Dinner Party Food Through the Decades
Faculty dinner parties through the decades have been held at the house of the President of Fred’s University in the now-dated dining room that reflects the glory days of academia.
Hetty Strong was a server at those meals since the mid-1950s. She started working at age 14.
“At the time, I was called a maid,” Strong explained. “Now I’m an Assistant Server.”
Strong is retiring this month at the age of 82 and she spoke to School News Today about food trends over the years.
She identified a typical academic dinner party menu in each decade since she began her career. Here is her dinner party history at Fred’s University.
1950s
We had a huge cut-glass punch bowl on the sideboard in those days filled with a bright red concoction that honestly was colored with KoolAid. There was always someone spiking the punch. Now you’d call it a roofie situation. The malefactors drank martinis and made sure they stayed sober for the kill.
I think the hardest thing was the fondue craze. It was difficult to keep the cheese mixture from burning to the bottom of the pot, and it would drip everywhere and stain the carpet.
Roasts were big back then: beef or ham scored and decorated with maraschino cherries. We would serve roasts with Almondine Green Beans which I used to think was so fancy but is really just adding almonds.
Tomato aspic was a punishing popular dish. Hours of work but if you make a mistake when you unmold it, the whole thing looks like a jellyfish caught in an outboard motor.
Pineapple Upside Down cake was my favorite and that dessert was revived several times over the decades. If you messed that up when turning it upside down, you could spoon it into wine glasses, cover it with whipped cream and serve it with a spoon. People used to love anything served in a wine glass. The glasses wouldn’t go through the dishwasher though and it was hard work to clean them by hand.
1960s
Those were the peak smoking years. I don’t know how anyone tasted anything. I’d come home and my uniform would stink. My father worked in the faculty dining hall and he died from lung cancer and he wasn’t even a smoker. Now we call it secondhand smoke.
We served Manhattans with deviled eggs at cocktails. Those eggs were so much work, and when I was pregnant the smell would make me sick.
A typical dinner was Chicken A La King, Parker House Rolls, and Baked Alaska for dessert. People traveled by eating.
1970s
Those were the peak drinking years. I don’t know how anyone drove home after all those pitchers of Sangria.
Salami cheese chive rollups were a recipe for Salmonella, especially since the President’s House was not air-conditioned in those days.
1980s
In the 1980s people were wild for blackened things and pasta salads.
The process of burning the crust on meat made the kitchen incredibly smokey and the ceiling would get very dirty from the greasy fumes. Now we know that indoor air pollution from cooking causes cancer. I’m not sentimental about those days.
But I did enjoy the Silver Palate recipes that were so popular at the time, with the black and white hand-drawn illustrations. One easy recipe is asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with cream cheese. Infinitely preferable to the pasta salads which seem simple but are actually a lot of steps and a lot of chopping.
Gourmet ingredients like goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and pink peppercorns were considered novelties then.
1990s
We were still serving Silver Palate carrot ginger soup and Chicken Marbella in the 1990s but Trader Joe’s made things like smoked salmon and stuffed grape leaves seem more run-of-the-mill.
People were really into the idea of individual serving items. We would start a party with hot mini quiches and a little spanakopita. I’d take the leftovers home and make them my dinner for the rest of the week. They traveled well.
The President’s wife in those days had a bread machine and she would make all the bread for our parties from a bread mix. It was more expensive than buying it at the store, but we humored her.
Lava cakes were all the rage. Supposedly they were invented by accident when a chef made a mistake with a recipe. Oddly, it was pretty easy to get them wrong: overcooked so they were a solid cake, or so runny they were just batter. I’m happy to be done with that trend.
2000s
Craft beers were a great innovation. It made plain old beer seem fancy. No mixing, and quick cleanup as the bottles just got thrown in the “recycling” (haha). Easy to take some home at the end of the evening, unlike a communal cocktail where you have to pour leftovers into a food service container and it might burst open in the car.
Individual servings of beer made it easier for people to keep track of how much they drank. People starting to drink less in those days was good for us servers, as the drunks are the worst harassers and they were prone to vomiting on the carpet and leaving it for us to clean up.
The sheet pan cooking craze of the 2000s was really just what caterers have always been doing. But the 2000s introduced some recipes that looked fancy but were easy to mass produce in big batch trays.
