There was definitely something in the air last Tuesday night at MoCon. Was it the sound of happy students’ voices? The wind rushing in from outside? Or the smell of mom’s home cooking?
Last Tuesday night, University Dining Services sponsored its first-ever “Taste of Home” dinner and recipe contest. According to Director of Operations Maureen O’Donnell, postcards were sent out to the parents of every freshman and sophomore student, inviting parents to e-mail in their favorite family recipe. Out of the 75 e-mails that O’Donnell received, ten winning recipes were selected and featured at the dinner on Tuesday night. Each winning student also received $50 of dining points.
“We always try to plan new events for the students,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve only been here for two years and I had done this at other locations, so we thought it would be a great idea to do it here. Everyone has a different definition of comfort food and it’s always fun to see [how] everyone defines it.”
O’Donnell said that she and the other staff had to keep certain criteria in mind when choosing the dishes.
“We tried to pick dishes from each category: entrée, salad, side dish, so that something could be served at every station. The second criteria was that the dish had to be able to be expanded from a small, family-sized portion to a big portion and still hold integrity,” she said.
Dishes ranging from lobster and lamb to enchiladas and tuna were sent in, but the most common dishes sent in, by far, were chicken dishes. O’Donnell said that very few side dishes were submitted.
The only salad dish sent in was the Asian Cabbage Salad by Tess Parker ’10.
“I love it,” Parker said. “When my mom makes it for dinner, it’s all I eat.”
Parker added that her mother only makes the dish on special occasions, like New Year’s dinner, so it was a special treat for both Parker and the many students who ate at MoCon that night.
“It’s good that it was in the salad bar area because then there was no line,” said Noah Gapsis ’10. “I just came to eat Tess’ salad. I never eat here normally. I also liked Will Runge’s [’09] Iowa Corn Casserole dish. They were yummy.”
That casserole dish, sent in by Runge’s parents, was another hit. When asked where the name for the dish came from and if Runge was indeed from Iowa, he laughed and stated that he was originally from North Carolina.
“I believe the recipe is from my Aunt Lois who is from Iowa. My guess is that it is an indigenous Iowan recipe that was passed down,” Runge said.
Another winner, Samuel Jones ’10, did not even know he had been entered. His parents sent in a recipe without telling him.
“I didn’t find out about it until I got a mysterious e-mail that congratulated me for winning a contest that I had never entered,” Jones said.
He said that the $50 worth of dining points was a welcome surprise, noting he had already made a dent in that sum.
All in all, the event was hailed as a success by students, administrators, parents and chefs. O’Donnell said that she received a lot of favorable responses from parents, and the dishes also received praise from MoCon workers.
Head Chef Jeffrey Hill, who was in charge of converting the winning recipe portions to larger sizes, said he and the other chefs tried all of the dishes. Hill was especially fond of the corn casserole and Greek beef stew. One of the main reasons he enjoyed the event was because he felt he was better able to learn what students like to eat.
“To me, it’s nice that the customer has the input on what actually gets served,” Hill said.
The “Taste of Home” dinner will be held again next year at the new campus center. In the meantime, students can look for these winning recipes to be featured at MoCon throughout the rest of the year.
“Based on the amount of food that was eaten the other night, I don’t think that these will be unpopular dishes,” O’Donnell said.
Emma Mendelsohn ’10 agreed.
“Now that I know what great food MoCon cooks can make, it makes me wonder why the food isn’t always this good,” she said. “Now my expectations for the food here are much higher!”
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