Dinner at Dartmouth

A mini-feast of assorted anecdotes, musings and fast food facts about College cuisine, delicately seasoned with more than two centuries of history and flavored with just a dash of humor.

TO DAY'S MENU

» Starters «

A Tale of Drunken Cooks Filthy Food Fight Remembrances What It's Really Like to Work in Thayer Dining Hall Other Tantalizing Surprises for You to Chew On

» Main Fare <<

Eating at Dartmouth on $10.95 a Day Sneak Peek: The Dining Hall of the Future The Latest Free Food Frenzy Seriously Grilled Alligator

» Just Desserts <<

Students Bite Back: Undergraduates Rate the Best and Worst Meals on Campus

The Early Days:Off the Eaten Path

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are."

Over-used, often-truncated and paraphrased, the famous 1825 quote from French gastronome Brillat-Savin has become, at best, a sort of foodie mantra. Of course institutions don't actually eat, and if applied to the early days of Dartmouth, the phrase becomes like the glass slipper-tricky to make fit. Truth be known, at first the College didn't even have food service. In 1771 Eleazar Wheelock wrote a friend in Boston, Moses Peck, asking him to find "a skillful, faithful, prudent, virtuous and able- bodied cook for my school." Apparently he never found one, since in 1774 Wheelock

ordered public whippings of the Colleges two cooks, both found drunk and in possession of stolen supplies. New Hampshire Governor John Wentworth at the same time wrote President Wheelock: "Your provision for the students is extremely bad...the very name of putrefied, stinking provisions in college alarms parents...." The College's board of trustees investigated the allegations and dismissed them, saying, "Only the delicately reared lads of Portsmouth complain, never the Indians or charity students." But the troubles must have continued because by 1814 the College went out of the food business altogether.

Dinner Becomes Academic

By 1902, perhaps in response to a growing and diversifying student body (or maybe the descendants of the delicately reared lads from Portsmouth finally had enough of taking meals in private homes, boarding houses or eating clubs), the College re-entered the food service with a feast. The College Hall menu for October 26,1904, included herbed baked trout, lamb broth a la Greque and veal bourgeoise and continued through a range of meats, legumes and potatoes to finish with strawberry shortcake. By 1922 three-quarters of the student body ate in the dining hall—which at that time was College Hall (now called Collis)—rather than at off-campus alternatives.

Down and Out Duringthe Depression

With the stock market crash of 1929, John Monagan '33 saw 180 out of 600 classmates leave out of financial necessity. "We felt lucky to still be there and have our wants taken care of by the College," he recalls. "The meals were simple, nourishing and didn't cost much." Which was a good thing, because there were few alternatives. "The Hanover Inn coffee shop or Outing Club [which also served food] weren't financially accessible to the average student, and very few of us had a car to travel to restaurants," says Monagan. Students, being students, were not entirely satisfied with the chow. There was something about the food that...well...it was something they couldn't exactly pin down. According to Monagan, campus rumors had it that the Dartmouth Dining Association (DDA) "laced the food with saltpeter to prevent randiness."

Donning the Green Jacket

For some students, the pleasant surroundings of the dining hall also became a good work environment Jack Faunce '40 got a job washing dishes.Years later, as an executive at Aetna Life Insurance, Jack became involved with the installation of the company's new cafeteria. When asked by the architects how he knew so much about a functional dish-washing system, he told them: "It was part of my Dartmouth College education."

Bob Conway '73 has pleasant memories of working at Thayer Dining Hall and "seeing probably a third of the student body each day on my mealtime shift—it was sort of a social meeting bowl."

"Mine were the transition years and change happened slowly," says Merle Adelman '80 (of the fourth Dartmouth class to graduate women), who worked at the DDA from 1976 through 1980 under food service director Paul Moore. An ex-Navy man, Moore organized the student work force into ranks wearing color-coded jackets. Adelman worked her way up through brown, blue, gold and finally to green coat. "The DDA paid well and created a feeling of community among the student employees. One of our famous green coats was Jim New man '78, the astronaut. And, if anything, it prepared me for a career in food service to fall back on. Yeah, I could tell some stories: Like when two hockey players started hitting each other in the kitchen with mops and I had to break it up. Or watching the boys winging the dinner entree of frog legs across the dining hall. You just don't serve frog legs to children."

Today the green coats are gone, replaced by an aggressive recruitment effort that offers students decent wages ($6.75 to start and $9.50 for manager), flexible hours and a 20 percent discount on meals they purchase. Each term some 90 students work for the dining services.

