Variety galore at the ‘Caff’

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 12

Variety galore at the ‘Caff’

By

PETER COMER

“You can get anything that you want ... at Alice’s Restaurant,” goes the Arlo Guthrie folk classic. You can get almost anything you want at the University of Canterbury cafeteria this year, at rock-bottom prices, too, but the sophisticated students of 1982 stick mainly to traditional fare. “We concentrate on giving them plenty of variety but they still go mainly for the old favourites — pies, sausages, and fish,” said the executive chef, Mr Graham Bates, aged 29. “Shepherd’s pie” was also a guaranteed seller, he said. Mr Bates and his staff of 10 unfailingly provide 14 different main meals each day from an over-all menu of about 35 dishes. Those students with more adventurous palates have a choice ranging from lasagna, to paua patties, to Chinese dishes, chicken croquettes, Tbone steaks and traditional

English roasts, and most things in between. The most unusual thing about the university cafeteria is the prices: they are low enough to make a trendy restaurateur throw up his hands in horror. Top of the price range are porterhouse steak and ham steak (with vegetables, potatoes, and all the trimmings) at $2.23 and $2.15 respectively. Roast beef is $1.82; roast lamb with mint sauce $1.70; paua patties $1.75; but most of the meals cost less than $1.70. At $1.52, beef casserole is actually cheaper than last year, when it cost $1.65. The cafeteria is run as a non-profit-making organisation by the University of Canterbury Students’ Association. Mr Bates and his staff also do “outside” catering to help subsidise cheap meals. “We can’t put the prices up too high and that's that,” he said.

A week into the first term, about 1000 main meals a day are being served, but Mr Bates estimates that 2500 or more students visit the cafeteria daily for a drink and a snack. The numbers increase greatly during the winter months, when the weather precludes lounging about on the rolling lawns of the flam campus, and the “caff” also becomes a meeting place and refuge. Mr Bates and his helpers have been working for up to four hours when the caieterial opens, at 11.30 a.m. It is open until 7.30 p.m. Then, there is the cleaning to be done ready for the next day. In spite of the long hours, Mr Bates would much rather be a chef at the university cafeteria than at prestigious restaurants or hotels (he has worked in both). “There is less pressure and it is a much nicer atmosphere,” said Mr Bates. Any complaints about his cook-

ing? “None that I know of,” he said. Indeed, hundreds of students in the cafeteria at lunchtime seemed quite happy. “Edible,” “pretty good for the price,” and “not too bad” were typical comments. No check is made to see whether diners are bona fide students. “I doubt that many outsiders would bother to come in. They would have to be pretty cheeky,” said Mr Bates. Pilfering in the cafeteria, although common, is not a serious problem, according to the catering manager, Mr D. L. Dunphy. “Half the student flats in Christchurch are probably furnished with knives and forks and salt-and-pepper shakers from here, but they have a way of coming back at Christmas,” he said. So far, unlike some similar establishments, the' management of the cafeteria has resisted the temptation to replace stolen steel knives and forks with plastic ones.

“They are a pretty-well-behaved bunch really,” said Mr Dunphy. “We have some fun and games at this time of year with first-year students before they settle down, but we have our ways of dealing with troublemakers.”