Episode 152: Thanksgiving with UConn Dining Services

Rob Landolphi is the Director of Culinary Development for UConn Dining Services. In his role, he and his team develop the menus to the over 200,000 meals served to students each week in Storrs. Rob joins us on his episode to talk about how student tastes have changed over the years and how everything from social media to the Cultural Centers on campus affects what is served in dining halls. For those of you that are getting ready to prepare Thanksgiving dinner, Rob provides some great tips on cooking turkey and getting sides dishes done in advance. We also discuss the 25^th Annual UConn Culinary Olympics, which takes place on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, and the public is invited to attend!

Listen to Episode 152 on Podbean

Mike: Hello everybody. Welcome to the UConn 360 Podcast and happy Thanksgiving. My co-host as always is Izzy Harris from University Communications. Izzy, happy holiday season. It’s upon us.

Izzy: I know. It sure is.

Mike: It seems like the semester just started and we got to remember it’s the holiday season, but it’s also exam season for our students. So, while a lot of us have only festive things to deal with, our students have exams to deal with.

Izzy: I’m in the thick of it right now. In grad school?

Mike: That’s right. In grad school.

Izzy: I don’t know about appreciate—well, maybe just sadness, stress.

Mike: I’ve done the grad school thing and working.

Izzy: Yeah. But at least we have the holidays to look forward to.

Mike: We have the holiday to look forward to.

Izzy: Yeah. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Mike: So, our guest today is part of the holidays here at UConn and part of also making sure students are well-fed during the entire school year and especially during exams. He’s Rob Landolphi, Director of Culinary Development for UConn Dining Services. Rob’s been here 25 years. He knows everybody on campus. Everybody knows Rob, and it’s great to have him here on the podcast. Dining halls here at UConn serve over 200,000 meals each week to students. It’s a never-ending process. They take into consideration nutrition, allergies, and just plain what tastes good to students. The holiday season and final exam season is extra special for our friends in Dining Services. Rob’s going to talk a little bit about that and also talk about the upcoming UConn Culinary Olympics, which takes place after the first of the year.

Rob graduated from Johnson & Wales University. And this is not his first media appearance. It’ll be his best, but not his first. He’s been on the Food Network and the CBS Early Show, among other things. So, Rob, happy Thanksgiving and welcome to the podcast.

Rob: Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Mike: So, tell us a little bit about what it means—your job here, Director of Culinary Development—and what are your day-to-day responsibilities?

Rob: Sure. So, I always tell people I probably have the best job on campus because, you know, literally I’m working with food from morning till night. But I have a really talented team. I have 12 executive chefs that are on campus that I work with on a regular basis. And what we do is we’re actually looking at trends. We’re following TikTok, Instagram—you know, that’s what students see and that’s what they follow. So, we got to keep up with those trends and kind of get those onto our menus on a daily basis. So that’s where we come up with ideas. And we also get our ideas from students. We talk to students, we have focus groups, and they send us recipes. We take those recipes and we test them. We change them from 12 portions to 500 portions, and we get them on our menus.

Besides that, we work with a lot of the cultural centers on campus doing special events. I’m lucky to have a dietitian—I work very closely with her when it comes to students with dietary needs. Right now, out of the 30,000 students on campus, we have probably about 2,000 students who are registered with CSD who have dietary issues. So, we work with them on a regular basis to make sure they have a good experience when dining here at the University of Connecticut, whether it’s four years or six years or eight years. In reality, it’s a great position. I love it. And right now, we’re heading towards Thanksgiving here, which I think everyone really is looking forward to. Everyone’s tired. It’s been a long semester, but we have some great special events coming up for the students.

Izzy: I imagine that students’ needs and expectations have changed a lot since you’ve been here over the last 25 years. It’s funny you mentioned trends and TikTok and all of that, and that’s something that I never really would’ve thought about in your field—although I watch those cooking videos every day on TikTok, so now I can see how they kind of translate into your everyday work.

Rob: You’re right. You have been exposed to so much more than, let’s say, I was exposed to when I was in college, and I think it’s actually worked to our advantage—meaning the culinarians and food service managers and Dining Services—because we have students that want to try new foods. They want to try foods from different cultures. They want to see things that are trendy. They want to jump on the bandwagon and say, “Hey, I tried that. I had that. I like that.” And so, when we’re developing menus, we literally have, I would say, probably about 30 to 40% of our menuing as international cuisine.

