Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant
Each year, UConn’s Dining Services department queries students and employees about food preferences and sensitivities, to provide them with what they want and need. Ethan Haggerty, an official in the department, noticed something: “There are more and more vegetarians and vegans than ever before.”
On Aug. 30, the university opened the first dining space in its history with no meat on the menu. CrossRoads Café, in the Wilbur Cross Building where Wilbur’s Café used to be, is open to the public.
Haggerty, area manager for several campus cafes, said CrossRoads is not just for the plant-based crowd. He’s going after “flexitarians,” people who eat mostly vegetarian meals but occasionally eat meat or fish.
“They’re looking for delicious food and are willing to try plant-based options,” he said. “It’s all about giving people more choices.”
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C. Dennis Piece, who most recently served as the Executive Director of Dining Services, announced his retirement in April. Pierce has provided UConn with 34 years of devoted service and he will be greatly missed by students and colleagues alike.
Typically, the annual UConn Dining Culinary Olympics is held in January in the South Ballroom, buzzing with chefs, judges, and hundreds of attendees. The full-day event consists of a recipe contest amongst chefs in the morning and the Boiling Point competition with teams in the afternoon. Due to COVID, Dining Services had to rethink the event. For the 21st Annual Culinary Olympics, the event consisted of just the Boiling Point competition and took place on November 17th and 18th in Dining’s Innovation Lab. The event was not open to the public.