About Us
"F
ood to a large extent is what holds a society together and eating is closely
linked to deep spiritual experiences." -
Peter Farb & George Armelagos,
Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating
If you have attended any of our programs or worked with us in the past, you know how
seriously we take cuisine here at the language villages. Every meal during our
language immersion programs is served with an exciting food presentation. The food presentation, delivered in the target language, teaches
villagers about the food they eat and regional cuisine.
Where do we get our recipes?
During the summer, we rely heavily on our head cooks and counseling staff to create menus
that accurately reflect the cultures of each target language. Recipes typically come from
cookbooks in our Resource Center, staff members with extensive travel experience or foreign
citizenship, and various on-line sources.
At our main site in Bemidji, MN, we have an international library of cookbooks for our head
cooks to research recipes. The Resource Center holds hundreds of cookbooks, both in English
and the target language, and also is an access point for on-line recipes. Head cooks also
work closely with deans and counseling staff to plan menus, since a large portion of
counseling staff are from other countries. Having these people intimately involved in our
menu planning gives us first hand knowledge of how a certain dish should be prepared.
Where do our cooks and bakers come from?
Last summer, we had about 130 food service staff come to work at our 14 language villages
in Minnesota. They came from the east coast, the west coast, and as far south as Bolivia
because they heard our workplace offers more than just a summer job. Students that travel
or live abroad for any period of time also come to Concordia Language Villages to feel
connected to the foreign cultures they have grown to love.
Where do we get our food?
Because our recipes call for culturally specific food items, we use a wide variety of
vendors to fulfill those food
items requested by the head cook. Our purchasing agent is dedicated
to finding rare food items like lingonberries or
gjetost, goat cheese. We acquire our food
from large national and regional food service suppliers, specialty meat and grocery
suppliers at home and abroad, import companies, a local dairy, and a local food cooperative.
This variety of suppliers gives us consistency and flexibility when planning our menus.
|
