THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609260039
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO FLAVOR
LENGTH: 167 lines
OH, THE HORROR stories she'd heard. College food, everyone told Chryse Ciresi of Long Island, would be flavorless. Fried. Fattening. You will miss Mom's cooking in a New York minute, friends warned Ciresi as she headed for Virginia Wesleyan College in Virginia Beach, where she began her freshman year a few weeks ago.
And where she quickly discovered that her friends were full of soup.
``The food here is not only good,'' said Ciresi one recent lunchtime when trout amandine and veal cordon bleu were on the menu, ``it's the next best thing to Mom's cooking.''
She's especially fond of the wok bar, where students pick ingredients for a custom-made stir-fry, and the pasta bar, which offers a mix-and-match selection of sauces and pastas.
Moms of Virginia Wesleyan students don't even need to send care packages, because every meal served in the college dining room is like a care package. Fresh, high-quality ingredients are transformed into meals that taste like they've been cooked by an upscale-restaurant chef.
Which is exactly what Dan Murphy is.
A graduate, with honors, of the Culinary Institute of America, Murphy became executive chef at Virginia Wesleyan three years ago, after 17 years with Norfolk's Omni International Hotel. He still considers himself a restaurant chef.
``We are a restaurant, and the students are our customers,'' says Murphy, 43, who oversees a staff of 24. ``Please don't call this a cafeteria.''
And don't go looking for the mystery meat and Jell-O squares that showed up often on college menus of yesteryear, he says. You'll find instead salmon and crab corncakes served with black bean salsa. Couscous salad. Cream horns made with puff pastry.
For those who prefer less sophisticated fare, grilled cheese, pizza, fries and the like are always available. But Chef Dan, who stands in the center of the food court like a maitre d' during mealtimes, encourages students with timid taste buds to experiment - by adding alfalfa sprouts or artichokes to the cheese sandwich, for instance.
``The food education of these students is part of my mission,'' says Murphy. ``You'd be surprised how many like squid on their pizza once they try it.''
Another key part of his mission is to captivate, not simply satisfy, the 800 to 1,200 customers he feeds daily in the college's Boyd Dining Center. This is an era when campus meal plans are becoming marketing ploys, a way to attract students to schools.
``We're seeing more professional chefs in institutional settings,'' says Carol Wohlleben, director of education programs of the American Culinary Federation. ``Dining has become a means of entertainment as the public has become more discerning.''
Many prospective college students ask about meal plans before they ask about academics, according to the Wood Company of Allentown, Pa., Virginia Wesleyan's food-service provider since 1991. The 61 school-food programs run by the company are all headed by chefs.
``We can't get away with an institutional agenda anymore,'' says Paul Tuennerman, a district manager for Wood. He says that Murphy, the first professional chef at Wesleyan, has excelled at putting the new food philosophy on the table.
``Every meal is a catering event at Wesleyan,'' Tuennerman says. ``Dan takes the ordinary and makes it exceptional.''
That has been Murphy's goal since he started in the field as a 16-year-old short-order cook at Feather-n-Fin on Tidewater Drive in Norfolk.
He was raised one of eight children in Pungo. From his father, a farm laborer, Murphy learned the nobility of a hard day's work. From his mother, he learned that a simple meal of fried chicken and greens could be sublime. He still uses her recipes for those family favorites.
From 1971 through '75, Murphy was a commissaryman in the Navy. The stint taught him that discipline and stamina are necessary ingredients to succeed in professional cooking. His deployments to the Mediterranean also taught him that there was more to good cooking than fried chicken and greens. The meals he ate in Italy, Spain, North Africa and Turkey whetted his appetite for learning.
And so he did. From 1975 to '77 he earned a degree at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., which he calls ``the gold polish on the foundation I got in the Navy.'' There, he became interested in the art of ice sculpting, which remains a personal specialty.
For every Wesleyan commencement, Murphy sculpts marlins in ice, one of his many trademark touches of elegance.
During his years with the Norfolk Omni, where he rose to executive sous chef, Murphy was sent to Omni hotels around the country when prestigious dinners were scheduled. For these Beluga-caviar functions, he often used his ice-sculpting skills. His carvings helped earn him three awards from the American Culinary Federation (ACF), the group that sets standards in the industry and accredits chefs.
