Executive Chef John Hutchinson and the UNC Charlotte Dining Team Serve Up Global Flavor for International Education Week

UNC Charlotte is celebrating International Education Week Nov. 18-22, and Charlotte dining is playing a major role.

SoVi dining hall and Social 704 are serving international fare all week for lunch and dinner. These international dishes include Moroccan beef, gochujang chicken, beef birria, pad thai and more.

Crafting this specialty menu was a team effort by John Hutchinson, campus executive chef; Jasmine Peoples, Social 704 executive chef; Calvin Seabury, SoVi executive chef, and the rest of the dining team. In production meetings, the group blended their unique backgrounds with feedback from the campus community to offer 10 dishes from around the world.

“We have a lot of great chefs with varying backgrounds, and this gives them a chance to think outside of the box,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1995, has been at UNC Charlotte since 2014. He believes the world is getting smaller from a culinary perspective, and students have greater exposure to different food cultures through television and social media. The result is an appetite for something new.

“There’s so much more out there, it’s more accessible than ever and I think students are getting more adventurous,” Hutchinson said. “Yes, burgers and pizza are our biggest sellers, but they’re also looking for something else.”

More than 10,000 students, employees and guests pass through UNC Charlotte’s dining halls per day, making it a critical part of the college experience. Weekly planning, post-event meetings and pop-ups enable Hutchinson and the dining team to provide students with foods they want and gives them an opportunity to stretch their palates.

“I always think it’s important to challenge yourself,” Hutchinson said. “I think the biggest challenge in life is to not fall into a rut and make every day an experience.”

To see what Chef Hutchinson and the team are serving up today, check out Dine on Campus.
—