As Thanksgiving rolls around every year, it seems as though everyone has a different take on the traditional holiday menu, whether that means a complete rejection of the usual or a unique interpretation of a well-known item. At Smith, many dining hall staff members end up cooking multiple Thanksgiving dishes: some for the students who stay over break and some for their own families. Because of this, they often have experience making many different types of Thanksgiving foods.
For Joe Menzyk, who currently works in Chapin dining hall, the best dish to cook is stuffing. It was his favorite as a child, and his mother made three different types of stuffing: a bread one, a chestnut one and a sausage one. For his family, he usually makes a sage stuffing using local ingredients from River Valley Market. “I buy regular bread, make croutons, you know, toast them,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll use a baguette… but it’s usually always a white bread, and then [I add] fresh sage and onions and celery. It’s pretty basic, old-fashioned stuff.”
He often ends up incorporating it into many parts of his final dinner. “I usually stuff the turkey and then I do a casserole dish — a side — with the stuffing,” Menzyk said. In addition to making the stuffing, Menzyk also cooks a 16-pound turkey, butternut squash, whipped sweet potatoes, whipped mashed potatoes, salad and two pies. After Thanksgiving is over, he uses the turkey to make a stock for soup, as well as using some of the leftovers for sandwiches throughout the week.
Jacob Zucker, who works at the Gillett dining hall, prefers roasted brussel sprouts and has been making them for his family for about 10 years. His recipe begins with rendering out bacon fat, which he then uses to cook the brussel sprouts along with onions and some other ingredients. Finally, he sprinkles crispy bacon back on top. “I like doing roasted brussel sprouts a lot,” Zucker said. “It’s one that I thought of myself, I created it.”
Tom Rockett, a chef at Chase/Duckett, does Thanksgiving a little differently. Everyone in his family brings a dish, taking the pressure off of whoever is hosting. For the past 10 years, Rockett has been bringing plates of roasted root vegetables, which have since become a family favorite. “It gives me a chance to give my family — who [aren’t] all that excited about trying new things — different vegetables,” he said. “I’ll throw rootabagas in, I’ll throw celery root in, I’ll do maple roasted brussel sprouts that none of my family would ever eat on a normal basis. To me, it’s a lot of fun.” In his recipe, he often includes carrots, beets, rootabagas, celery root, parsnips and shallots.
His inspiration for the recipe came from his experience working at a co-op. Rockett said that they would make roasted root vegetables with just sweet potatoes and beets, so he just adds more vegetables and herbs like rosemary. Despite his family not usually partaking in those types of vegetables, Rockett says that his dish is usually a success. “I get asked if I’ve brought my vegetables [each] year, so it ends up being pretty good,” he said. “It’s fun and I look forward to doing it again this year.”
