Chef Kurt Kwiatkowski places eggs into boiling water March 10, 2014, at the test kitchen in McDonel Hall. Kwiatkowski was testing a new method of egg poaching in order to get a runny yolk result and experimented with boiling the eggs at at various time increments. Erin Hampton/The State News
—On Feb. 22, Culinary Services Corporate Chef Kurt Kwiatkowski and The Gallery at Snyder-Phillips Executive Chef Eric Batten arrived in Pontiac at 6 a.m. with only a knife bag and plates.
Their luggage, they found, differed from the competitors in that they failed to bring everything but the kitchen sink.
After hunting for equipment, the officials handed them a basket containing the required ingredients and allotted the chefs 30 minutes to write up a menu.
But the surprises continued.
The chefs cooked eight plates of four courses in two and a half hours.
They received an American Culinary Federation silver medal and placed first in their category for their dishes.
“We were looking at a big hunk of meat, and we thought it was beef and didn’t cut the bag open to look at it, and we wrote our menu, and then, when Chef Batten cut it open, he’s like, ‘Uh oh. Hey, smell this,’” Kwiatkowski said. “I looked at him and said, ‘That’s not beef, that’s lamb.’”
“That was our standing joke for quite a while as we were going through it,” he said. “Him and I work well together, so it was a lot of ham and egg and having fun and poking at each other and laughing throughout the two hours.”
At the MSU corporate test kitchen, Kwiatkowski is more of a mad food scientist, experimenting with different ingredients and methods to develop and tweak his cooking techniques..
He experiments with new and old recipes and methods on a small scale before reporting his findings to the dining halls, where his research is used in standard production.
On Monday, he tested a new method of poaching eggs that circumvents using a machine only a few of the on-campus cafeterias have.
He also experimented with the time frame required for the desired egg white and yolk texture.
This is important, because when the cafeterias are orchestrating the poaching of 400 eggs at once, it’s crucial that they know how long they have before the eggs are unusable.
Kwiatkowski also works to provide students with a food experience that feels like home.
To achieve the authenticity and integrity the experience requires, Kwiatkowski relies on both international and domestic students for feedback on the meals he creates.
Often he invites international students to test his recreations of their native cuisines and records their insights for further experimenting.
“I don’t need to tell them how to write a menu, I’m there to help and assist,” Kwiatkowski said. “I’m there to play with these things, as mundane as it might be, these little details can bring a dish and make it really cool.”
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