The Flaming Chef | A cornucopia of harvest delights

Craig Libman Columnist

Every year, one of the most exciting on campus meal is the Harvest Dinner held at ACDC each October. This year’s event, which took place on the Oct. 5, was no exception. With over eight dishes, sides, and desserts containing local ingredients, the Harvest Dinner successfully spiced up the everyday fare of our cafeteria. Heading over to the DC with my friend, I could almost taste the fresh salads, flavorful chicken, and sweet cider that would make up my dinner.

Being a food columnist for The Miscellany News, I piled onto my tray every local food item I could in order to thoroughly recreate the dinner for my readers. While I had enough food to feed three people (and paid a whopping 14 points for the privilege), I was not embarrassed. After all, how could I judge such a dinner without having a taste of everything?

I started off the meal with a cauliflower cheddar soup that was full of flavor. While it had a savory, slightly spicy taste, it was a bit thin. For such a soup, I felt it was not smooth or velvety enough, as the cheese was not completely emulsified into the cauliflower purée. Even so, the meal was off to a tasty start.

Following the soup, I dug into my entrée of chicken pot pie and two squash side dishes. My biggest disappointment with the pot pie was that it was not a pie at all - it had no crust! As someone who regards the crust as the best part of a chicken pot pie, I was a little bummed. Yet, the dark, meaty flavor of the chicken pieces helped me forget such omissions and made the dish enjoyable.

After a few bites of the chicken stew, I dug into the enormous heap of spaghetti squash on my plate. At first, I found the spaghetti squash to be an interesting addition to the dinner, with its stringy texture and sweet flavor reminiscent of stewed red cabbage. After eating it for a while, I became somewhat bored with the dish and moved on to the acorn squash, which I found to be much more interesting in taste and texture. Heartily accented with pepper and cinnamon, each bite of the orange squash was a perfect balance of sweet and spicy flavors.

I felt that the salads offered this year did not match those of last year. I particularly missed the presence of Coach Farm goat cheese at the salad bar. Among the options available this year was a carrot beet salad with a ginger-soy dressing and mesculen greens with pears and gorgonzola. While I was not enthused by the beet salad, I loved the combination of sweet crunchy pears and sharp, crumbly gorgonzola. My only disappointment was that the salad had a distinctly bottled dressing taste and would’ve benefited from a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

The highlight of the evening was dessert. While the cafeteria offered three different baked desserts as well as Ronnybrook Farm ice cream, I opted for the apple strudel, which was a delicious treat. Featuring stewed apples in a flakey crust, the strudel was flavorful, but not overly sweetened. Stumbling out of the dining hall extremely full, I was quite satisfied with my dinner. While my harvest meal had its ups and downs, finishing with a perfect piece of strudel made the meal worthwhile.

Currently, ACDC is holding a recipe contest in which students can send in recipes in several categories including salad, chicken or meat dish, wing sauce, dessert, and other dishes. Through this competition, hopefully, our community can make the food we eat each day at the cafeteria even better. I know I’ll be submitting a recipe.

Need some help writing your ideas in recipe form? E-mail me at crlibman@vassar.edu.