No, not really. The people around me wouldn't want to know--why would they care? Everyone thinks they know who's the Menu Man, maybe a couple do know. Several used to know, but they're gone now--moved away from Harvard.
What is you favorite dish to read, and how does it compare to your favorite dish to eat?
They're all interesting--there are a bunch of new dishes this year. And we're on the four-week instead of the six-week cycle of dishes. But they're all real interesting. Really my favorite is "chicken pahm," mmm. I love saying some of the veggies, they all seem to flow very nicely.
What is the motivation behind your moving and stirring menu renditions?
What's that supposed to mean? I don't do anything special--it's not like I sit in front of a mirror and say "you're the greatest, you're a rock star" and get all pumped up, then run to the phone and yell "chickwich!" Really it just comes naturally, I guess.
Have you ever met and do you know the specific whereabouts of General Wong?
General Wong and I go way back. I knew him in the "Great War." General Wong was a lactose-intolerant vegetarian. I showed him chicken, and now he's a meat eater. What a nice guy. He's on the West Coast now. Chicken's cheaper out there.
What would you use your celebrity status to change around campus or the dining halls?
Use my celebrity status? I don't know. I wouldn't wait in line at Loker Commons or the Greenhouse for that pizza and those burgers. Maybe I'd like to use my status to get into the Faculty Club without reservations and stuff like that. I guess.
Do you ever think about the people out there counting on you? How does that make you feel?
It's...I don't know...I like it. It used to be the thing to do, calling the Menu Man. There was a fan club in the past. There was a President and a Vice President and everything. Everyone listened to Dial-A-Menu, I guess I liked the attention. That was before the Internet and everything...I've been the Menu Man since the beginning, you know. The Dining Service has a negative past, and I think we've shed that. I like to think that the Menu Man played a small part in that. I mean, we're not a mystical machine just pumping out food.
Has the myth of the Menu Man, or of any of our beloved characters, been penetrated? Maybe a little, but how much can ever be known about these individuals, reminding us of anything from characters of a WB sitcom to featured figures on the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour." There is, however, one certainty--these personalities stand alongside more traditional Harvard memories. And just like the bells of Mem Church, the horrors of Expos and the rebirth of Loker, they will never be forgotten.FM