Roasted potatoes with rosemary and kosher salt was a popular sheet pan dish. Much more forgiving than individual re-stuffed jacket potatoes where there are a lot of steps and if you make a mistake the whole potato falls apart and is useless.
For important guests, racks of lamb encrusted with pesto and breadcrumbs were a signature meal. Red peppers almost blackened (but not bad enough to make a mess) contrasted with the brown elements on the plate. That was one of my favorite meals, though they kept good track of the number of lamb chops so there wasn’t often much for us.
Flourless chocolate cakes were not advertised as Gluten-Free in those days, but of course, they were. It only had a few ingredients and rarely failed, it was a low-skill cake that seemed fancy until it became a menu item at every big box mall chain.
There never has been a woman President of Fred’s University, but in the 2000s there were a lot of opinionated wives. They felt judged if their husband’s events weren’t very “extra” and they treated us like we were their employees. I don’t envy them.
Martha Stewart had everyone replicating old-time desserts in an extra big way in the 2000s. She would put twice the amount of meringue on top, or double the number of layers, or add three types of cheese on whatever. Her show created high expectations that were exhausting. Everyone thought they could be a caterer, and judged us as if they were experts.
Because of Martha Stewart and HGTV, we were also pressured to provide more elaborate “tablescapes” and special touches like cutlery wrapped in a napkin with raffia and a twig of Rosemary or ice bowls with fruit frozen into the mold.
Everything was served on the cake stands the wife collected. They were very prone to falling over.
On the one hand, I appreciate the craftsmanship and skills that go into those presentations. On the other hand, they added extra hours of work we often weren’t compensated for.
2010s
The Moscow Mule cocktail was so popular before the pandemic that Fred’s University bought a set of 100 copper mule mugs for parties. I’m sure they will end up accumulating dust like the collections of Sherbert bowls and crème brûlée dishes in the pantry. The limes, ginger, and mint are pretty expensive so Moscow Mules were a budget buster.
Everyone was following Ottolenghi in the 2000s and we did a lot of recipes from his book. The cover of Plenty shows an eggplant on the half shell with Greek yogurt, buttermilk, thyme, and pomegranate seeds. Looks great in the picture, but the eggplant gets sad sitting out on the buffet. And a lot of people are babies and scared of eggplants so often it did not get eaten even though it was delicious. More for me.
We outsourced the macarons so that trend was a timesaver. But the boutique ice cream and cookies that were often served were a nightmare. Earl Grey, Matcha, Elderflower–that type of ice cream comes in inefficient little cartons. You have to warm it up so you can scoop it, and then make sure it’s eaten before it turns into expensive milk. Guests pocketed the extra macarons: they were very easy to steal. There was nothing for us to take home at the end of those desserts.
Pandemic
During the pandemic, we servers thought we were going to lose our jobs but we were retained because of the Payroll Protection Program.
The President found an old bread machine in a closet but you couldn’t get the proprietary mixes anymore. It gave him an idea though and he became obsessed with making sourdough bread and crackers from his own wild starter. He had me searching around for special flour when that became scarce. There was more bread than anyone could eat in his household as his kids were gluten-free. I have to admit, the sourdough was absolutely delicious. The high point of Covid for me.
For him, too. The President realized that he hated his academic job and quit in the middle of the year right at the height of the pandemic. He moved out very abruptly since he was violating his contract. When we went in to clean up I saw he had left behind most of his baking equipment. He later texted me I could keep it and I sold it on Facebook Marketplace.
His sourdough side hustle didn’t turn into a full-time job but I wish him well.
2020’s
The current President doesn’t have much in the way of parties. This President is not married and there is no one to coordinate the events in the house for him. He is certainly not sending Academic Condolence Cards.
I overheard him say on a Zoom call that the faculty and admin all hate each other and no one wants to get together anymore.
After talking to the previous President, he stipulated in his contract that he didn’t have to do more than a set small number of fundraising dinners with the “explicative” money people. He has the Deans doing most of the ceremonial events now.
It’s all about work/life balance the new President explained to me. He doesn’t think it is healthy to have official events in his home space, he needs better boundaries.
The new President mostly goes out to Chipotle after meetings and vapes in his car afterward.
Since I worked off the books for the first three decades of my time at Fred’s University and was part-time after that, I am not eligible for a pension and my pay-in to Social Security was limited.
Thank God for the Community Food Pantry or I’d go hungry.
Also Read: The Journey of A Single Bottle of Wine Around Fred’s University