Thanks for giving us the business !!

We have enjoyed serving you this school year. We wish our graduating seniors much success in the years ahead. We look forward to seeing our undergraduate students in the fall and our graduating seniors at Alumni events.

Please visit our website often throughout the summer for updates regarding your meal plan and special events we are planning for the fall semester. Sign up for a meal plan by June 22nd and you will be entered for a chance to win a free meal plan for the fall semester.

Thanks for allowing us to be THE BEST SERVING THE BEST!

We appreciate you giving us the business. Have a great summer!

Best Regards, Tim

Posted at 02:35PM May 13, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in General  | 

The End of Semester Celebration, Thursday May 3rd

Join us in celebrating the end of the semester, Thursday May 3rd! The Dining Services Team is committed to making your dining experiences on campus, lifetime memories. The End of Semester Celebration is an event our staff truly loves creating for your dining pleasure. You have worked very hard over this past semester and you deserve to celebrate with friends while enjoying a great Villanova Tradition.

On Thursday, May 3rd, we will celebrate our 82nd bi-annual End of Semester Celebration. Our chefs have planned a memorable meal. The spectacular dessert extravaganza will offer over two dozen desserts, a chocolate fondue bar, and Bananas Foster.

You don't want to miss this. Come early, the dining halls open at 4:15 PM.

The following Monday 5/7 and Tuesday 5/8, "Dine Out in You Favorite Dining Hall" will be featured. All three resident dining halls will be offering you an opportunity to "Dine Out" with your friends during dinner on Monday and Tuesday. This year, email us and tell us how many are in your group (6 or more) @ diningservices@Villanova.edu and we will prepare a decorated table for you and your friends to enjoy your last meal of the semester together. We will offer special Hors D'Oeuvres and desserts for six or more.

There's no better way to end your spring semester than enjoying the End of Semester Celebration and Dine Out. You will enjoy great food and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanks for allowing us to be the Best Serving The Best. Best Regards, Tim Dietzler

Posted at 10:28PM Apr 29, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in Special Events  | 

Mindful Meat Eating

Beginning in October 2011, in association with the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, we have participated in Meatless Mondays.


Click Here for more info on Meatless Mondays

For most of our diners on Mondays, this has been a non-event. For a small number of diners providing me input, this new program has been observed as a very positive move forward toward improving our health and our environment, while several perceived Meatless Mondays as Dining Services taking away variety and menu options. Both view points are important to us. We did add more entrees which did not contain meat, however, throughout our operations across campus, animal proteins have been available and offered. So Meatless Mondays here at Villanova are really Mindful Meat Eating Mondays. We still provided animal protein options at the cook to order stations but focused on increasing plant based options at the self service areas. The question for me, as director of dining services, is which view points should we incorporate into our our menu development and planning. I think the answer is obvious, all of the above.

It is important that we develop our menus with the latest market and nutritional trends. Currently a trend across the country is nutrition education; establishing healthy eating habits is also a current nutrition trend. At the same time, dining with friends and enjoying a gourmet burger at St. Mary's or a decadent dessert at Holy Grounds in the Connelly Center is a really popular trend here on campus.

Each Monday our dining operations focus on meatless options on our menus. We also present you with nutrition information, as well as facts regarding the environmental impact of a diet heavy in animal proteins for your consideration. For instance, it was interesting to me to find out that athletes perform better on a plant based diet versus the Standard American Diet which is rich in animal protein. I was amazed that the amount of water required to bring a pound of beef to the market is equivalent to taking a daily shower over the course of a year! We plan to present more nutrition information and environmental considerations, each Monday, regarding a plant based diet.

Thanks for allowing us to be the THE BEST SERVING THE BEST !

Tim

Posted at 02:25PM Mar 24, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in Sustainability  | 

The 2012 Veggie Mania Winners offer delicious flavors and comfort foods

On Wednesday March 14th, 13 Dining Services' Chefs and Managers competed in creating and preparing delicious vegan recipes to claim the top spot in the 2012 Veggie Mania Contest.

