Photo by Tara Monastesse ‘25.
Dining Services staff members preparing to serve the Wok station’s autumn Gracious Dinner meal.
By Tara Monastesse ’25
Managing Editor of Content
Although Gracious Dinner was not set to begin until 5 p.m., by 4:30 p.m., there was already a long line of students weaving through the first floor of Blanchard Hall. The students closest to the Dining Commons entrance — the ones who got there to camp out first — sat cross-legged on the floor and chatted as they counted down the remaining half hour until the doors opened.
This is the kind of obsessive anticipation one might expect to see before a concert, but the event on the night of Nov. 8 was not a rock show. Rather, it was a showcase of the labor and culinary skill of the Mount Holyoke College Dining Services team as they presented students with a top-tier dining experience to commemorate the fall season.
While Dining Services typically does not announce the autumn Gracious Dinner until the night it takes place, crafty students can predict that the feast is coming through a few underground methods. Returning upperclassmen may notice that the Thanksgiving-inspired banquet is typically held on a Thursday exactly two weeks before the actual holiday. Determined students may peek ahead at the online Dining Commons menu to see that there is a particularly luxurious dinner selection incoming — including items like pumpkin pie, hot mulled cider and pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.
This unofficial tradition, held a few times each academic year, elevates the standard dining menu with gourmet food items. Brie en Croûte, baked stuffed shrimp and roasted turkey breast were just some of the items offered at last week’s dinner.
Preparations for this Gracious Dinner started as early as August when Dining Services staff began brainstorming menu ideas at their regular meetings. The planning typically begins with a look at last year’s menu, where the staff incorporates student feedback on which items were favored while selecting what to serve.
While Christopher Kostek assumed his new role as Menu Coordinator just two weeks ago, he has worked with Dining Services as a cook for about 27 years. He says Gracious Dinner has been an event at Mount Holyoke the entire time he’s worked there, even before the College had a centralized Dining Commons.
“It’s rewarding if it’s enjoyed by the students,” he said. “I don’t think it’s any more strenuous than any other meal because it’s still the same amount of work. It’s just something new that we haven’t served before. I would say the only thing that was a little bit strenuous … was the fact that we’re still a little short-staffed. We have a lot of new employees. We’re still trying to figure out their skill level and what they can handle.”
Potential Gracious Dinner menu items are typically tested out on a smaller basis beforehand, where Dining Staff members can taste the food items and provide feedback. Alex Giguere recently assumed the role of lead cook at Classics — his favorite Dining Commons station — after Kostek stepped down. He appreciates the opportunity that Gracious Dinner provides for the Dining Services staff to experiment with complex dishes.
“With the dining program as a whole, it’s a four-week menu cycle,” Giguere said. “So it’s kind of repetitive, repetitive. So [Gracious Dinner] really gives us a chance to be more creative, come up with new ideas or something special. That’s a lot more work that we don’t necessarily have the time to do on a normal basis. But for this, we put in the extra work for those little things that we can do.”
New menu items that are popular during Gracious Dinner may also eventually be added to the regular Dining Commons menu rotation, according to Giguere.
Chi Hou Yuen, a lead cook at the Wok station who has worked in Dining Services for about 19 years, described his time working in various residence hall kitchens before dining at Mount Holyoke became centralized. According to Yuen, Gracious Dinner used to be served in each residence hall dining space, with the caveat that every single one served the same menu.
“Usually all the dorms [had] the Gracious meal at the same time, but different locations,” he said. “But now it’s all at once, but a different meal. More choice than before.”
Yuen also spoke about the cost-effective innovations the staff used for the Gracious Dinner’s decorations, from the edible flowers used as garnish to the blue-dyed ice blocks that chilled smoothies at the Wok station.
Students at Mount Holyoke can typically only glimpse the Gracious Dinner provisions by straining to see around other students in the crowded Dining Commons or after waiting in a lengthy line until it’s their turn to be served. But in the half hour before the students were let in for this fall’s Gracious Dinner, the dining hall was near-empty, besides Dining Services staff members putting the finishing touches on menu items.
The Made-To-Order Sushi station had been converted into a fruit salad bar, where strawberries and grapes glinted like gems amid dewy chunks of melon and cantaloupe. At L’Chaim-Kosher, mini pumpkin pies were garnished with mint leaves. The Wok station was stocked with pastel-colored smoothie drinks, in flavors including berry dragon, gingerbread cheesecake and pumpkin pie latte. Yuen said that the array of toppings offered for the smoothies — including fruit, chocolate chips and whipped cream — was meant to replicate the experience of decorating a personalized gingerbread house.
At 5 p.m., students burst into the Dining Commons to swipe their OneCards at the front entrance and snag a coveted table space before joining the long lines for food.
President Danielle R. Holley shared her first Gracious Dinner at the College since becoming president with the student winners of the sign-making contest held in honor of her inauguration last September. “[We had] incredible signs and creativity that were done by our students, and so I really wanted to celebrate with them,” she told Mount Holyoke News.
“It’s exciting to see all of the students lined up, [and] the incredible work that the staff here at the Dining Commons has put into making this so special,” Holley said while greeting students near the cashier station as they poured into the Dining Commons. “And it’s a way for us to celebrate, as a community, a season of gratitude and thanksgiving.”
Yuen believes that for college students, a good dining experience is just as important as academics.
“Your mom will ask you, ‘Hey, how you eat today?’ Because they worry about you,” Yuen said. “My job is to make sure you get to eat right.”