2008 Woodie Awards
Food For Thought
See Focus link to the left for high-quality pdf
Jason F. Siegel and James Dolan
Issue date: 3/16/06 Section: Focus
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Food occupies a special place in the lives of Middlebury students. Many plan their day according to when, where and what they are going to eat. As in other areas of life, students turn a critical eye to their food, questioning its quality, its source, its variety. The award-winning Dining Services, under the leadership of Matthew Biette, takes great pains to satisfy students' cravings, often in many ways that go unnoticed.
Dining Services is constantly thinking of new ways to please the ever-broadening palate of the discerning College diner. Last Thursday's Food Fair in Proctor Dining Hall, at which more than a dozen different vendors set up booths and provided free samples of their products, was a perfect example of Dining Services' efforts to involve students in menu-related decisions. Diners perused the booths and tasted products that seemed appetizing, sampling dishes like fried brownies, tortellini, vegan meatballs, gourmet cheeses and beer-battered shrimp. Votes were eventually cast for those foods students would like to see integrated into future menus. A large and enthusiastic Proctor crowd demonstrated widespread interest in the event.
Complementing the food fair are other means by which students can involve themselves in the dining experience. In addition to the familiar comment cards on which students gush over tempeh stir fry or complain about cold broccoli, Dining Services accepts recipes from students, which are often incorporated into the cuisine. They also will respond to requests to buy food from new sources. While some 35 percent of food served is produced in the state of Vermont, Middlebury began shiping its free-range salmon from a small village in Alaska in response to complaints about the quality of farm-bred salmon.
Students take their own initiative in creating culinary experiences. This past Thursday night, an hour after the food show, students from Wonnacott and Cook Commons faced off in an Iron Chef competition in Ross Dining Hall. In this edition of the popular new activity, students competed to prepare the best dish possible, using pineapple as the secret ingredient. This year Jay Yonamine '07 won for Cook Commons. [See "Iron Chef" on page 16.]
Dining Services is constantly thinking of new ways to please the ever-broadening palate of the discerning College diner. Last Thursday's Food Fair in Proctor Dining Hall, at which more than a dozen different vendors set up booths and provided free samples of their products, was a perfect example of Dining Services' efforts to involve students in menu-related decisions. Diners perused the booths and tasted products that seemed appetizing, sampling dishes like fried brownies, tortellini, vegan meatballs, gourmet cheeses and beer-battered shrimp. Votes were eventually cast for those foods students would like to see integrated into future menus. A large and enthusiastic Proctor crowd demonstrated widespread interest in the event.
Complementing the food fair are other means by which students can involve themselves in the dining experience. In addition to the familiar comment cards on which students gush over tempeh stir fry or complain about cold broccoli, Dining Services accepts recipes from students, which are often incorporated into the cuisine. They also will respond to requests to buy food from new sources. While some 35 percent of food served is produced in the state of Vermont, Middlebury began shiping its free-range salmon from a small village in Alaska in response to complaints about the quality of farm-bred salmon.
Students take their own initiative in creating culinary experiences. This past Thursday night, an hour after the food show, students from Wonnacott and Cook Commons faced off in an Iron Chef competition in Ross Dining Hall. In this edition of the popular new activity, students competed to prepare the best dish possible, using pineapple as the secret ingredient. This year Jay Yonamine '07 won for Cook Commons. [See "Iron Chef" on page 16.]