Murphy was one of the founders of the Tidewater Chefs Association, the local branch of the ACF. He was vice president for four years and certification chairman for two and was named the group's Chef of the Year in 1986.
His charitable contributions through the association represent another of his elegant touches. In 1992 he was one of four food professionals whose combined services won the highest bid ever at the group's annual auction. The $3,800 that bought dinner for 12 was donated to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.
Weary of the 16-hour days and six-day weeks that come with working in a hotel kitchen, Murphy made the switch from hotel to campus cuisine in August 1993. In 1994, the Wood Co., his employer, named him outstanding chef of the year.
Murphy's professionalism is not just resume-deep. Co-workers give him a five-star rating, citing his generosity and good humor as the most elegant touches he brings to his job.
``He works passionately but also compassionately,'' says Roxanne Young, president of the Tidewater Chefs Association and a former co-worker with Murphy at the Omni. ``He can be the most intense, serious worker who knows how to get everyone focused. But sometimes at dawn he'd come into the Omni kitchen making noises with a turkey caller and we'd all crack up.''
Tuennerman of the Wood Co. says: ``Dan is a humble individual, crediting his team with everything. He has empowered his employees to the extent that the kitchen runs itself.''
Murphy himself says that through giving his workers ownership of their departments, ``I could drop everything and go fishing at any moment.'' The praise is intended for his workers, not for his technique.
``Right now I am inspired by the fact that I am teaching my people,'' he adds. When one of his cooks can graduate to a chef position, Murphy feels more exhilarated than when he produces a spectacular ice carving.
His honesty adds another touch of class. ``I used to be a lot more temperamental and controlling,'' he says, ``but those ways don't work anymore.''
Just like fish sticks and canned pudding don't work anymore in a campus dining hall, where Chef Dan keeps watch three meals a day five days a week. An important part of his mission, he says, is to connect with the students. Not only does he coax them to try some squash or add a bit of spinach to that salad but he asks them simply, ``How are you doing?''
College President William T. Greer Jr. says that everybody's doing very well, thanks to Chef Dan.
``He adds to the happy factor around here,'' Greer says. ``I'd put Virginia Wesleyan's food up against that of any campus any day.''
Yes, even an ordinary baked-potato-bar weekday.
Then there are the out-of-the-ordinary meals, such as theme dinners for students, parents' weekend celebrations and banquets for the president and his guests. Those customers might feast on grouper encased in a walnut crust, a pretend coconut half made of white and dark chocolate and filled with coconut custard, a tower of fresh fruit on a table carved from ice by Murphy.
Many outside groups use the Wesleyan dining room and staff for special events. The World Affairs Council of Greater Hampton Roads, which conducts public forums on international issues, loves to meet at Wesleyan.
``You know why?'' says Maria Zammit, past president of the group. ``Because of Chef Dan's homemade cookies.''
His oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate chip become common ground for praise, even among those in political conflict.
The chef has a merry side, for sure: One recent workday his crisp white jacket was complemented by baggy olive pants decorated with bright fish.
But he takes seriously the challenge of inspiring his captive campus audience with new flavor combinations and presentations. He looks for ideas constantly. When he and his wife, Sharon, sit down to a simple meat-and-vegetable dinner that she usually prepares. When they join his large extended family once a month for dinner. When he's watching the Cooking Channel or reading food magazines. Even when he's on a fishing weekend or tending to his beloved rose garden in his Virginia Beach back yard.
One of Murphy's campus innovations is his invitation to students to bring him a favorite family recipe, which he will gladly prepare and serve in the dining hall.
But some customers don't see the need for importing a recipe from home. Mark Cassarino of Connecticut, a Wesleyan graduate who is a resident director on campus, says Murphy has earned a 4.0 on his own merits.
Cassarino says: ``I love Chef Dan's angel-hair pasta and mussels in garlic sauce. It reminds me of the way my parents cook.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Dan Murphy became executive chef at Virginia Wesleyan College after
17 years at Norfolk's Omni International Hotel. by CNB