JJC culinary purchasing specialist ‘talking turkey’ to callers this holiday season

More than 50 experts are gobbling up the calls on Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line this year and the purchasing specialist at Joliet Junior College’s culinary arts department is one of them.

Javier Reyes has been working four hours a day, three days a week answering turkey-related questions and will work eight-hour shifts during Thanksgiving week to answer questions from people around the U.S. and Canada.

“Thanksgiving week is the big week,” Reyes said.

Reyes, JJC’s student speaker for the college’s commencement ceremony in 2015, said he learned about the job after he received a flyer about it from Chef Michael McGreal, the culinary arts department chair.

So Reyes called, sent a resume, interviewed and landed the job, he said. Actually, working the Turkey Talk-Line was a back-of-the-mind dream ever since Reyes had watched a TV show with a character who called a talk line, Reyes said.

“Education is very important to me, so I thought this was an interesting job,” Reyes said. “I try to get as many life experiences as possible.”

Even though Reyes has the culinary background, he was trained how to respond to the callers, too.

“Butterball has a lot of years in the business, so they knew how to roast a turkey and what temperature is best,” Reyes said. “We try to give [callers] as much information as we can.”

Reyes said, from his understanding, the Turkey Talk-Lines get about 200,000 calls in November and December, with the bulk happening during the week of Thanksgiving.

Some callers are first time turkey-roasters; others haven’t cooked a turkey in 20 years, Reyes said. Calls before Thanksgiving are mostly about thawing: how to properly thaw a turkey, how much time is needed per pound, etc., Reyes said.

Reyes said calls on Thanksgiving Day revolve around troubleshooting: “Oh, my gosh, I did this wrong!” “I thawed it too fast!” “I don’t have enough time to thaw! What do I do now?”

Although Reyes’ job is to walk callers through the issue, some problems related to safety can’t be fixed, he said.

“In the past, people might have defrosted the turkey on the countertop. But that’s not something Butterball or the USDA recommends now,” Reyes said.

So buy your frozen turkey as soon as possible and have it ready to defrost – or skip the defrosting process and buy a fresh turkey, he said.

The Butterball website also has tips for every stage of the process, from buying a turkey to leftovers. Visit butterball.com/online-turkey-talk-line.

“And call if you have any questions,” Reyes said.

Call 1-800-BUTTERBALL or text 844-877-3456 to chat with a turkey expert.