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Dear AU Community:

We are excited to announce a special grand opening celebration for the newly renovated Terrace Dining Room (TDR) next Wednesday, October 2. As part of the festivities, we will welcome the internationally celebrated Chef Jet Tila to campus for a day of special events for the community:

• Grand Opening of TDR. Join us at 11 a.m. for a special ribbon cutting to ceremonially reopen the newly renovated TDR.
• Lunchtime Meet and Eat in TDR. Join us for a campus-wide Meet and Eat hosted in partnership with the Office of Inclusive Excellence at 11:30 a.m. AU leaders will help our Dining team serve our campus community and invite everyone to strengthen our community over a shared meal featuring Chef Tila-inspired takeover of our menus.
• Teaching Kitchen. Chef Tila will be in action from 2 to 2:45 p.m. in the Tavern, where he’ll host a teaching kitchen for our community.

To ensure that these events benefit and support our entire community, five percent of all sales during the day at our venues – cash, credit, and Eaglebucks – will be donated to food insecurity initiatives on campus, and all meal swipes in TDR during the lunch service will be matched and donated to the Eagles Helping Eagles program. These special events are coming to campus thanks to partnerships between the Dining Program, Chartwells Higher Education, the Division of Student Affairs, Office of Inclusive Excellence, and numerous student organizations.

From battling the legendary Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America, opening Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, and guiding Anthony Bourdain through many markets and restaurants, Chef Jet Tila is internationally celebrated for his culinary expertise. This James Beard nominee and best-selling author grew up in the first family of Thai food and then later attended both French and Japanese culinary schools, making him a born educator and storyteller. He was appointed as the inaugural Culinary Ambassador of Thai Cuisine by the Royal Thai Consulate, the first-ever chef to represent his country’s culture and cuisine. Chef Jet’s culinary operations include VP Culinary of Pei Wei Group's 148 restaurants and Managing Partner of Dragon Tiger Noodle Co in Las Vegas. He has partnerships with Compass Group, Schwan’s, and NBC Universal/DreamWorks. His food reaches millions of people a year. He appears as co-host of Iron Chef America and recurring judge on Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay and Guy’s Grocery Games. He also appears on shows ranging from Today, MasterChef, Rachel Ray, and holds six culinary Guinness World Records.

We hope you can join us on October 2 to launch the new TDR and enjoy some great food, culinary learning, and community fun.

Onward we go together,

Bronté Burleigh-Jones