Hannah Jones/Winonan

Bruce Bechtle, director of dining services at Winona State University, eats at the cafeteria every day.

“With the hot weather, I usually do a lot of salad bar stuff,” he said, gesturing to the buffet of ingredients.

Though he’s been working as director for eight years, he still remembers what he used to eat for dinner back in his own college days on the west coast. “Twenty years ago, it was just one line in the cafeteria,” he said.

“You get your ham, you get your potatoes, your vegetable, your dinner roll, and then,” he waved, “That was it.”

Nowadays, he said, things are very different on the campus dining scene. He stood in the nexus of the Jack Kane Dining Center in Kryzsko Commons, surrounded by not one food line but six. Hungry diners availed themselves of crab cakes, southwest salads, tacos and burritos, baked potatoes, pasta, stir fry sandwiches and more.

The air was sticky from the steam rising from the grills, Classmates carrying their respective plates of raw vegetables and three-meat omelets walked side-by-side to their table.

It was lunchtime at Winona State.

Even during salad days, Bechtle is seldom bored. “I build my own,” he said, gesturing back to the salad bar. “Then I get some grilled chicken from the grill station, or I can mix in some salsa from the taco bar if I feel like it…I always encourage students to look around, work the space.”

Bechtle’s job for the past eight years has been to make the cafeteria just as exciting to Winona State students.

With a student body of about 8,000, including vegetarians, vegans, international students, nontraditional students, athletes on training diets, students with various food intolerances and the occasional diehard carnivore, that’s proven to be a somewhat difficult task.

“We try to make sure students can get exactly what they want,” he said. “Our success is their happiness.”

During his time as director, the cafeteria has gone through several changes to try and keep up with a rapidly changing student body. The entire area was remodeled in 2010 to better accommodate more diners and multiple food stations. He and his team pushed for adding more fresh options, including fruits and vegetables and pan-to-plate options like the stir-fry line.

They also added in a soymilk dispenser and a variety of gluten-free options, including an exclusively gluten-free toaster and gluten-free waffle batter available for every breakfast.

The student body’s tastes are a moving target. That means Bechtle’s team, he said, is “always thinking.”

Their newest additions include a potato bar in the cafeteria and new sushi trays in the Smaug.

So, the question is, what do today’s students want next?

Amelia O’Bert, from Algonquin, IL, has a few ideas. “The wait is always too long in the caf,” she said. “They need a faster system.”

She’d also like to see more variety in the fresh fruit, perhaps some berries or an in-cafeteria smoothie bar and a thicker, spicier alfredo sauce, to name a few things.

Matthew Swenson, a senior finance major from Lakeview, MN, has a simpler request.

“I like steak,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve had steak here one time.”

Other voices chimed in. Some say the pasta sauce in the cafeteria is too runny.

And some are tired of the same old burritos and Coyote Jack’s burgers in the Smaug.

Some don’t like the new sushi available in the C-Store.

Others are desperate to see it appear on the block plan.

The one prevailing sentiment between disparate diners was the appreciation for the variety of foods available.

Whether they prefer spinach to ground beef, brown rice to pasta or coffee to tea, there is something for them to eat.

And for the rest, Bechtle and his team are keeping their ears open and planning for the future.

He walked out of the cafeteria at the end of lunch hour and back through the kitchens where pots were already sizzling with the next big thing: dinner.

Contact Hannah at [email protected]