Dorinda McKenzie’s shifts begin at 5:00 a.m., Sunday to Thursday—a shift she’s worked for most of her adult life.
Over the last 28 years, McKenzie has worked in the Taylor University Hodson Dining Commons, affectionately nicknamed the “DC” by the students and campus community.
Except for Susan Malone who works at the cash register, McKenzie is the longest working Hodson Dining Commons employee.
For the last ten years, McKenzie has worked as the Head Baker, preparing daily desserts from cookies and bars, to cakes and pies, to homemade gelato.
Before this role, McKenzie also worked day and night shifts as Lead Sous Chef and even spent three years as the Production Manager.
“I’ve been a little bit of everything,” McKenzie said. “(But) I would rather be hands-on in the kitchen. Doing that paperwork is for somebody else.”
As a production manager, McKenzie was part of a team of six-ish called “chef’s council” that would create the menus and recipes.
Over the years, the Dining Commons have been operated by several food service companies, including Creative Dining, Parkhurst, and now AVI Fresh.
Throughout her years she has been able to meet many people and still runs into people when shes out and about and keeps their phone numbers.
McKenzie first started at the DC while living in Jonesboro with her late husband, before moving to Upland 26 years ago.
Many of McKenzie’s recipes came from her mom’s restaurant, Dot’s Diner of Jonesboro where she worked for a while before the DC.
Dot’s Diner served Biscuits and Gravy as well as other typical breakfast foods and daily regulars. McKenzie said they had a lot of regulars who tended to stick to the same orders or would come in for the daily specials.
“It’s not there anymore, but a lot of Taylor students went to my mom’s restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays because she was open all night on Friday and Saturday, and she had cheap prices,” McKenzie said.
Dot’s diner drew in so many students that after it closed McKenzie said students petitioned and the DC Grill began to serve a monthly “Dot’s Diner” event where McKenzie and her mom would cook and McKenzie’s sister would wait tables, just like they all had at the restaurant.
McKenzie prefers the baking to the cooking but said, “When I first started working in the bakery, it was a challenge because I was used to doing what I call real food.”
“I’ve been doing food since I was 13 years old,” McKenzie said.
When a waitress didn’t show up for work McKenzie said her mom put an apron on her, gave her a ticket book and showed her how to write a ticket out.
“I would forget to ask what they wanted on the burger or how they wanted their eggs, and I’d have to go back and ask,” McKenzie said. “I was a nervous wreck.”
Not knowing what a tip was, she went to tell her mom that a man had left his change, 15 cents. Her mom said, “It’s yours. It’s called a tip.’”
“Oh, I found out about them tips,” McKenzie said and she began to work to buy records.
On Sundays when she works alone, McKenzie said she still likes to listen to music, and would go crazy without the radio.
McKenzie first learned to cook from her grandma who had apprenticed at a hotel under the mentorship of a chef.
Later, McKenzie went to culinary school at Ivy Tech in Fort Wayne while working.
Besides the sauces and breads and everything else she learned to make, McKenzie said, “It was an experience that I think people should have if they’re in or want to do food and if they got the time to go to culinary school, because it is rewarding, and you’re learning something new every day.”
In one of her more advanced classes, McKenzie remembers making a fruitcake that began in October and had to set for about a month while in between going into unwrap the fruit and soak it alcohol before wrapping it up again.
Another funny memory was her chocolate class. As she struggled to mold chocolate flowers out of a tootsie-roll-like material with her warm hands, she was getting frustrated and said her instructor came and grabbed her table, took her stuff, and said, “Don’t come back today. We’re done.”
McKenzie tells the other areas of the DC if they ever need a hand, give her a holler, but not everybody knows about all her experience.
One summer a couple years ago McKenzie said a husband and wife team didn’t show up didn’t show up for work. She told the guys that she was working with in the bakery to take care of desert and she and her coworker Angie who worked at the salad like cooked.
When Angie and Dorinda cooked, the representative from Parkhurst came down and said, “I can’t believe you girls just turned around and did that.”
Mackenzie responded, “‘Me and Angie ran this place for a long time.’ I was the lead on days she was the lead on nights. She went to the salad department. I went to the bakery, and then we wound up cooking together again.”
This year, McKenzie has worked with Abigail Sarver and Amelia Gowin. Recently, the three have worked to make pies using McKenzie’s mom’s recipes. She also has several recipes from a book she bought at Aldi’s, which she calls the $5 book.
Their regular schedule and menu consists of set items like cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, but the rest of the dishes are decided on by the three of them.
Abby Sarver went to Grand Rapids Community College for culinary school and now lives in the area with her husband, Sam Sarver, who is a Taylor student.
Sarver and McKenzie working the morning together prep for breakfast and lunch and Gowin joins in the late morning to prep the diner desserts.
Sarver said that McKenzie is ‘real person.’
“She’s not fake, she’s straight and to your face which is hard to come by,” Sarver said.
Sarver said that McKenzie cares about students a lot, knows what they like and puts their interests first.
Abby whose worked with Dorinda since October has slowly learned her recipes and has gotten to know her.
“I really can’t imagine the bakery without Dorinda,” she said.
Describing her as an easy person to work with, Sarver said, “Her heart and soul goes into her work she cares so much for the people of Upland and the people of Taylor,” Sarver said.
Though McKenzie primarily works with staff, but has also had the opportunity to build relationships with students.
From teaching students to bake to getting an extension cord for a student who didn’t have the money for one at the grocery store, McKenzie has left a lasting mark on their lives.
“If a student comes in and said they wanted to learn how to do some stuff, come on in. I’ll teach it," McKenzie said. "You need help with something, I’ll do it."
