How NYU’s chef is connecting with students digitally

Tara Fitzpatrick

During Women’s History Month, the NYU Eats marketing team reached out to Executive Catering Chef Tatiana Ortiz, who has been with the program for nine years. “We decided to do some how-to videos for students that we could put up on Instagram,” Ortiz says. “I wanted to show students that they could make simple dishes using ingredients they could find in dining halls.”

With that, the super popular “Tuesdays with Tati” project was born.

Photo: A weekly Instagram series has shown students dining hall hacks, like a tortilla magically folded into an incredible chicken Parm.

“We started off with tacos, because who doesn’t love tacos?” Ortiz says. “I wanted to make sure we incorporated all different types of dietary needs and preferences, so we did a tofu taco that’s vegan and vegetarian-friendly, as well as a grilled chicken taco.”

The tacos used readily available components from the dining halls, creating a foodie scavenger hunt for students who wanted to play along. “We wanted to show students that there are simple yet delicious recipes they can make in their dorms.”

Ortiz also did her own delicious take on the internet-famous tortilla folding hack, a new twist on chicken Parm.

Activities like this, with the help of social media, have been so vital during the pandemic, a time when college students have been cooped up in dorms like never before.

Related:21 picnic-perfect side dishes, salads and slaws

NYU Eats is working with the university and following state and local health guidelines to hopefully bring as many students back in the fall as safely as possible, Ortiz says.

She also hopes Tuesdays with Tati will return in the fall, too.

“I have always loved learning about and trying street food from different countries,” she says. “I’d like to show students more global recipes like that. I also think molecular gastronomy is super interesting, so I’d like to play around with more artistic meal concepts next year.”

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