Tropical fruit desserts with the ‘zip, zap, zing!’

This is an excerpt from a larger article originally published by FoodService Director.

Retail Executive Chef Jeremy Jones of Cal Poly Campus Dining in San Luis Obispo was listening to his students when he added açai and mango sorbet bowls to The Health Shake. “It’s a 6×6-foot shack,” he says. “Literally the size of a tool shed.” 

Located close to the library, it’s big enough to offer quick and healthy wraps, avocado toast, and more recently, a frozen açai purée bowl with bananas, strawberries, blueberries and housemade granola and also a frozen mango sorbet bowl with the same toppings. They did sampling tables before they stocked them to make sure students knew what açai was, and it wasn’t long before the tropical fruit bowls made it to the menu. 

“They’re vibrant, really pretty and go well in hot or cold weather,” he says. “Plus, they are easy on our staff to produce good quality consistently.” Jones has also done dessert poke bowls with coconut rice and mango purée, and pineapple cinnamon upside-down cakes at other campus venues. “I’m a big fan of ‘you eat with your eyes first’ and usually a lot of those tropical fruits are vibrant, pretty, and really pop, so that’s the direction we’re going with a few of our venues.”