Dean of Freshman Thomas A. Dingman ’67 opened his home to 12 freshmen for a lesson in home cooking—sustainable, vegetarian cooking adapted from the Harvard University Dining Services menu.

Over fifty students requested to participate in the free, limited-space class that was organized by the HUDS Food Literacy Project (FLP) and the Freshman Dean’s Office.

HUDS Executive Chef Lawrence R. Kessel and Currier Chef Christopher Tighe demonstrated a variety of cooking techniques that featured ingredients used by dining hall chefs.

The menu: delicata squash with browned butter and sage (Harvard consumed 44,000 pounds of squash this semester, according to Kessel), brown rice pancakes with a citrus salsa (dining halls usually serve the pancakes with soy sauce), a lentil dal with locally distributed curry powder, and a vegetable lasagna (the only menu item that is not available in HUDS dining halls).

“Almost everything you saw we would probably serve in the dining hall,” Kessel said. He added that HUDS chooses menu items based on their seasonal availability. The citrus salsa, Kessel said, is in season during the winter months.

“We really do want to teach people about food,” said Kessel, who also noted that HUDS chefs use student comment to develop the dining hall menus.

“The epic response to this class kind of shows the interest,” said FLP Representative for the freshman class Maya S. Sugarman ’12. Slots for the class were taken within 10 minutes of the invitation e-mail being sent out to the Freshman class, Sugarman said.

The lesson was intended to further the FLP’s goals of educating students on agriculture, nutrition, food preparation and community.

Katherine W. Steele, director of freshman programming for the FDO added that it also served as a way to introduce students to the HUDS staff.

“I don’t think people realize how experienced the chefs are,” Steele said.

Kessel, who had his own restaurant for several years, and Tighe had both spent years working in the culinary industry before coming to Harvard.

“They know so much about food and appreciate their cooking,” said Steele.

Brooke E. McDowell ’12, one of the few freshmen lucky enough to attend, left the dean’s kitchen with more than just a full stomach. “It was nice to see behind the scenes,” she said.

Dingman’s comfortable accommodations allowed for some hands-on assistance from a few courageous volunteers.

The chefs demonstrated the “claw method” used to cut onions, which entails using the knuckle to protect the fingers and support the knife.

McDowell said that she would not soon forget “getting scolded for my onion cutting.”

She added, “I did not like the claw method.”

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.