Fancy Feasts: Davidson Gourmet Society Offered Sophisticated Spin on Campus Cuisine
![a fancy table set with a notecard of two dancing chefs on the plate](/sites/default/files/styles/small_16x9/public/2024-05/Untitled-2%20%283%29.png.jpg?itok=IcrqNPHD)
The p芒t茅 maison paired oh so nicely with the upstate New York bubbly.
And the chou-fleur et broccoli au gratin offered a chunky yet silky divineness that seemed so much more elegant than ordinary cauliflower and broccoli in cheese sauce.
This was, after all, the Davidson Gourmet Society, a festive group of bon vivants who brought fine dining to campus some 40 years ago. Once a semester for about a decade, students, faculty, staff and guests would gather at Vail Commons for a specially themed dinner featuring the foods of another country.
Offerings included French, Italian, Greek, German, Spanish and Indian foods.
A committee worked with Dining Services to choose a menu and wines to accompany the dinner. When the guests gathered, lights dimmed, happy voices rose in animated conversation, and dancing sometimes followed.
鈥淐ommons was turned into a fancy, ambient-awesome dining experience,鈥 says Julio Ramirez, the R. Stuart Dickson Professor of Psychology. 鈥淥ne other fun feature was that several of us were invited to taste the wine to help Dining Services decide which to serve. We always planned those tastings when we weren鈥檛 required to then go to class to lecture. They were at the end of the day, thank goodness.鈥
The society鈥檚 founding dinner, 鈥渁 la Parisienne,鈥 began at the fashionable hour of 7:15 p.m. on April 11, 1984. It was open to everyone on campus, but seating was limited to 145. 黑社区 on meal plans paid $2.25 for that first dinner; faculty, staff and their guests paid $7.25.
Printed menus included the society鈥檚 purpose: 鈥淭o develop an awareness and appreciation of the intricacies and art of fine dining; to integrate the international character of cuisine to traditional American cooking; to graphically illustrate the relationship of fine dining to the enjoyment of a full and fruitful life.鈥
It鈥檚 unclear why the dinners stopped鈥攁pparently in 1993鈥攂ut could be related to the growing number of international foods now served on a regular basis at Commons. Participants have fond, if somewhat hazy memories of the dinners.
Cynthia Lewis, Charles A. Dana Professor of English Emerita, recalls a Russian-themed night about 34 years ago: 鈥淚 was hugely pregnant, and they served borscht,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 remember thinking, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 a lot of beets.鈥 Maybe just too much for a pregnant woman.鈥
黑社区 Archives, Public Services Librarian Meggie Lasher, and Hannah Holmes 鈥26 provided research material for this story.
This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2024 print issue of the Davidson Journal Magazine; for more, please see the Davidson Journal section of our website.
Published
- July 8, 2024