On Wednesday April 21 in the Refectory, Loyola University Maryland hosted its second Slow Food dinner of the year. For $30, students enjoyed a home cooked five-course meal. Slow Food is a worldwide movement started by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Petrini started the movement in opposition to the growing number of fast food chains around Italy. The movement’s philosophy is “good, clean, and fair food”. Even though organic food is promoted through the movement they claim that organic foods grown on a large scale are just as bad as foods grown by conventional means. They encourage people to but locally grown foods.

Click Here to View an Audio Slide Show of the Slow Food Dinner:

There are Slow Food chapters around the country that promote slow meals and show people how to cook using organic locally grown products. Recently Slow Food has started opening chapters on college campuses across the country. These chapters called “Slow Food on Campus” are run by college and university students. The campus movement was started to give college students a chance to slow down, relax and enjoy a healthy meal. College students do not usually get the chance to eat healthy meals; the campus chapter allows them to enjoy the meals while engaging in conversation, which is also stressed by the movement.

Slow Food came to Loyola after Father Linnane heard about another college hosting one at their school. The word was then passed on to Dining Services who decided to host a dinner because they felt it promoted a good cause. Anisah Rasheed of dining services said, “The Slow Food dinner was a concept Father Linnane learned of that another institution was implementing on their campus. He wanted to see that same concept here at Loyola. Loyola Dining decided to host the Slow Food dinners because we feel it promotes a great cause.”

Wednesday’s dinner was based on Earth Day and featured a five-course meal. Upon arriving at the Refectory, students were greeted with an hors d’oeuvres reception of Chesapeake crab bites with chive aioli, pesto vegetable stuffed local Hot House Maryland cherry tomato and skewered organic chicken bites filled with Vermont’s Cabot Chipotle Cheese. Pennsylvania grass fed beef and Kennett Square wild mushroom kabob over wild grain pilaf & onion sprouts and local artisan baked crusty dinner rolls with Organic Butter Rosettes were the appetizers served. Next was a Cream of Jersey Spinach Soup garnished with Vermont crème fraiche and a grilled roasted garlic crostini. The accompanying salad was local Hot House Maryland red & yellow tomatoes over Jersey Dandelion Greens with corn shoots, drizzled with Gold Balsamic & Cracked Pepper Dressing. The entrée for the night was pan seared local Rockfish medallions & New England Scallops atop organic herb and lemon pesto accompanied by local grilled asparagus bundles with organic hollandaise sauce and roasted sliced White Jersey Sweet Potatoes with Pennsylvania Maple Butter. The desert for the night was individual strawberry shortcake with organic whipped cream and a strawberry glaze. The food was brought out in a slow progression in order for the diners to enjoy the meal and converse with each other.

Students really enjoyed the meal and hoped it would be offered again next year. The only thing students weren’t happy with was the $30 price tag. “I think what they are trying to do is a good thing, but I just do not have $30 to throw around I can buy a whole week’s worth of meals with that amount of money,” said freshman Jessica Hackley.

Dining services hopes the movement really becomes poplar around campus. Ms. Rasheed stated that, “We are hoping that the Slow Food dinner will take off with students, faculty/staff/administrators. It is our hopes that once the word spreads about the dinner, how great the menu is, and the wonderful feeling of community you get, we will be forced to host several dinners to accommodate the demand.”