The Freshmen Strike Back

Mark Smoller '53 claims his class ended the College practice of segregating the pea greeners from the upper classmen in Thayer. Until his class matriculated, every freshman was required to buy a meal contract and eat in the Freshman Commons located in College Hall. The freshman dining experience left much to be desired in terms of quality, quantity and variety. To add additional insult, the crummy food was served on compartmentalized metal trays. "Sometime in the late spring, when our class had collectively had enough, a plan was hatched to strike back," says Smoller. "Usually, seven to 15 out of the almost 700 members of our class showed up for breakfast every morning. One morning, not by accident, almost the entire membership of the class presented itself for breakfast. Of course, the DDA was not prepared. The class, insisting that it had a contract and had paid for breakfast, demanded that they serve it."

The next day the class went back to the old pattern of fewer than a dozen showing up for breakfast. A few days later the whole class showed up again. The cycle continued until the College capitulated. "The Commons were closed," says Smoller, "and we were invited to eat with the 'grownups' in Thayer."

Food Fight!

In 1912 Dartmouth students invented the nations first food fad—swallowing live goldfish. However, it was during the era between the Korean and Vietnam wars that students found obstreperous expression through food. Ed Gray '67 hypothesizes that without the threat of war in those years-and duty or conscription imposing the interruption of a college career or worse—a Dartmouth man could afford to go completely nuts at the least provocation. Of course, food flinging at Dartmouth didn't belong to just one era—butter pats had dotted the ceiling of Thayer for decades—but Gray witnessed a whopper of a food fight in 1966. Athrown grapefruit got things started, and then—just like that old Mr. Wizard experiment simulating molecular activity with scores of ping-pong balls loaded on mousetraps—when one let go, all erupted. Various foods rocketed through the air in every direction, at every diner, until there was no more food to be tossed. Gray recalls exiting through a window as student IDs were being confiscated.

Many believe this memorable food fight served as the inspiration for an unforgettable scene starring the Jell-O-squeezing John Belushi in the 1978 movie Animal House, which was written by Chris Miller '63.

The Modern Era Begins

In 1989 food service at the College was reorganized and renamed Dartmouth Dining Services (DDS). The upshot was that students were wooed as customers. Instead of the single meal plan of yesteryear, there are now five options and 13 different dining locations, including The Pavilion, the only public kosher kitchen in New Hampshire. And in keeping with the idea of student as customer, some of the eateries stay open until 2 a.m.

Dartmouth on $10.95 a Day

Dartmouth's last all-you-can-eat meal plan was eliminated in 2000. Today Dartmouth requires all first-year students to purchase the standard meal plan for $800 per term,

which gives them a declining balance from which they pay for each individual food item. This works out to about $10.95 Per day. For most freshmen, $10.95 proves too little to satisfy a Big Green appetite, as a typical dinner entree runs about $7, leaving only $4 to spend on breakfast and lunch. But students are not going hungry—on average they spend an additional $90 over the price of the standard semester plan. For the really, really big eaters, Dartmouth offers the Big Green meal plan. This plan, popular among athletes, lets students purchase $1,320 worth of food for $1,095.

Grilled Alligator

Hanover will never be mistaken for the Big Easy. But for the last four years Food Court manager Larry James has helped infuse Dartmouth with Cajun zest by hosting the dining hall's annual Mardi Gras celebration. Topping the menu is grilled alligator. Here's his never-fail recipe: Ingredients: frozen alligator tail, 108 pounds milk, 4 gallons hot sauce, lots Thaw meat for three days Soak meat in milk overnight Spice with hot sauce and grill until tender (Serves 200)

Food of the Future

The lines and congestion that plague the dining hall during peak periods soon will disappear with the construction of a new 60,000-square-foot dining hall, part of a dining and residential complex to be built along Maynard Street on the north end of campus.The new facility will boast 600 dining seats as well as soft seating (on couches and armchairs) for another 150. (Currently the seating in Thayer is limited to 540.)

Current plans call for the dining hall to house a first-floor "marketplace" with seven food stations, each serving a different type of cuisine, including pasta, hot deli sandwiches, "sizzling" salads, foods of various ethnic origins and kosher and halal dishes. The second floor of the building will boast a "food emporium," containing a convenience store, a deli and an eatery known as The Bistro, with an open-hearth oven that will serve freshbaked bread, pizza and calzones.

Incorporating the marketplace concept —a long-time staple in shopping malls and airports—into a college dining facility is a national trend, says Mark Eickmann of Ricca Newmark Designs, the company in charge of planning Dartmouth's new dining hall. Eickmann says the marketplace concept stands in contrast to the drab, linear cafeteria models of earlier eras, when students shuffled down long, orderly lines, trays in hand. "In a marketplace, its less organized in the traditional sense. It's organized chaos," he explains. But chaos can be good. Eickmann says students will find themselves engulfed in a more dynamic,

enjoyable dining atmosphere. "The entire room is your dining experience." In an effort to make the facility a social center not unlike Collis, designers have also included a low-tech theater in the building plans. While it is too early to speculate whether dinner theater will come to campus, the groundbreaking for the new dining hall is planned for fall 2005.

