Julia Child serves up fun at the D.C.

“Bon Appetit!” were the words that rang out in the Zorn Dining Commons as students ate their meals on Thursday. The DC held a French-themed cuisine event while showing the 2009 film, “Julie & Julia,” in which Meryl Streep portrayed Julia Child, the American born French chef and entrepreneur. March was International Food Month and the DC wanted to celebrate.

Among the French food available at the DC, students had a selection of French cheeses including comte, Roquefort and brie, as well as slices of bread, crackers, fresh grapes and olive oil at a sidebar. In addition, the DC served crepes which are thin French pancakes. Students could also sample quiches as a part of the “Julie & Julia” themed event. All day, “Julie & Julia” was put on a loop on two large plasma screen televisions to entertain students as they tried the new cuisine.Josef Quirinale, the general manager of the DC said the event was intended to celebrate International Food Month.

“We wanted to celebrate women and food, and one woman who was famous for her food was Julia Child, so that’s why we decided to do that,” Quirinale said. To put on the event, the DC staff had to make different sauces, make crepes and puff pastries. Staff also had to make sure fruits had been washed and cut before being served. “We didn’t have to take on extra staff,” Quirinale said. “They were directed in different directions.” The stir-fry section was turned into a crepe station, for example. Freshman Brytani Randlett said she did not know the event was happening and more advertising would have helped create more publicity for it. “There should have been more advertising,” Randlett said. She also said that she doesn’t normally watch movies or television when she eats, so the movie was more of a distraction than entertainment.

Freshman Hilary Flynn said she enjoyed the event. She didn’t realize the DC was putting on the event, but she said she thought it was a lot of fun. “I like the fact that the DC puts in the effort to make our dining experience more enjoyable,” Flynn said. She said the DC always keep things interesting and she likes days when she can go to the DC and have some different type of food aside from the usual offerings. “I love when they celebrate the holidays, like Halloween, Christmas, and St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s also fun on some days when I can just go to the DC and they have some other type of food there if it’s not a holiday,” Flynn said.

Sophomore Liz Footit said she also enjoyed the film and the event as a whole. “I really liked how they incorporated the movie with the food; I liked watching the ‘Julie & Julia’ as I ate,” Footit said. “It made me feel like I was a part of the movie because I was eating the French food.” Freshman Jimmy Geraghty said the food was really good but he didn’t really pay attention to the movie. “I was sitting behind the stairs, so I couldn’t really see, but I always like it when the DC has something special going on. It keeps things interesting and the food is pretty good.”

Junior Melissa Small said the Hectic DC atmosphere wasn’t conductive for moving on a television. “I don’t think it was a good idea to show the movie because it’s really loud in the DC and you couldn’t hear it that well. From a lot of places, you couldn’t see the TV’s,” Melissa said. “And people are running into the DC and leaving really quickly for classes, so you wouldn’t have enough time to watch the movie.” The “Julie & Julia” French-themed cuisine event is one of many special offerings the DC puts on throughout the year to celebrate holidays, another country’s culture.

Whitney Cyr can be contacted at wcyr@keeneequinox.com.