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What's for Dinner? Note to self: Watch out on Mexican night," reads the cautionary sign posted on Smith senior Vanessa Agha's door. Agha may seem unusual for publicly airing her aversion to Smith's tacos and burritos, but she's not so strange for having likes and dislikes in the dining room. In kitchens all over campus, Residence and Dining Services (RADS) staff persistently strive to meet the demands of a couple of thousand finicky appetites. "We are constantly challenged with student likes and dislikes," states RADS director Kathy Zieja. Toss in the additional challenges of planning meals around religious holidays, special events, vegan and vegetarian diets, and serving approximately 1,126,000 meals a year-and satisfying everyone in the process-and it suddenly sounds like a very tall order. RADS does what it can to get students' assistance in creating a satisfactory meal plan. "We review many trade journals, exchange menus and recipes with colleagues, attend conferences and provide annual culinary training for our staff," Zieja says. "We also get feedback from our comment cards, which are placed in each dining room, and from our monthly meetings with our RADS representatives-one student from each house."
The house dining room is
not just the place where meals are eaten. Friends are found here,
house announcements made, political issues discussed. What are students telling RADS? "We're learning that students want good basic comfort food. Fusion cooking, which is popular elsewhere, is not something students want. They do not want foods combined!" Zieja exclaims. "Pasta, gourmet pizzas, cinnamon French toast, soups and breads, vegetarian items, mudpie, and mint chocolate chip trifle" are the "in" foods at Smith, according to a recent unscientific survey of colleges undertaken by the San Francisco Chronicle. Zieja agrees with their findings, adding chicken fingers, grilled cheese, rice, fresh avocados and brunch to the list. What's not hot? Casseroles, burritos, lamb, fried foods, deli buffets, stir fry and fish. And, of course, many students agree that it's important to avoid Mexican night.-AJ |
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