Pro­file: Stir Fry Mike

MISHAWAKA—When you think of Bethel, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Some might sug­gest chapel, while oth­ers might think of the Pi­lots’ mas­cot, Wil­hem. But at a cam­pus that pro­motes an in­ter­con­nected cul­ture, it will be a per­son who comes to mind. For one fresh­man, named Tyler, that per­son is one of the most well-known mem­bers of the Sodexo crew: Stir Fry Mike.  

“When I think of Bethel, the first thing that comes to my mind is Chef Mike,” Tyler said. “He brings the heart and soul to this fam­ily.”  

Stir Fry Mike, whose full name is Michael Phillips, has been with Bethel for al­most 17 years, but it may sur­prise stu­dents to learn that not all his Bethel ca­reer has been spent at his fa­mil­iar place in the stir fry line. He first be­gan work­ing for Bethel while he was still in high school; his fa­ther worked in Bethel’s Main­te­nance De­part­ment, and Phillips would help him out dur­ing the sum­mers.  

Af­ter high school, Philips spent about three years ex­plor­ing his op­tions else­where, but he did not lose all his Bethel con­nec­tions, even dur­ing his time en­rolled in culi­nary school at Ivy Tech Com­mu­nity Col­lege. 

“I came to Bethel just seek­ing a job and money,” Philips said. “Sur­pris­ingly, I found my­self do­ing a lot more.” 

The op­por­tu­nity to work at Bethel came through a kitchen con­nec­tion that turned out to be the be­gin­ning of his jour­ney to Bethel stir fry fame. 

“Be­fore Sodexo, there was a kitchen man­ager named Mar­sha,” Philips said. “She asked me, did I want to come and do floors for her at night; she knew in the past I did them with my dad around cam­pus.”  

So, Philips re­turned to Bethel, work­ing on a night shift clean­ing floors. As he demon­strated ded­i­ca­tion to that task, the kitchen man­ager of­fered him a job with ad­di­tional hours and higher wages: wash­ing dishes. Philips said he was ex­cited to ac­cept this op­por­tu­nity, and it was not long af­ter that he was pro­moted to a cook­ing po­si­tion.  

“My mes­sage to all the stu­dents is sim­ply al­ways try to stay pos­i­tive,” Philips said. “In life, you may have your ups and downs but keep your head up and keep go­ing. Re­mem­ber you only live once, so live your life to the fullest. If you find some­thing you love and re­ally want to do early in your life, put your all into that be­cause that can take you places.”