Students interested in how the dining halls prepare butternut squash and country fried steak can now sign up for behind-the-scenes tours of the Mather-Dunster kitchen.

Each tour is limited to 15 people and provides undergraduates a look at the Mather-Dunster kitchen, which connects the two Houses.

During the tour, students were given candid answers to questions about the tunnel network connecting House kitchens, resource allocation, and the planning that goes into each meal.

Participants observed the conveyor belts that deliver the used plates to the kitchen, the area where the food is actually prepared, and the machines used to process and filter the water that Harvard University Dining Services uses.

Mather and Dunster dining halls were the last House dining halls to be renovated as part of a residential dining hall renovation initiative that ended in 2005.

“I thought it was interesting how much of a sense of history there is here, especially with regards to the renovations,” said Ram Sachs, a sophomore at Stanford who was visiting Harvard on his spring break.

The tours are open to students outside of Mather and are part of the HUDS’ Food Literacy Project, a collaborative effort between the Harvard School of Public Health, University Health Services, and HUDS.

The project’s mission, according to HUDS’ website, is to “[cultivate] an understanding of food from the ground up” by educating students about food preparation, agriculture, nutrition, and the HUDS community.

Tour participants expressed gratitude and excitement about what they had learned.

“I loved how much they listen to us,” Kristen Logan ’12, a Mather resident said. “It shows that they really care about us.”

Additional tours will be conducted on April 1 and April 23 at 3 p.m.

—Staff writer Derrick Asiedu can be reached at dasiedu@fas.harvard.edu.