PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 10, Nov. 17, 2005

IIllini Union offers baked goods for Thanksgiving holiday

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Mmmmmmmmmm Once again, Illini Union Catering will be accepting orders for baked goods for Thanksgiving. In the kitchen recently are, from left, Andy Wegrzyn, student employee; Efrain Andres, assistant pastry chef; and Eric Larson, pastry chef. In preparation for this year’s holiday bake sale – with orders due by noon Nov. 21 and ready for pickup on Nov. 23 – Larson ordered 800 pounds of flour, 450 dozen eggs and 60 pounds of carrots. Perennial favorites are dinner rolls and pumpkin pie.

For people who can’t make it over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house this Thanksgiving – and for those too busy to bake or who are all thumbs in the kitchen – Illini Union Catering is offering a selection of fresh-baked pies, cakes and rolls that are sure to elicit “oohs” and “ahs” from family and guests gathered around the holiday dinner table.

Available for order and customer pickup at the Illini Union this year are apple, pecan and pumpkin pies; dinner rolls and pecan rolls; and carrot cakes and coffee cakes. Last year, the bakers prepared 95 pumpkin pies and 190-dozen dinner rolls, the most popular items on the carryout menu, for their customers.

In preparation for this year’s holiday bake sale, pastry chef Eric Larson said he ordered 800 pounds of flour, 450 dozen eggs and 60 pounds of carrots. Customers will have until noon on Nov. 21 to place orders; and at 2 a.m. the next morning, three pastry chefs and three cooks will begin their frenzy of baking and decorating to fill orders for customer pick up beginning at 11 a.m. on Nov. 23.

Any surplus baked goods are sold to walk-in customers on a first-come, first-served basis. One year, a miscalculation as to the number of orders and extras resulted in a last-minute shortage, and the chefs had to roll up their sleeves and go back to the kitchen to bake more pies and rolls, then personally deliver the food to customers’ homes.

The Illini Union’s baked goods are the stuff memories are made of for some families in the campus community. The baking staff recall that a loyal customer once reminisced how as a child she had accompanied her father when he went to the Illini Union to pick up the family’s order, and although the father has since died and the daughter is now grown, she is carrying on the tradition of having the same baked goods on her holiday table.

It’s the consistent high quality and fresh, homemade taste that bring back customers year after year, said Kirsten Ruby, assistant director of housing for marketing.

This is the 45th year that the chefs and pastry wizards in the Housing Division have offered the holiday bake sale. In the distant past, the bakers whipped up goodies for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but the Christmas sale was discontinued because the mass exodus of people from campus during the winter break resulted in low sales and because the Illini Union’s closing schedule made it difficult for customers to pick up their orders.

Order baked goods for Thanksgiving

Illini Union Catering carry-out menu includes:

• Apple pie, 9-inch ($7.50)
• Pumpkin pie, 9-inch ($7.50)
• Pecan pie, 9-inch ($10.50)
• Carrot cake ($10.50)
• Coffee cake ($10)
• Dinner rolls ($5 a dozen)
• Pecan rolls ($12 a dozen)
  

Orders must be placed by noon Nov. 21, and may be made by calling 244-1515. Orders also may be e-mailed to lbrunkow@admin.housing.uiuc.edu. An order form (PDF format) also can be downloaded and faxed to Illini Union Food Service, 217-244-7541. Orders will be available for pickup between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Nov. 23 in the Colonial Room of the Illini Union. Free parking will be provided that day in lot D-10, just east of the Union.

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