Fall 2005, Vol. 1, No. 4 | Back Issues

What’s Cooking?
A Food Service Q & A with Sodexho General Manager, Dennis Cronin

Whether it’s a meal at Swope, a catered MBL affair, or a coffee break in the middle of a symposium, Dennis Cronin is behind the scenes making sure it all arrives smoothly and tastes good.

We recently chatted with Dennis for the inside scoop on feeding the masses, food service at the MBL, and his interest in serving tasty, nutritious food to the MBL community.


Q. Is it true you can’t please all of the people all of the time?

A. No . . . our goal is really to find a way to please all of the people all of the time. We love what we do and we try to make that passion contagious.

Q. Is there any food that is universally liked?

A. Comfort foods are always a hit! You can’t go wrong with French fries, grilled cheese, pizza, and ice cream. And lobster seems to be a hit down here!

Q. What about least liked foods?

A. We try not to serve those.

Q. Swope is usually good about handling special dietary requests? Are there any in recent memory that were particularly odd or unusual?

A. We have lots of odd and unusual requests and we love the challenge . . . like the occasional kosher vegan with celiac disease, who is lactose intolerant.

Q. You don’t cook for fun on your day off, do you?

A. Yes. I love to cook. It is kind of like being a doctor and everywhere you go you bring that knowledge with you and people are always asking you for advice. Everywhere I go I am always looking for new ideas that I can bring back to the MBL. Some kids are born with a silver spoon and I guess I was born with a bronze spatula.

Q. We hear there’s a food service section on the MBL website? What information is available there and how does one find it?

A. There is all kinds of useful information on our website. You will find general information on Sodexho, our mission statement, our Catering Guide, conference information, and the Café Swope menu. You will even find information on nutrition.

You can reach us by going to our page on the MBL website at www.mbl.edu/housing/dining/index.html. We want to hear from you! We are always looking for ways to improve and the best way to do that is with your feedback. So, if you have a dining services question or comment, or even a menu request or question on food, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Q. Do you ever cater non-MBL gatherings, like birthdays, cocktail parties, or dinners? How does that work?

A. Our first responsibility is to take care of the MBL customer base and that includes family and friends of the MBL. If someone has a request for outside catering they should contact Pam Oldham at: <poldham@mbl.edu> to see if we are available. She is like our booking agent. We love to do special catering events and are happy to take the business if we are available.

Q. We heard you were considering selling “to go” dinner items, like roasted chickens. Is that going to happen?

A. We offer a Casual Catering option that includes lots of easy “yummy” meals to take on the run. Casual Catering includes: coffee, snacks, salads, barbecues, lasagna, sandwiches, pizza, etc. We can put anything together and try to do so with seasonal flair. We are currently looking at the possibility of updating our summer “No Frills Menu” to a casual catering program that would include home cooked meals for pick up.

We would love to know what people’s thoughts are on a program like that and whether that would be something that people would buy. We have discussed marketing this through Café Swope.

This summer, we also started a shopping service for the cottages that was pretty successful. It was created to supply basic food staples, so cottage residents would not have to fight the traffic to get to the store. Think of that, they check in and their fridge is already stocked with food!

Q. Any tips for the rest of us for serving meals that feed a crowd?

A. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple for success!

Q. Do you have a favorite restaurant in the area?

A. I have most of my meals at Swope and they haven’t let me down yet. Great food, unbelievable view, and incredible service!

Q. If you eat while standing up, does it negate the calories in what you’re eating?

A. Yes, but you might get fat ankles.

The New Collecting Net is an employee newsletter published by the Communications Office. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Call (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at