Three of Penn's chefs will be moving from the dining halls to the kitchens of Beijing, where they will be cooking for athletes and media at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Tia McDonald, Bora Yom and Adam Arrison who work for Aramark Corporation, which runs catering for most of Penn's dining services, will join Aramark's culinary team in Beijing. Seven-year Penn veteran and executive chef McDonald will depart in May and return in October, well after the Olympics are over.
For McDonald, this is a dream come true.
After not being selected to cook at the Athens games four years ago, she began planning for the future.
But this time, a series of strenuous phone interviews and lengthy applications landed her the job.
"It's an opportunity of a lifetime," she said, while acknowledging that working with the other renowned chefs is also "a good career move because it opens up a lot of possibilities."
Joining her will be newcomer food service director Yom who has only worked for Penn Dining for a few months.
Yom will serve out the rest of the semester at Penn, joining McDonald in July and August.
For her, the change of scenery will mean more than just a different time zone.
"With a lot of events, I'll be multitasking more and being quick on [my] feet will be important," she said.
Because Aramark will serve 3.5 million meals throughout the Olympic and Paralympic games, the chefs will be busy.
In addition, there will be a language barrier to overcome, since none of the three chefs speaks Chinese.
Aramark, which has catered the last 14 summer Olympic games, prepares its chefs beforehand and provides them with support during their stay.
The 100 Aramark chefs from the U.S. will be working with teams of local cooks who speak a different language and may be used to a different style of cooking.
But neither of the women are intimidated by this.
"The hourly staff are from the region so some of them speak English. We will also have interpreters in the kitchen. And in the cultural sense, women are held in high esteem, so there are no challenges in that regard," McDonald said.
It won't be all work for the chefs, though.
In her free time, McDonald plans to travel to Shanghai and visit the Great Wall of China.
Sous chef Adam Arrison, who will be joining Yom and McDonald in Beijing, did not return requests for comment.
