Chef Daniel Glaszczak retires this month completing his 75th semester at Park University and concluding his 42-year cooking career.
Glaszczak says aside from serving an estimated 500,000 to one million people and never missing work from inclement weather, he has collected a host of memories from his time in the dining hall.
“When I first started in the late 1970s we had hell week where freshman wore little red hats and upperclassman dressed up like zombies and covered themselves in cheese to terrorize them,” says Glaszczak. “I remember one time opening the back door and seeing a boy standing on top of a VW Beetle holding a real pig’s head. Inside the car were two terrified girls. I just closed the door.
“I’ve also seen students streaking, students Saran Wrapped to trees naked and plenty of fights though nothing too serious. We stopped serving baked potatoes with foil because students would use it as a projectile. We got rid of trays four years ago because they were used in most of the fights. People threw them at each other when some girl would look at another girl’s boyfriend, etc.”
Glaszczak says for a time students had an unwritten seating arrangement. Caucasian, African American and Micronesian students all sat in exclusive sections. Glaszczak says when a student asked him why he put chairs in the “white” section first, he told her she was allowed to sit wherever she pleased.
“What’s great now,” says Glaszczak, “is how the students interact with each other. All nationalities get along.”
Glaszczak explains how preparation has changed at Park.
“Before Sodexho took over we didn’t have to make a profit because we were ran through Park, we were just part of the social profit,” he says. “The food was simpler, back then you got two entrees of starch and vegetables. That was it. We also had full time bakers, fresh rolls every night and cinnamon rolls in the morning. It wasn’t packaged food like it is now.
“What the students ate in the 1970s, they won’t eat now. After the microwave was invented it, really changed the eating patterns. Also, kids don’t eat as much desert or bread as they used to, they’re watching their carb intake.”
Glaszczak says the invention of the microwave severely changed students eating patterns. He also says he believes students are watching their carb intake so they don’t consume as much bread or desserts.
“I like cooking,” says Glaszczak, “Because you’re your own boss when you’re doing it, and you can be creative. It’s not an exact art, and each meal isn’t quite the same, it changes with the weather or the day.
“Usually when I get a tried and true recipe, I stick with it. I like cooking fried chicken or pastas because they always go over well, students like to eat them. I like when people say they liked it, but of course the best compliment you can get, is when they say it tastes just like moms.”