Everyone thinks of, okay, well Buffalo is a perfect example. Everyone loves Buffalo sauce. But now you get into Korean gochujang, and you get into sriracha, and you’re getting into all these other types of hot sauces from around the world. And so that’s been an opportunity for us to add so much more to our repertoire of recipes. And then we put little cards out there explaining where these taste profiles come from and say to the students, “Hey, try it. If you don’t like it, it’s okay, but just try it.”

Izzy: That’s cool that students can come to the dining halls here at UConn and expand their palate. This is kind of a side note, but I’m thinking about the trends that I see every day on TikTok. And there are three things that I feel like come up all the time. There’s this one, like butter noodle pasta. It’s made with like—I’m going to say this wrong—ditalini?

Rob: Ditalini. Yeah.

Izzy: Yeah. Okay, I was close. I was close. And it’s just like buttered noodles and I see that all the time. And then hot honey and Dubai chocolate are the things that are all over my feed.

Rob: That’s so funny. So, we have two of the three. We don’t have the Dubai chocolate. I’m going to have to get my hands on some of that. But at the same time, hot honey’s interesting because that has taken off and we’re seeing people put hot honey into marinades. We’re seeing them putting it on pizza, sandwiches, etc. And, you know, I love it. I think it’s great. I think it adds a whole new level to the dish. And so, again, it’s about experimenting. It’s about playing. Not everything we make is a success. You have to be willing to fail. And that’s what I always say to my executive chef team: let’s create something, put it out on the menu, and let’s get feedback from the students. Some of it will work and some of it won’t.

Mike: So how did you get interested in cooking? And I’ve looked at your profile—you’ve worked at country clubs, restaurants, even worked at the legendary Sugar Shack Donut Shop here in Storrs. For those people who have been around for a while, how did you get interested in cooking and how did higher ed become your place to perfect your craft?

Rob: So, it’s funny—back when I was in high school, well, growing up, first of all, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. My grandmother was from Italy and she lived in Brooklyn, New York. And I used to spend summers with her, and she would have her nanny dress on and be in the kitchen and just spend hours in there working over the pot. And I was just intrigued. I learned so much just watching her and seeing how happy she was to prepare food. She would work all day to prepare wonderful meals and then, obviously, she would feed the family, and it’d be over in about an hour and a half. But she kind of inspired me to go in the culinary direction.

And then when I was in high school, coming up on my senior year, we had to make a decision as to what we’re going to do with the rest of our life. And I had a wonderful cooking teacher by the name of Ms. Scott, who I just absolutely loved. And I decided that I was going to pursue—there were two things I loved: art, which I really enjoyed in high school, and cooking. So, I said, okay, I could be a starving artist, or I could be a well-fed chef. So, I decided to pursue that. I went on to Johnson & Wales University in Providence. I was there for four years—associates in culinary arts, bachelor’s in food service management. Then I went on to Central Connecticut State University for my teacher certification in culinary.

One thing led to another—you mentioned the Sugar Shack, which I loved. It was one of the greatest places I ever worked. I met so many people from the Mansfield and UConn community, and that’s what really got me the job here at UConn. Michael White, our executive director, was actually a customer who came in every single day. And when I sold the Sugar Shack, he happened to say, “Well, what are you going to do now?” I’m like, “I’m not sure yet.” And he said, “I have an opportunity for you. How about UConn Dining Services?” And that was 25 years ago.

Mike: The Sugar Shack used to be the social hub of Storrs.

Rob: It really was. I mean, we’re talking—I remember Harry Hartley and Wally Lamb, and you know, Jim Calhoun. And it was just a great gathering place of so many different personalities, so many different people. And it was probably the best eight years of my life.

Izzy: So, although it is holiday season, it’s also exam season, which I can’t seem to forget about these days. With everything going on, what do you do special for the UConn students this time of year and do you have any favorite recipes?

Rob: So, you know, what we’re going to do is we obviously do a combination of things. We’ll do some theme meals and we’ll also do monotony breakers. We’ll do a Thanksgiving in the dining halls for the students before they leave, which they always enjoy, but they also enjoy monotony breakers. Monotony breakers are more of—you know, it might be decorating your own cookie or something along those lines or maybe create your own cannoli or just something to kind of get their mind off of studying, the stress of exams. And it’s amazing—you think, okay, well these are college kids. Do they really want to decorate a cookie? They’re not six, seven years old. They love it. I mean, when they all come together with their friends, it’s just so funny. They have big smiles on their faces, and they just really enjoy it. So that’s kind of what we do.

