Spring Survey Results and Spring Menu Highlights

During the week of March 3, 2,686 of you took the HUDS Satisfaction Survey, and the result was the highest ever Spring satisfaction score (3.87 out of 5). Marks are solid in all categories, but we see a particular jump in your evaluation of the taste of food, menu variety, and freshness of food – three areas in which we have been focusing this winter.

Also, these scores are roughly equal to the historically higher Fall numbers. That suggests that our Winter menu efforts, such as new entrees, Thursday chef tastings, an improved Sunday brunch, and just a general focus on making every meal fresh and satisfying, has come through to you.

And for a lot of you, food is a serious consideration, with 32% labeling yourselves foodies, and 41% thinking of food as a regular enjoyment. You make your own recipes regularly out of our staple ingredients, and more than 600 of you shared recipe suggestions.

While roughly half of you (53%) are meat-eaters, the remainder eschew some forms of protein. This may contribute to your assessment of menu variety equaling several entrees to choose from. You also want to see new recipes or ingredients regularly.

Some common compliments: you love your dining hall staff, many of you have specific food favorites, and you’ve especially like the winter menu fruit, fish and brunch.

There were also some common themes in your suggestions for improvement:

• Interhouse restrictions – these are set by House masters
• Brain Break – Every HoCo has the opportunity to help plan the menu, though not all do; next year, to establish greater consistency and efficiency, we will develop a cycle menu of offerings
• Nutrition info – make sure you check out the new provision of information, as detailed on the prior blog entry
• And a number of menu suggestions, most of which we hope to address in the new Spring Seasonal Menu, which starts today (Wednesday, March 18).

Generally speaking, the Spring seasonal menu offers lighter fare, after a winter of heartier, warming foods. Here are some things you asked for or can look forward to with the new cycle:

• A greater balance of healthy options, and of entrees within a meal, providing choices between lighter fare and heavier foods
• At least one vegetable per meal prepared in a simple sauté or steam
• New vegetarian entrees including some spring quiches, tofu parmesan, grilled vegetable paninis, and a continued effort to offer a vegetarian parallel to meat-based entrees, such as meatballs and stir-frys

The spring menu will also feature nightly culinary stations:

• Monday: MYO Soba Noodle bowl
• Tuesday: Cheeses & crackers
• Wednesday: Carvery, including London broil, leg of lamb, sirloin strip, and whole chickens
• Thursday: Chefs tastings
• Friday: - International menus, including Mediterranean, Chinese, Mexican and Thai
• Saturday: Spanish Table
• Sunday: Rustic Breads with dipping oils and spreads

The salad bar will also feature three composed salads a day, with variety to include such new options as orzo & artichoke, butterbean salad, roasted mushroom and red pepper, olive antipasti, Mediterranean tomato, and cucumber calypso, as well as old favorites like Asian noodles, and tabouleh.

We also have some new desserts, including New York cheesecake, MYO whoopie pies, carrot cake, sour cream cake, chocolate éclairs, and tiramisu.

So enjoy a peek of the new Spring menu as you head off to Spring Break, and we’ll look forward to welcoming you back with lots of new offerings as we head into the warmer months.

P.S. – Just as a reminder: we try to answer comments or questions to the blog on a weekly basis, in the column to the right. Requests for dining-hall specific foods or services are best addressed within your House or Annenberg, so that your manager can work with you. If we’re a little slow sometimes, please forgive us: food will always be Job #1, but we will check back in ASAP!

HUDS Website Updates

Today HUDS debuts a revised front page and menu information pages for our website (www.dining.harvard.edu), in an effort to make access to the menu and nutrition information significantly easier. This change was made in consultation with a number of groups – the Nutrition Labeling Committee, the Committee on House Life, and HUDS’ Student Dining Advisory Committee. We even had input from Professor Bill Clark’s Environmental Science and Public Policy 10 class.

From HUDS’ home page, you can now jump immediately into the day’s menu and customize your meal information, or you can jump to a full nutrition listing of every item served during a meal period (breakfast, lunch or dinner).

Bottom line: fewer clicks for fast info, from your computer or the HUDS kiosks.

Over the course of this week, we will also add several other enhancements to make accessing information about food easier:

1. We will offer a nutrition print-out of the day’s soups, sauces and entrees (in short, those items that change daily). You will be able to pick this piece of paper up from some common space, such as the checker’s desk, kiosks, or other House-specified location.
2. At the stations where the core items remain constant (salad bar, deli, bread, cereal), we will provide a permanent, single-page print-out of nutrition information.
3. And menu cards will feature periodic single statements, highlighting the nutritional or sustainable benefits of an item, or other interesting facts (for example its cultural origin). This is information that students have asked us to provide.

Meanwhile, we continue to support University Health Services’ efforts to enhance nutrition education in the dining hall – be it through portion and serving size awareness or “Rate Your Plate” exercises.

Our dining rooms are community spaces, meant to be welcoming to all. As such, we want to provide a set of systems and information that support all the different perspectives of our community.

HUDS Cheeses and Animal Rennet

In response to recent student inquiries regarding the presence of animal-derived rennet in cheese, HUDS has reviewed every single cheese we use in the dining halls - both the sliced cheeses on the deli bar as well as shredded cheeses we use in the kitchens.

We confirmed that every cheese HUDS serves is FREE of animal-derived rennet (non-animal, microbial enzymes are used instead) EXCEPT for the sliced American cheese. According to Land O' Lakes, the maker of our sliced American cheese, that item is a "processed cheese" which "could be made with microbial AND/OR animal-derived flavor-producing enzymes."

It is important to note that any artisanal cheeses, such as those offered at catered events, are not included here, and in all likelihood DO contain animal renets.

So if you are trying to eat vegetarian, you can definitely do so by enjoying all the deli and shredded cheeses we serve with the exception of American cheese, as it MAY contain animal-derived ingredients.