Students and Free Food:A Match Made in Heaven

For the past three years, any student craving serious face-time with a favorite professor has had to only utter one word: "Hungry?"

Through the "Take a Professor to Lunch" program, students have the opportunity to get to know their esteemed instructors while noshing on delectable cuisine and decadent treats at the Hanover Inn. And it's all on the Colleges tab. Mike Hamilton '03 has four times savored the casual, one-on-one time that a free lunch allows. "You get to interact with professors on a more informal basis," he says. At his latest lunch, with psychology professor Todd Handy, Hamilton says he received valuable advice on applying to graduate school. And, of course, there's the food. Hamilton recommends the Inn's salmon: "I think I get it every time."

Alums Who Serve Dartmouth students hungry for home-cooked meals and sparkling conversation need look no further than the Colleges new Big Green Family Meals program. The program, run through the alumni relations office and organized by Daniel Ng '04, encourages alumni living in the Upper Valley to invite Dartmouth students to their homes for dinner.

Ditte Falleson Peterson, an exchange student from Denmark, dined at the home of Juliette Bianco '94 and David Green '89. The main course was Greens scrumptious chicken pasta parmesan, with a side discussion on the differences between American and European societies. "It's good to meet people whose lives no longer revolve around going to college," Peterson says. "It's nice to find out what's going on out there around you."

The Menu Makers

"People hold our feet to the fire when they get tired of old things," says Food Court manager Larry James. And if pressure from students was n't incentive enough to vary the menu James and Homeplate manager Elizabeth Rosenberger have a personal stake in the food they prepare—they both eat DDS food nearly every day. Adds Rosenberger, "We get tired of the same old food, too."

James and Rosenberger begin planning each four-week menu cycle for their respective dining halls more than a month before the start of each term. The two strive to feed students well-balanced meal options, but Food Court's fried, calorie-rich entrees are geared to appeal to "the masses" while Homeplate fare accommodates those who seek vegetarian, low-fat and low-sodium alternatives. Throughout any given term, offerings may range from meatball subs to Sicilian lemon shrimp.

But James and Rosenberger don't hesitate to yank unpopular foods such as stuffed peppers. ("We only sold 28 servings, says James.) Wondering where the pair get their best ideas? Think industrial espionage. "We're awful when we go to restaurants. We steal their ideas," says James. "My latest wow was a seafood sandwich wrap."

When a couple of cooks gotLOOSE WITH THEIR LIBATIONS, Eleazar Wheelockwhipped up a fitting punishment.

A SIMPLE GRAPEFRUIT BECAME A WEAPON of class destruction—and inspired an up-and-coming screenwriter—in a memorable 1966 food fight.

Hundreds of diners relish saying SEE YOU LATER, ALLIGATOR, during the annual Mardi Gras feast.

REBECCA GRAY is a freelance writer andsenior stewardship writer in Dartmouth's Development Office. She is married to Ed Gray '67. ALICE GOMSTYN is an intern with Dartmouth Alumni Magazine

[ Menu for October 25,1903 ] Consomme Jardiniere: Olives Puree Mongole: Celery Baked Mackerel, a la Bercy Sliced Cucumber Pommes Natures Fricassee of Chicken, a la Allemande Larded Tenderloin of Beef, Sauce Italienne Corn Fritters, Maple Syrup Roast Ribs of Beef, au jus Roast Leg of Lamb, Brown Sauce Stewed Tomatoes/Green Peas Mashed Potatoes/Boiled Potatoes Vienna Rolls/Apple Tapioca Pudding Vanilla Ice Cream/Assorted Cake Graham and Butter Crackers American Cheese

[ Menu for January 29, 2003 ] FOOD COURT Soup: Cheddar Cheese; Pasta Fagioli Grill: Com Dogs Pizza: Bacon and Onion Lunch: Hot Roast Beef Sandwich; Gravy; French Fries; Corn Dinner: Chicken Fillet; Mashed Potatoes; Gravy; Peas and Carrots; Buttermilk Biscuits; Baked Ziti HOMEPLATE Soup: Harvest Mushroom; Vegetarian Chili Lunch: Chicken Enchiladas with Yellow Rice and Peas Vegetarian Entree: Tortellini Walnut Sauce; Couscous with Mediterranean Vegetables Vegetable: Squash with Apples Dinner: Cumin Coriander Steak with Sweet Potato Spears Stir Fry: Shanghai Beef