And then as we end the week—because the kids are going to be gone next week for Thanksgiving—we get into a lot more chef’s choice dishes. So, what we do is I allow my executive chefs and my culinary team to create dishes maybe from their countries or dishes that mean something to them. And that’s what they’re going to start seeing on the menu leading up to Thanksgiving and then leading up to the holiday break.

Mike: So, we might have some people listening to the podcast and they’re at home, away from UConn, and they’re stressing about their Thanksgiving meal. They’ve invited 20 people over for dinner and they haven’t done a thing yet for it. So how does the average family get through Thanksgiving stress-free and still put on a nice meal?

Rob: You know, that’s a good question. And you know, my house—I have 30 that come to my house. But I enjoy it. I love having everyone in my home and I always start ahead of time, and that’s what I try to tell people. There are so many dishes that you can actually make ahead of time. We start off with that turkey. First of all, what’s most important is you have to thaw the turkey, right? And depending on how big your turkey is, it’s four pounds per day to thaw it. So, if you have a 20-pound turkey, you better plan on four to five days to thaw that turkey. Are you going to brine the turkey? A lot of people ask the question of how you keep the— I mean, the dark meat’s always nice and moist, but the breast always dries out. And one thing I’ve done over time is I always—people sometimes rub butter under the skin, which I kind of don’t like because butter burns, but I use mayonnaise and I coat underneath the skin and then I put thick-cut bacon over the breast before it goes in the oven. ‘Cause you want that fat on there to keep the breast nice and moist when you cook it.

And then, what can I do ahead of time? Well, the things I do ahead of time are my mashed potatoes—I’m doing those the day before. My sweet potatoes I’m doing the day before. My stuffing I’m doing the day before. And I always tell people—some people like to stuff their bird, and some people don’t like to stuff their bird. If you’re going to stuff that turkey, make sure your stuffing is cold. Don’t stuff hot stuffing into a cold bird and then put it back in the fridge because you’re looking for trouble there when it comes to the temperature danger zone and things like that. But pies too—people don’t realize that pies can be prepared ahead of time, frozen, then you just pull ’em out and bake ’em from a frozen state. So again, when it comes to Thanksgiving Day, I don’t want to be stressed. I want to hang out and enjoy my family, enjoy my friends. And when I think about what I have to do on Thanksgiving Day, it’s like maybe three items: I have to throw the turkey in the oven, make gravy, and basically that’s it. Eat. Everything else is pre-prepared—just cook it off.

Izzy: Do you have room for one more at Thanksgiving weekend?

Rob: I’d love to have you for Thanksgiving.

Mike: We could do a podcast—that’s right. Landolphi Thanksgiving table. There you go.

Izzy: You know what, if for some strange reason I don’t make it over there, maybe a leftovers plate would do, you know?

Rob: Well, I’m going to share a story. So, this is so funny because Thanksgiving has always been at my house, and my father wanted to take it over the last few years with my stepmother. And the other day, I have three boys, and one of my boys says to me, “Dad, can we take back Thanksgiving?” And I’m like, “Sure. Why?” He goes, “Mimi”—and that’s my stepmother, hope she doesn’t hear this— “Mimi’s turkey is so dry, and the stuffing has no flavor.” I’m like, “Alright, we’re not going to tell Mimi that, but yeah, I’ll take it back.” So, it’s coming back to my house this year.

Izzy: So, it sounds like it’s a happy ending.

Rob: It is a happy ending for everybody.

Izzy: So, don’t think, just answer—what’s your favorite ever holiday recipe?

Rob: My favorite ever holiday recipe—there’s a story behind it—but it’s actually sweet potato pumpkin pie. So, I had a friend from Georgia who I had an opportunity to go down and visit about a week before Thanksgiving. And his mother, who was from the South, was actually making a pumpkin pie. And what she did is she did 50% canned pumpkin and then she took sweet potatoes—because Georgia—roasted them off until they were caramelized and sweet and nutty. And she mixed in the sweet potato with the pumpkin because sweet potatoes have considerably more sugar than pumpkin. And she decided to bake off a pie when we were there, and it was absolutely the best pumpkin pie I ever had.

Izzy: So, will that be on your Thanksgiving table this year?

Rob: Yes, it will.

Mike: You know what my favorite pies are for Thanksgiving that I bring—

Izzy: Apple?