Veggie Mania has been a tradition in Villanova Dining Services since the turn of the century. Each year our culinary team raises the bar on taste, quality and presentation. This year our chefs were charged with creating a vegan recipe which featured a complete protein. Whole grains such as rice, for example, contain incomplete proteins. Legumes contain other incomplete proteins. But combine them together in a delicious dish and between the two you'll find all the amino acids necessary for the human diet; so a plate of rice and beans meets the same protein-building needs in your body as meat. A complete protein in other words. So each Veggie Mania recipe had to contain at least one whole grain, one legume, one fresh herb, and one vegetable or fruit. Bonus points were awarded for each additional whole grain, legume, fresh herb, fruit or vegetable added to their recipe. We had a team of 9 judges consisting of faculty, staff and students who did a remarkable job tasting and rating the recipes. Thanks to our judges for their time and dedication.

This year's 2012 Veggie Mania Winners:

Judged Highest Rated Recipe in Taste, Color, Texture, and Ease of Production:

1. Jerry Sacco, St Mary's Hall ~ Quinoa with Swiss Chard & Lemon 2. Mohammed Kabbaj, The Court at Donahue Hall ~ Jewel of the Nile 3. Albert Demarco, School of Law ~ Red Lentil Artichoke Stew

Judged Best Taste

1. Mohamed Kabbaj, The Court at Donahue Hall ~ Jewel of the Nile 2. Albert DeMarco, School of Law ~ Red Lentil Artichoke Stew 3. Nancy Miller, The Court at Donahue Hall ~ Pakora Casserole

Overall Highest Point Average with Bonus Points Awarded:

1. Mohamed Kabbaj, The Court at Donahue Hall ~ Jewel of the Nile 2. Margaret Tripiciano, Dougherty Hall ~ Peruvian Quinoa Stew 3. John Young, St. Mary's Hall ~ Tofu Teriyaki over Saffron Rice

Congratulations to our winning chefs and to everyone who competed. All these recipes are impressive so we will run encore presentations of the best tasting recipes at lunch on Thursday March 22nd and at dinner on March 30th, in all resident dining halls.

Thanks for allowing us to be The Best Serving the Best ! Tim

Posted at 11:54PM Mar 20, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in Special Events  | 

National Nutrition Month opens with a Splash !

Can water help you perform better academically and athletically? Yes, stay well hydrated. To help you introduce more fresh water into your daily diet, we have added hydration stations, featuring herb and fruit flavored waters, in all our resident dining halls during National Nutrition Month. The fruit and herbs add great taste without adding calories and artificial ingredients. Enjoy fresh water throughout the day, throughout the month.

Stay tuned for the announcement of this year's Veggie Mania winners. Our chefs have competed in creating vegan recipes that everyone will savor and enjoy. On Wednesday March 14th over 15 vegan recipes were developed, tested, and judged by students, faculty and staff members. We will be announcing the winners and then offer encore presentations of the top five recipes, deemed "delicious" by our panel of judges. This year's top winners will compete nationally in NACUFS Best Vegan recipe contest.

Since it is National Nutrition Month, I would like to share with you a great movie regarding nutrition. Click Here to view "EATING", a movie about nutrition


Enjoy the many treats our chefs and staff are serving throughout the month of March, National Nutrition Month. Thanks for allowing us to continue to be the Best Serving the Best ! Tim

Posted at 10:22PM Mar 14, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in Nutrition  | 

Celebrate with our leaplings and then leap into National Nutrition Month

Join us on February 29th, at dinner, to celebrate with six Villanova Leaplings. Be part of our 5 year old birthday party and festivities as we honor Alaina Cipollone, Carly Edwards, Keegan Einspanier, Danielle Grim, Alexandra Roberts, Ryan Wallace on the occasion of their 5th birthday.

Guests of honor will be dining in Dougherty Hall, where there will also be a DJ, photo booth, a trivia contest with prizes and much more! We have a wonderful menu planned which features our Leapling's favorites. You will not want to miss out.

Happy Birthday to our Leaplings and to all our students celebrating a February Birthday! Thanks for allowing us to be The Best Serving the Best ! Tim

Posted at 12:55AM Feb 23, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in Special Events  | 

Join us in 2012 and enjoy our many special events we have planned for you

Best Wishes to you in 2012. Stay tuned for info on the many special events we have planned for the spring 2012 semester. From our Villanova One Book dinner on January 31st, to American Soul Food on Feb 8th, to Caribbean dinner on February 16th, to Mardi Gras on Feb 21st to a special Leapling Birthday celebration on February 29th. March is National Nutrition Month with several fun and nutritional dining experiences. Mark your calendar for the End of Semester Celebration on May 3rd.

