This winter, students can attend food tastings and restaurant trials in the Upper Valley, Boston and New York, as the Dartmouth Gourmet Food Society kicks off its inaugural term.
The organization will teach students about food trends and help make cooking more accessible, from restaurant style dishes to those that can be made in a dorm kitchen, and organize visits to local restaurants and host discussions with alumni in culinary professions, nearby chefs and Dartmouth Dining Services chefs.
“If you want to do investment banking or be pre-med, there’s a ton of resources, but if you want to go into culinary, not so much,” said co-president Diksha Gautham ’15, who founded a mini-home bakery business called Miss Macaron.
The club will have a blog and offer food-related news, recipes, restaurant reviews and events from other organizations such as the Dartmouth Food Connection, Ecovores and Students Fighting Hunger.
Co-president Victoria Li ’16, who runs a personal food blog, “Hunger Is The Best Chef,” said she hopes the club will allow people to vocalize their appreciation for food.
“A lot of the food organizations on campus focus on issues that food is related to, such as hunger, poverty and sustainability,” Li said. “However, I wanted to also focus on the enjoyment people gain from cooking and eating.”
Li said she and Gautham were “blown away” by the number of responses they received to an informational campus-wide email sent on Monday, which received over 150 students responses, a third of which expressed interest in leadership positions.
“I ended up staying up till 3 a.m. because I was responding to emails,” Li said. “Someone even suggested a Dartmouth Iron Chef. The event ideas are endless.”
Gautham and Li are considering becoming a chapter of Spoon University, an online food publication that spans 10 college campuses, including the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.
Jiyoo Chang ’17, who learned about the Gourmet Food Society through Monday’s email, said she is excited for food tastings and restaurant trials.
“I am such a foodie, heavily influenced by my family,” Chang said. “When my family travels to other cities, we schedule everything around food and restaurants. The club just totally sounded like my thing.”
The society is looking for an advisor and hopes to gain recognition from the Council on Student Organizations to receive funding.
The founders reached out to food clubs at other Ivy League schools, including the Harvard College Culinary Society, Yale Epicurean and Cornell Gourmet Club.
Columbia senior and president of the Columbia Culinary Society Kelcey Otten said the food clubs bring students together over a common interest.
“The culinary society brings students together in a restorative way,” she said. “All of us students are highly overextended. So if the culinary society can, even for one hour a week, encourage students to slow down and savor good food and company together, it has served the community well.”
Li is a member of The Dartmouth staff.