HUDS Hits Close to Home

There’s no place like home—at least when it comes to cooking. But with its expanded “Recipes from Home” offerings this semester, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) is giving homecooking a run for its money.

According to HUDS spokesperson Jami Snyder, the staff cooked up the idea several years ago in response to student suggestions of their own home-style versions of particular dishes. The program began by soliciting recipes from parents via postcards, but the process is now done online. HUDS received 239 recipe suggestions this semester, vetting them for flavor and sorting them to match with the student’s house, according to Snyder.

For Rebecca K. Compton ’09, a “valiant” effort by the HUDS staff brought a taste of home to her plate with her mom’s famous penne with five cheeses—once a hit at high school track team dinners, and last week served to over 1,000 freshmen in Annenberg.

When asked about her favorite addition to the menu, Snyder replied that her sweet tooth particularly appreciated the “brownies with mint on top.” Meanwhile in Annenberg, card-swipers raved about noodle pudding—from the family kitchen of Jared S. Gruszecki ’09. Card-swiper Francine enjoyed it so much that she procured the recipe from the chef.

Under a program now in the works, dining hall staffers won’t just be cooking students’ recipes from home—they’ll be whipping up their own family favorites, and the diversity of backgrounds of HUDS employees might make for some novel dishes prepared en masse.