The Dudley Cafe is home kitchen for students living in the GSAS residence halls, who must enroll in the Dudley meal plan as part of their accommodations. At lunch, the Cafe also serves a wider sampling of students, staff, and faculty from around the Yard. They’re drawn by the noodle bowls, the salad bars, or the hot entrees at the chef’s station — carved steak, perhaps, or pasta with a ribsticking sauce, or salmon. “We incorporated some Korean recipes last year, and the kids loved it,” Cota says. Sushi will return later this year.

Eating habits change with the times. Students used to gravitate most toward comfort foods, and “now it’s all about heart-healthy, eating healthy,” says Cota. “But there are still the meat-and-potatoes kids. These kids love beef.” With a large international population, basic meal-plan staples have to be rethought. “Some kids come in, and they have no idea what a sandwich is,” Cota says. “So we guide them through, give them samples, tell them why we put it together the way we do. But that’s what makes this all so much fun.

“There are some PhD kids who’ve been here since I started [in 2003]. We become part of their family, and they become part of our family. You can tell when someone’s having a bad day. As the semester goes on, they don’t get much sleep, they don’t have time, they don’t have patience. You almost feel like you have to ground them. You try to get them to relax a little bit. I’ll tell them, sit down — have a meal.”