Thanks for allowing us to keep on Serving the Best ! Tim

Posted at 05:29PM Jan 02, 2012 by Timothy Dietzler in General  | 

Merry Christmas from Villanova Dining Services

On behalf of Villanova Dining Services, I would like to extend our wishes for a fantastic Christmas and the best in 2012. We have enjoyed serving you over the fall semester and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year. We have a fantastic line up of special events for the spring semester, including a special Leap Year event to celebrate our "Leaplings" who are turning 5 years old in 2012!! Thanks for the opportunity to Serve the Best! Tim

Posted at 10:26PM Dec 14, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in General  | 

Mindful Meat Eating

Beginning in October 2011, in association with the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health we have participated in Meatless Mondays.


Click Here for more info on Meatless Mondays

For most of our diners on Mondays, this has been a non-event. For a small number of diners providing me input, this new program has been observed as a very positive move forward toward improving our health and our environment, while several perceived Meatless Mondays as Dining Services taking away variety and menu options. Both view points are important to us. We did add more entrees which did not contain meat, however, throughout our operations across campus, animal proteins have been available and offered. So Meatless Mondays here at Villanova are really Mindful Meat Eating Mondays. We still provided animal protein options at the cook to order stations but focused on increasing plant based options at the self service areas. The question for me, as director of dining services, is which view points should we incorporate into our our menu development and planning. I think the answer is obvious, all of the above.

It is important that we develop our menus with the latest market and nutritional trends. Currently a trend across the country is nutrition education; establishing healthy eating habits is also a current nutrition trend. At the same time, dining with friends and enjoying a gourmet burger at St. Mary's or a decadent dessert at Holy Grounds in the Connelly is a really popular trend here on campus.

Each Monday our dining operations focus on meatless options on our menus. We also present you with nutrition information, as well as facts regarding the environmental impact of a diet heavy in animal proteins for your consideration. For instance, it was interesting to me to find out that athletes perform better on a plant based diet versus the Standard American Diet which is rich in animal protein. I was amazed that the amount of water required to bring a pound of beef to the market is equivalent to taking a daily shower over the course of a year! We plan to present more nutrition information and environmental considerations, each Monday, regarding a plant based diet.

Thanks for allowing us to be the THE BEST SERVING THE BEST !

Tim

Posted at 10:44AM Oct 29, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in Sustainability  | 

Cooking by the book opens in St. Mary's - where FOOD MATTERS !

Join us in St. Mary's dining hall to enjoy our Cooking by the Book program featuring recipes from Mark Bittman. Our menu committee has come up with a wonderful program this school year. Each of our dining halls, and several of our retail operations, have selected a favorite cook book and will present featured recipes throughout the year. St. Mary's has selected Mark Bittman, author of the "How to Cook Everything" series and "Food Matters". Mark recently ended his 13 year run as the "Minimalist" writing for the New York Times.


Click Here to meet Mark Bittman


Click Here for a glimpse of the featured recipes from Mark Bittman


Stop by St. Mary's to see the newly renovated dining facility and enjoy a Mark Bittman recipe.


Thanks for allowing us to be The Best Serving the Best !


Best Regards, Tim Dietzler

Posted at 02:15AM Sep 08, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in Nutrition  | 

Join us this week for our welcome back events

We have planned several fun events for you to enjoy this week! General Mills' Trix the Rabbit and the Luck Charms Leprechaun will be greeting you in the resident dining halls at breakfast this week. Tuesday 8/30 - Dougherty Hall Wednesday 8/31 - Donahue Hall Thursday 9/1 - St. Mary's Hall Have your picture taken while enjoying your favorite breakfast cereal.[Read More]

Posted at 02:48PM Aug 29, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in Special Events  | 

Hours of Operations during Hurricane Irene

Due to hurricane Irene, Villanova Dining Services will be operating on a special emergency schedule.



Saturday



7 pm - Dougherty Dining Hall will close.

7:30 pm - St Mary’s Dining Hall, The Court at Donahue, 2nd Storey, and the Donahue Market will all close.

8 pm - Operations in Connelly Center will close at 8 pm.



• Be sure to visit the C-Stores for non-perishable items you can bring back to your room.



Sunday



11 am - Every effort will be made to keep our three resident dining halls open (Dougherty, The Court at Donahue and St. Mary’s Dining Hall) with brunch being served beginning at 11:00 am.