Mike: Anything from the UConn Dining Services bakeshop. I tell you; I’m a faithful customer. When I need to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal, I make sure I order the pies and I pick ’em up. And they do the same thing because they have the gluten-free—well, they do a great job.

Rob: They do a great job over there.

Mike: Yeah. They make it easy. I know the ordering is done for this year, but for next year, for people out there that either are on the UConn campus or even live close by—get your pies at UConn.

Rob: Do you tell everyone that you baked it?

Mike: It’s a little tough. You know, when you got the box with the UConn logo and everything like that, it’s tough to pull that off.

Izzy: You don’t even take it out and put it on a nice plate? That’s a rookie move.

Mike: It’s not a rookie move, it’s just—

Rob: Are you the guy who takes the canned cranberry sauce and just slides it off and leaves it on the plate?

Mike: I make no pretensions about my cooking abilities.

Izzy: Sounds like you could learn a lot from this podcast.

Mike: Probably could. Probably could.

Mike: So, tell us—once the holiday’s over, Tuesday, January 13th—the real fun event is the UConn Culinary Olympics. It takes place in the dining hall at brand-new Connecticut Hall. It’s the 25th year, as I said. Tell us a little bit about it and how the general public can be involved.

Rob: Sure. This is our 25th annual Culinary Olympics, and it’s an amazing day. We open it to the public. It’s actually an opportunity for our chefs to compete in competitions—our chefs from the dining halls, catering, retail operations, etc. What we do is we have a recipe contest in the morning. These are recipes that the chefs actually submit ahead of time. We bring in all the ingredients, and they compete in three categories: appetizer, entrée, and dessert.

In the afternoon, what we have is called The Boiling Point. The Boiling Point is similar to a market basket “Chopped”-style competition where we actually give them a protein and a couple of ingredients—but we’re changing it this year. I can’t tell you what we’re going to be doing to them. They have basically about an hour and 15 minutes to create three different tapas, which are small food bites, for our judges. They’re only allowed to use two camp stoves, so it’s not like you’re in a full kitchen. But they’re absolutely amazing. The competition has a lot of trash talk going on among the different dining halls because whoever wins gets their name on a plaque that hangs in the dining hall the next year, and they have bragging rights. We have a great team of judges too that critique their dishes. So, it’s great for everybody.

Mike: And if people are interested and they want to come by, they can come by and watch everything?

Rob: Most definitely. Usually what I say is if you show up around 10:30 or 11:00, you’ll see the end of the recipe competition right into The Boiling Point, which is the most exciting part of the day. That usually runs till about 3:30.

Mike: And I know there’s a website for the competition. So, if people look inside the description of the podcast, we’ll put the link right there.

Rob: And we’ve done some funky stuff over the years for the protein—we’ve done venison, alligator, wild boar, octopus. And then we’ve done simple things like lamb chops and things like that. We haven’t really decided what we’re going to do yet this year. All depends on what kind of mood I’m in.

Izzy: Does the general public get any taste testing?

Rob: They do. What we do is the recipe competition in the morning—we always have them make extra and then we put it on platters with little sample cups so those attending the event can actually go and sample some of the items. We’re also going to serve lunch this year. Anyone who comes gets a free lunch. We’re actually going to prepare dishes—winning dishes from the Culinary Olympics from over the last 25 years. Some of these chefs aren’t with us anymore, so this’ll be a great way to remember them.

Izzy: Hey Mike, what are you doing January 13th?

Mike: Let’s go to the Culinary Olympics.

Izzy: Sounds like a plan. Wait—actually, I’m going to be in Barbados that day.

Mike: Oh, you’re going to be in Barbados? Yeah. Well, I’ll have to go solo.

Izzy: Yeah, I’ll have good food there too.

Rob: Well, if you come into my house for Thanksgiving, I’m going to Barbados with you.

Mike: There you go.

Izzy: Sounds like a plan.

Rob: Good deal.

Mike: Well, Rob, thanks for joining us today. You do great work. Your whole team does great work. It’s a massive operation, yet it seems like you really take care of the students on a one-on-one basis.

Rob: I do. And I really enjoy what I do. I love the students, and hey—here’s to 25 more years.

Mike: Sounds good. Sounds good. Izzy, happy Thanksgiving.

Izzy: Happy Thanksgiving, Mike.

Mike: Happy Thanksgiving to all listeners, and we’ll check in next time on the UConn 360 Podcast.