ABIGAIL MILLER
Staff Writer
From Thanksgiving turkeys to Christmas hams, the holidays are a time when food is often on the forefront of people’s mind. This holiday season, the Faculty Student Association and the Honors Program are collaborating to offer honors students a free interactive cooking demo at 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2. The demo will give the students the opportunity to gather together around the dinner table to create and consume a three-course meal together, complete with an appetizer, entree and dessert.
Natalie Gerber, director of SUNY Fredonia’s Honors Program, described the activity as a combination of two prior events.
During the Fall 2016 semester, modern languages lecturer Chiara De Santi taught a course titled “Italian Food Culture in Practice” in collaboration with Chef Dean Messina. Messina currently serves as the FSA’s director of catering and dining services. He worked as a chef for the FSA for over two decades before becoming the lead director of dining services.
Through the course, students were taught cooking lessons and applied the knowledge they learned in the classroom to prepare Italian meals in their own kitchens. Students that want more information can visit https://italianfoodcultureblog.wordpress.com/, which is a blog that the class created. The site includes all the recipes and concoctions they made.
The Honors at The Holiday Table event also gathers inspiration from SUNY Fredonia’s healthy cooking videos, which were curated by Messina and the Honors Program during the pandemic. The videos were created to teach Fredonia students how to make healthy, inexpensive and easy recipes for themselves like energy balls, turkey burgers and acai bowls. The videos are currently featured on SUNY Fredonia’s website. Food made through the collaboration was available to students through grab-and-go events to minimize exposure during the pandemic, while still providing students the opportunity to taste these foods before making them at home.
Regarding student eligibility for the activity and event, Gerber explained that “the event is open only to honors students and faculty as it is a trial/pilot.” A limit of 17 honors students and faculty are able to participate. Messina will guide this group through the process of making a mystery dish, which has yet to be revealed.
“The main goal is to bring the honors community together around food for a festive occasion … [while also] contributing stories of [our] different customs or traditions,” Gerber said. “It’s also an opportunity to slow down, destress and pick up some cooking tips from an expert.”
More details about the event will be announced closer to its date. Gerber recommends that honors students keep an eye out for relevant emails and notifications about the event.
If you are an honors student interested in signing up for the event, you can register for the event by contacting natalie.gerber@fredonia.edu.