Nicholas Zollo

Contributing Writer

Growing up in a household where my mom used to be a chef at semi-fancy restaurants meant I learned how to cook at a young age. The first time I ate Dansbury food, I realized how much better my home-cooked meals were.

Eating the food at Dans compared nothing to making salmon in an oven, fettuccine alfredo in a pot or a classic filet mignon on the stovetop. While some Dans food is tolerable, it’s often outclassed by the freshness of food coming off the stove or out of the oven.

When I was taught to cook and started to work in restaurants, I was taught the usual skills. Skills such as how to cut with a sharp knife properly, how to boil water and how to use an oven. I also learned how to make foods ranging from pasta to steak, and most importantly, I learned how to be patient.

These skills were acquired around age 10 when I was just tall enough to see over the stovetop. This meant I could start making my own food for both me and my mother to eat.

The first thing I learned how to make was pasta.

I prefer anything long and noodle-like such as linguine, angel hair or capellini. I would bring the pot to a boil, roughly 10-15 minutes on my stove. Then I would add in the pasta while stirring occasionally. Once the pasta was done.I would ask my mom to heat up some meatballs since at the time I could only pay attention to one thing at a time. After the meatballs were done I’d strain the pasta out, with help from my mom, and add a whole jar of tomato sauce.

Neither my mom nor I cared about what brand of tomato sauce we used so long as it had some basil, garlic, and oregano in it. We’d then mix in the meatballs and add a lot of parmesan cheese. We couldn’t have pasta without it being nice and cheesy. While the process took between 30 and 45 minutes, it was worth it. My mom and I would not only have a nice meal for the night, but leftovers for the next day.

Dansbury Commons is no doubt convenient and easily accessible, but it falls short when it comes to meals served. I often find myself going to Dans for lunch and dinner before and after classes. When I get there, I skim the food options, and, once I decide on what to get I often find myself disappointed.

The Dans food is either over-seasoned or unseasoned, too dry or too oily, overcooked or undercooked. There seems to rarely be a dish served at Dans that finds a happy medium that’s well-seasoned, well cooked and not too oily or dry.

Since I’ve worked in a kitchen before where pasta had to be made by the pound and not the box or bag, I understand that Dans pasta is not going to be perfect. However, I have eaten it many times and I know that they have enough oil to keep it from drying up after sitting out for hours. Despite this, I often go up to the pasta bar and see the dry, undercooked pasta stick together and become unappealing and inedible.

Furthermore, the Dans marinara pasta sauce is often watery and flavorless. I always add the grated parmesan, the season all, and their oregano just to make it flavorful and edible. Lastly, there is seldom noodle-like pasta being served, which is another reason why I dislike the Dans pasta. There is no freedom of choice, flavorless sauces and dry pasta.

 I learned how to cook steak around age 14.

I found that steak takes more time and patience to make, especially if trying to cook the meat to a certain temperature. I found myself overcooking the steaks my first few times, which wasn’t terrible, however, my mom and I both liked our steaks rare to medium rare. Despite this, we ended up making soft tacos out of the overcooked steak.

My mom and I would put generic salsa, some lettuce and sour cream into these soft tacos to compensate for the lack of flavor in overcooked steak. Once I got the timing down for rare and medium rare steaks I would often use a salt and pepper seasoning. Sometimes adding oregano or basil on top of the steak I felt the steak needed it. While there weren’t leftovers, it was a great meal nonetheless, especially when paired with veggies such as mushrooms, green beans and asparagus.

Dans always has one steak to serve, flank steak. This steak is rarely seasoned and tough to cut and eat. Being a lover of the fat on meats, I rarely get the pleasure of having fat on the flank steak and often find it too lean to the point of it being barely a portion. Furthermore, the side choices offered by Dans range from undercooked rice to over-salted veggies. These choices add insult to injury, as the rice contributes nothing flavor-wise, and the veggies are often so overcooked and over-salted that they fall apart and are too bitter to the tongue.

While I understand that Dans has to cater to many students, the price paid for meal plans should equate to decently prepared food, yet more often than not, it disappoints. However, my food is often prepared with flavor, dedication and patience. Home-cooked food is overall better because it’s made with your own hands and has a more personal touch compared to food made for a general student body.