David R. Prentkowski

Ann Friedland

Director, Food Services
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

Once he'd decided on his college major -restaurant and hotel management- David Prentkowski set about doing all the logical things that would serve him well toward carving out a career path in the commercial hospitality industry.

He tackled the nitty-gritty, behind-thescenes jobs at his residence hall cafeteria and worked his way up the ranks in the campus catering department while attending classes. Upon graduation in 1979, he landed a managerial position with Stouffer's Hotel in St. Louis, then pursued a master's degree in his chosen field. The plan was to re-enter the world of hotels armed with credentials for the upper-management track.

But as his last year of graduate school wound down, Prentkowski happened upon a job notice for the foodservice director's post at the University of Utah.

Sporting a resume admittedly short on higher level experience, he nevertheless decided to throw his name into the hat. "I ended up really hitting it off with them," he recalls. "They took a chance and hired me."

And he's never looked back, continuing on in college foodservice with successful stints at Purdue University (his alma mater) and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before taking over the helm at Notre Dame in 1990.

Throughout, Prentkowski has actively participated in NACUFS (National Association of College and University Foodservices), serving as president in the late 90's, and chairing numerous committees and teams since then.

That same commitment is obvious on the job. From day one at Notre Dame, Prentkowski determined his focus would be market-driven, and set about accomplishing that goal by "bringing in good people and allowing them to contribute, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes," he says.

"We now have a department staffed with people doing what's right for the customer from the customer's perspective."

With a market-driven, customer-service oriented culture firmly entrenched, Prentkowski set his sights on upgrading facilities and productivity. The Foodservice Support Facility, a 38,000-sq. ft. central production kitchen, opened in 1997, complete with onsite bakery, butcher shop, vegetable processing area, cook chill operations and storage for all foodservice outlets on campus.

The change allowed Prentkowski to take production "out of the dining halls and 'high rent' districts of campus" and relocate it to an outlying, support-services area on universityowned property.

"We were then able to expand and build more retail sites," he explains. "The central production facility let us focus more of the square footage at retail locations on the customers, and less on the back of the house."

Prentkowski also convinced the administration to let him renovate the campus' two steeped-in-tradition dining halls, introducing a food market concept with multiple cooked-to-order options.

The effect was not only to immediately balloon the entrèe choices from two or three a day to over 50 possible combinations at any given meal, but also to create a servery that retains the traditional arched ceiling and classic Notre Dame dining hall community atmosphere.

He and his department quickly earned a national reputation for providing the kind of variety, choice and customization in foodservice many operations can only dream about.

"One of the most gratifying things about my job is to overhear students proudly talking to their parents or visiting friends about the good aspects of campus foodservice and how we respond to their needs," Prentkowski says.

"It's nice to be in a position in which I don't fear there will be negative comments during student tours. Visitors end their visits here impressed by the variety and customization we offer."

Beyond the food and exemplary customer service, however, Prentkowski's department shines in other areas as well. Its extensive catering services are frequently tapped to handle big-ticket events; a seven-phase food safety initiative goes beyond HACCP regulations; the department sports a well-appointed and much-used website designed by an in-house team; and the foodservice department bopasts model employee retention rates.

Establishing a particularly chef-friendly back-of-the-house environment also serves Prentkowski well. His culinary education program, developed over several years by renowned-and now retired-Notre Dame Chef Denis Ellis, nurtures up-and-coming cooks and provides education, development and consultation functions for in-house culinarians. The program also serves the dual role of teaching managers basic kitchen skills while on the flip side, exposing the kitchen staff to fundamental supervisory training.

"It's all a matter of looking for that 'gap' in someone's training and trying to fill it," Prentkowski explains. "This way, both chefs and managers become stronger in their positions."

And in turn, the successful program adds yet another building block to Prentkowski's ever-more cohesive foodservice community.