Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia dining halls will be a home away from home for students when University Food Services presents its 23rd annual Taste of Home event Dec. 3.
All four dining commons will serve selected breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes from students’ families. A Taste of Home will be served all day in Bolton, Oglethorpe, Snelling and the Village Summit dining commons. Meal prices will be the same as the current cash price: $7.95 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $14.45 for dinner.
The menu features side dishes, appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, breads and desserts ranging from “My Son is a Senior Soufflé” for breakfast to “Chicken with Big Dog Cherry Sauce” for lunch to “Coca-Cola Pork Chops” for dinner to “Chocolate Revel Bars” for dessert.
This year, 1,024 recipes were submitted and 130 recipes were chosen. A total of 569 families sent in recipes, with 394 families sending one recipe and 175 families sending a total of 630 recipes.
“Each year we get more and more entries,” said Michael Floyd, executive director of Food Services who helped implement the first event in 1987. “While we selected only 130 recipes, all the recipes we received were fantastic. One of our hardest jobs is putting together a menu that day-trying to feature these recipes.”
Floyd said that the recipes have continually increased in quality over the years. This year Floyd said the recipes were very diverse, including a recipe for “Rasam,” an Indian tomato soup, from Rani Chebrolu, parent of Puja, of Columbus.There were also heartfelt entries, including a corn pudding recipe from Karen Friend of Roswell, aunt and guardian of Daniel Rodriquez-Granrose. Friend wrote about her family’s history as corn farmers and sent in her favorite corn recipes along with helpful information on the specific type of corn to use in the recipe.
Food Services even received recipes from parents who used to work in the dining halls. Jan Bowers Smith of Senoia, worked in the dining halls her senior year at UGA, sent in one of her son Ethan’s favorite recipes-“Buffalo Wing Dip.”
Floyd also said that this year a few smoothie recipes were submitted in addition to the more typical soup, salad and entrée recipes.
Family members with recipes selected for the event received an 11-inch commemorative black-and-white plate and a production recipe for 8,000 servings (the approximate number of students the dining halls serve on a daily basis). All family members who submit recipes receive two complimentary passes to the dining hall so they can eat with their students.
Plates were available for student pick-up beginning Nov. 16 so that they can be taken home to family members over the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.
“We expect to see extended families at the event, like we have in the past: mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles,” said Floyd. “We’ve had families travel as far as New Orleans to come to the Taste of Home event.
A full list of winners, from around the state and across the nation, can be found at http://www.uga.edu/foodservice/tasteofhome/. Featured recipes are arranged by dining hall and recipe type.