Highlights
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One at Marquette: Duane "Dee" Thornton
The smell of juicy cheeseburgers and browning quesadillas perfumed the air of the Cobeen Dining Hall. Slowly, students gathered around the open grill area, peering over the glass partition, looking for someone. Suddenly, out of the storage room, he appeared, carrying a container of burger toppings. In a swift movement, he deposited the container, shifted a few burgers on the grill and turned to his customers to ask, “How may I help you?”
Known by his customers as “Dee,” Duane Thornton is the head griller at the dining hall. The job came to him in a roundabout way. After working as a spray-painter of machinery for 15 years, he was laid off. He was hired at the dining hall in mid-August of 2006 as a utility maintenance staff member. After a food service staff member was fired for tardiness, Dee was promoted to the sandwich bar. His bright personality and perpetually positive attitude landed him a stint as a breakfast server and eventually behind the grill. “I really enjoy what I do. It doesn't feel like a job. It's so much fun for me,” he said. Thornton said no day at the grill is ever “typical,” but explained the routine followed to prepare the station for service and to serve the food to students. After Thornton arrives each morning, he and the other staff members join their manager in a “huddle,” in which they discuss the goals and positive attitudes needed for the day ahead. Thornton then begins prepping the food that will be served at the grill. He chops lettuce, tomatoes, onions and peppers. He stocks his meat drawers with beef, turkey, veggie and chicken patties. He refills salsa containers and fetches flour tortillas and cheese from a back room. Before the scorching grills and broilers have even heated up the space, Thornton is wiping sweat from his brow. But the frenzy has only just begun. When the grill station opens at lunch time, Thornton and his student assistants must simultaneously greet customers, take orders, cook the food and prepare each plate to-order. Thornton does not use a piece of paper to jot down orders. He commits each order and corresponding face to memory, and trains his assistants to do the same. Still, he said the stress of busy lunch and dinner hours do not get to him. “It's not really stress for me, it's more like pressure,” he said, “I like working under pressure. It gives me a rush.” As if these responsibilities were not enough, Thornton has also implemented some food services unique to Cobeen's dining hall. When he sees a student has been waiting for some time for a grill meal, he tells them to take a seat in the dining hall. When the food is ready, he delivers the food table-side. Thornton also decided against pre-making burgers and leaving them under a heat lamp. Instead, he cooks each one to-order, so they are hot and fresh for students. Thornton emphasized the importance of friendly service at the dining hall, a place where students can take a break from stressful classes and homework assignments. He said he tries to put himself in the students' shoes, and treats them as he would like to be treated at a restaurant. “I try to put myself in their shoes and think how I would want to be treated when I go to a restaurant,” Thornton said, “I want these students to relax and have a good time and some good food when they come here.” |