“I eat here every day, it’s so good,” said Gavin Burry, a senior at the high school. “The sweet potato fries? I ran. It was crazy.” The Chef Josh brand is well-known in Gander, as Boyde does private catering, has a meal kit delivery service and runs the restaurant at the local golf course. Boyd said his parents asked him to run the school’s cafeteria, which has not reopened since the pandemic closed.
While Boyde accepted, he soon found that running a school food service is not like owning a restaurant. Strict dietary guidelines must be followed. “This took several weeks of planning,” Boyde said. “I had to go back and forth with the Central Health dietitian who is attached to the school board. Back and forth and we agreed on a menu.” Since the menu was approved and the cafeteria reopened in late October, Boyde said, the service has been a hit.
These pretzels are making Gander Collegiate students thirsty. (Leigh Anne Power/CBC) “We’ve had a great response from the students so far. We get over 100 students a day through the canteen service and about 120 for lunch.” The canteen’s only problem? The line is too long to be served during the 20-minute recess period, with students lingering back at the cafeteria door long after the third period bell rings. Manager Greg Drover said he hopes Chef Josh will implement a pre-order system to prevent long lines. “That’s something that, as a new company at the school, they’re going to have to take into account,” Drover said. “They have some of the new bagels in there and cookies and stuff, and of course the smell comes through the building which is great. But it’s kind of harsh in that regard. You should have been here last Friday when they had their Turkey Dinner. It was a big challenge to stay focused.” Some of Boyde’s baked goods at Gander Collegiate. (Leigh Anne Power/CBC) Boyde said the turkey dinner was a surprisingly big hit. “We made pizzas and we made turkey dinners. And we sold more turkey dinners to teenagers than we did pizza.”
Other popular items on Boyde’s rotating menu include pulled pork sandwiches, mac and cheese and chicken and waffles.
“Our stuffed pretzels are one of our biggest sellers. And then it would be our cinnamon buns.” One factor Boyde tries to keep the same among all the dishes is affordability. “We measured it between the pricing of five dollars to $10,” he said. “We try to keep all of our products in that price range. Most of our niche items are less than a fiver.” Students like Natalie Shehada appreciate that. “It’s really good and it’s really cheap for a good meal. I like the mac and cheese, but I can’t wait for the lasagna.” “We haven’t had that in a long time, so it’s pretty exciting,” fellow student Burry said. “We didn’t even have a coffee shop before, so everyone’s going crazy about it. That, to us, is boogie.” Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador