Author: Andrea Cornelius
Delicious food, great company and music are the perfect recipe for a Saturday night. Well Fed, Occidental’s new club on campus is devoted to providing just that. Elissa Chandler (senior) and Giulia Pasciuto (senior) began the organization this semester out of their passions for cooking and shared belief that meals bring people together and foster community.
Each of the founders of Well Fed brings something vital and special to the club. Chandler was responsible for starting F.E.A.S.T. (Food, Energy and Sustainability Team) and currently runs the F.E.A.S.T. garden. Pasciuto, with a family history of delicious baking, bakes breads and doughs from scratch for Well Fed dinners. It was through the F.E.A.S.T. garden that Chandler and Pasciuto met this summer. They both shared the belief that eating meals is about more than just the food. It is about coming together to enjoy the good company of friends and family. Chandler stated that F.E.A.S.T. and Well Fed are “two separate groups, but [they] are based on the same philosophy.”
Through the funding and support from both Residence Life and Housing Services and the ASOC, Well Fed hosts its meals for the student body every other Saturday night. During these events, Chandler and Pasciuto make dinner with fresh produce from the F.E.A.S.T. garden and Eagle Rock Farmer’s Market. They invite all Occidental students and faculty for a free four-course meal, featuring exquisite home cooking, such as Pasciuto’s homemade bread.
To further a sense of community, Chandler and Pasciuto also collaborate with student artists and musicians for the Saturday night dinners. For each dinner, an artist designs artwork for the menu and a student musician performs during the meal. Chandler and Pasciuto placed an ad in the weekly digest asking for musicians to play during their meals. An overwhelming response left them with many to choose from. This coordination with artists and musicians add to the atmosphere and make the event a community effort, which is the ultimate goal of the club – building community through good food.
This past Saturday, Oct. 3, Chandler and Pasciuto hosted the second Well Fed dinner of the semester at the UEPI house, located on the hillside adjacent to the Remsen Bird Theater. There were two sets of long dinner tables adorned with white table cloths, and small white cups filled with fresh cut purple and white flowers. They also placed small, hand-drawn menus, designed by Ava Mikolavich (senior), at each end of the table. The low lighting, soft, ambient background music and cloth napkins made this dinner chic, comfortable and calming. Chandler and Pasciuto shared cooking duties, preparing each entrée from scratch and serving it immediately.
The first dish of the evening was a cold zucchini soup with pattypan squash (harvested from the garden) and garnished with a spoonful of sour cream mixed with herbs (dill, parsley, chives) and sprinkled with dill and chives. This was coupled with thin, crispy and crunchy slices of homemade bread, known as crostini. The cold soup was surprisingly excellent, especially when combined with the hot and crunchy crostini. Next, there was an arugula salad, made from spinach leaves, with shaved parmigiano, lemon and olive oil – a basic salad – but the lemon and oil gave it much added flavor. To wash down the crostini and salad, there was a sweet Jamaica tea with lime and mint. These fresh, tasty dishes were just the appetizers.
The main course, as listed on the menu, was scallops wrapped in prosciutto seared with tarragon. The scallops were fresh, warm and, combined with the ham, absolutely mouth watering. The second entrée, crafted on homemade pizza dough, was adorned with butternut squash (from the garden), rich gruyere cheese and thyme. The wait for pizza was longer than ideal, so Chandler and Pasciuto came out to ask if everything was OK and to tell us that the pizza would be a few more minutes. However, the wait was worth it. This was my favorite dish because the dough was beyond restaurant quality and the squash had a subtle, sweet flavor to it and complemented the dough and cheese wonderfully.
Finishing off the evening was dessert: a passion fruit granite (similar to sorbet) with tuiles (a sweet and thin cookie shaped like a bowl) and garnished with mint. The passion fruit was incredibly sweet, cold and had the texture of crushed ice. The delicious and elegant dining experience of this free Saturday night meal is the result of the hard work of both Chandler and Pascuito. They were amiable hosts who greeted every guest and did all the cooking and serving themselves. It is clear from the careful details put into the restaurant style décor to the elegant presentation of the food that both Chandler and Pasciuto believe in the philosophy of the club and have a love for cooking. “It’s fun and that’s the ultimate goal,” said Pasciuto. “It’s not work but something we enjoy doing, and we wanted to create something free to students.”
Despite the fact that Chandler and Pascuito still have to work out a few kinks with the delivery, they expressed satisfaction with the dinner. They are looking forward to dishing up more fun, free meals in the future.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
