Working on campus: one grad’s D2 experience

As a non-funded international graduate student, one of the first things I did upon arriving to campus at VT was to apply for a job at one of the dining centers. (P.S. It is also one of the ways I could acquire an SSN in the US.) After deliberating and discussing with my seniors, I gave top preference for working at the legendary D2 dining hall. After a quick interview and some paperwork, I had my first job in the US of A.

The training for work was super fun, partly because I was also getting paid for it and also due to the fact that I didn't know that the working of a super-kitchen was bounded by a long but a totally interesting list of dos and don’ts. Chicken above 165, meat above 145 and Bacteria Safe Zone above 140F—these temperatures were etched in my head for the test, which I cleared with flying colors. (Probably the only test of my graduate life for which I got a good night’s sleep beforehand!) The best part was finding out that I would get a meal pass for every shift I worked.

On my first day at work, I was hopelessly lost, until jovial and super-friendly Chef Foo at Salsa’s instructed me to do the simplest job possible--make sure we had enough Nachos baskets. The most exciting part of the day was the visit to the gigantic walk-in freezer! The place gave me a sneak peek as to how cold the winter in Blacksburg was eventually going to get!

The best part of D2 was working in the mega-kitchen. As a big fan of Masterchef America, the big frying tubs (for chips), the huge grills, and the giant ovens (for pizzas) were really fun to operate and work with. The prospect of having the chef’s special omelet actually being my special omelet was really cool.

I love the way this super kitchen works and manages to feed over 1,100 people at once. It’s amazing how the five-hour shift passes by (unless I’m working dishes). Friday lunches were typically hectic. I remember this one time I must have grilled over 500 chicken drumsticks. After a point it used to get competitive--I wanted to make sure the food was always available before the horde of students could finish it (especially the burger and fries at Gauchos)!

Another interesting part of the job was that I got to meet really interesting people from completely different backgrounds than mine (engineering grad). I worked with this junior from biosciences whose one project was to collect over 100 different species of insects over the semester. Another graduate exchange student from Turkey was majoring in business studies and our conversations were mainly about how cold it was getting here! I loved all the post-game comments (and the tailgate stories) and the pre-game discussions I had with the seniors during the football season.

I’d definitely recommend every international freshman to give this job a shot in their first semester. It provides a good ground to learn more about the food that’s local here and serves as a great platform to meet people from different and diverse backgrounds. It’s also a very cool workplace to have, where you get to work on industrial grade kitchens and be a part of the ever-running cycle which keeps VT hale and hearty!