was taken with a fish-eye lense.<\/p>\n

GET IT WHILE IT\u2019S HOT: 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers hands a plate of his \u201cPresidential Penne\u201d to pharmacy student SoJin Kim.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications and Marketing Photos by Michael Salerno.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students line up for president\u2019s culinary creation KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 February 20, 2008 \u2013 Seeing a skillet sizzling with butter, shrimp, penne, peppers and mushrooms was no surprise to the 溏心vlog免费B站 students who lined up for lunch on Presidents\u2019 Day at Hope Commons dining hall. But they were surprised when they saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105216,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66247\/revisions\/105216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}