Retail locations will NOT be open Sunday. This includes The Belle Air Terrace, Freshens, Reel Divine and Holy Grounds in Connelly Center, The 2nd Storey Market, Donahue Market, and Holy Grounds in Falvey.



Thank you for your understanding.



Tim Dietzler

Posted at 12:03PM Aug 27, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in General  | 

Dining Services brings Community Supported Agriculture to Villanova

We hope you have enjoyed your summer. Villanova Dining Services has been working hard to improve our services which, ultimately, ehances your dining experience on campus.

From the newly renovated dining hall in St. Mary's, which will be the place to enjoy a great meal while hanging out with friends, studying, playing XBOX games, or watching your favorte sporting event on TV; to our new Cooking by the Book program , a program which will bring recipes from celebrity cook books into our dining operations; to our community supported agriculture program in the 2nd Storey. All these new programs will enhance your dining experience while on campus and make wonderful lifetime memories.

We are pleased that our CSA program is largely the result of a student project for Professor Lisa Rodrigues. Christofer Nicoletta, Kristen Stankiewicz, Kara Chatham, Julie Joyce, and Joshua Meekins met with Villanova Dining Services in the sping of 2011 and presented their ideas for a CSA program here at Villanova. The student team facilitated a meeting with Kathan Teepe from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative and Villanova Dining Services. We could not have developed this program without our students and their support. Thank you Christofer, Kristen, Kara, Julie, Joshua and professor Rodrigues, together, the Villanova Community has worked together to bring community supported agriculture to our campus.

Sign up for the CSA program. Begining September 5th, and the following 12 weeks into October, organic farm fresh vegetables and fruit will be delivered to the 2nd Storey for you to pick up and enjoy. This program supports local farmers and our community, and is an excellent way for you to enjoy fresh picked vegetables and fruit.

Signing up for the CSA program at the 2nd Storey is easy , click on the link below to get more information on the program. You sign up online and make your payment at the 2nd Storey. You can use your credit card, WildCard, or cash to settle your CSA account. Click Here to get more information and sign up for the CSA program

Please email me with your feedback, questions, and concerns at: timothy.dietzler@villanova.edu. Villanova Dining Services is here to serve you.

Best Regards, Tim

Posted at 11:07AM Aug 21, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in Sustainability  | 

Thanks for giving us the business, enjoy your summer!

Thanks for giving us the business. We have enjoyed serving you this school year. We wish our graduating seniors much success in the years ahead. We look forward to seeing our undergraduate students in the fall and our graduating seniors at Alumni events.

Please visit our website often throughout the summer for updates regarding your meal plan and special events we are planning for the fall semester.

Sign up for a meal plan by June 1st and you will be entered for a chance to win a free meal plan for the fall semester.

Thanks for allowing us to be THE BEST SERVING THE BEST!

Have a great summer!

Best Regards, Tim

Posted at 05:41PM May 02, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in General  | 

Save the date, Thursday April 28, 2011. Celebrate with Dining Services

The Count Down Begins - Keep Thursday April 28th open - Join us in celebrating the end of the semester!

The Dining Services Team is committed to making your dining experiences on campus, lifetime memories. The End of Semester Celebration is an event our staff truly loves creating for your dining pleasure. You have worked very hard over this past semester and you deserve to celebrate with friends while enjoying a great Villanova Tradition.

On Thursday, April 28, 2011 we will celebrate our 80th bi-annual End of Semester Celebration. Our chefs have planned a memorable meal. The spectacular dessert extravaganza will offer over two dozen desserts, a chocolate fondue bar, and Bananas Foster.

You don't want to miss this. Come early, the dining halls open at 4:15 PM.

The following Tuesday 5/3 and Wednesday 5/4, "Dine Out in You Favorite Dining Hall" will be featured. All three resident dining halls will be offering you an opportunity to "Dine Out" with your friends during dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday. This year, email us and tell us how many are in your group (6 or more) @ diningservices@Villanova.edu and we will prepare a decorated table for you and your friends to enjoy your last meal of the semester together. We will offer special Hors D'Oeuvres and desserts for six or more.

There's no better way to end your spring semester than enjoying the End of Semester Celebration and Dine Out. You will enjoy great food and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanks for allowing us to be the Best Serving The Best. Best Regards, Tim Dietzler

Posted at 03:14AM Mar 31, 2011 by Timothy Dietzler in Special Events  |