Meet the People Behind Duke’s Most Beloved Dishes

On a recent Thursday, lunch service at the Durham Market counter in the Marketplace on East Campus began promptly at 11:30 a.m. 

The first item diners passed on the line was a platter piled high with fried chicken, the first of eight batches that Carl Merritt was preparing for the meal. The first platter lasted about five minutes before it was empty. When a second platter hit the line, it disappeared just as quickly. 

“On chicken day, people come from everywhere,” said Merritt, a Duke Dining staff member.

Each day, across campus, Duke Dining typically serves between 22,000 and 24,000 meals to hungry students, staff and faculty. But on certain days, Duke Dining’s kitchens produce dishes that, like the fried chicken, are favorites.

We asked Duke Dining for the menu items that, based on demand and customer feedback, are essential campus classics.

Here’s a look at those beloved dishes and some of the people behind them.

At least 80 pounds of chicken

Most of the customers who flow through the Marketplace are first-year students. But on Thursdays, it’s normal to see more diners with work boots, khaki slacks and lanyards with DukeID cards as employee turnout jumps.

“Fried chicken on Thursdays is the most consistent thing in my schedule,” said first-year student Edward Coles, a London-native who fell in love with the fried chicken not long after arriving at Duke.

One of a handful of staff members who prepare the chicken, Merritt said the recipe is simple. Before it’s dredged in a mix of chicken breader and flour, the chicken pieces are dusted with salt, pepper and Lawry’s seasoning mix.

Once the chicken is in the oil, Merritt doesn’t need a timer. When the bubbling slows down, he said, the chicken is getting close. When the pieces are pulled from the oil, they go into a warmer where they sit until served. 

But with chicken hitting most diners’ plates when service begins, it doesn’t sit for long.

“One of the first things I was told when I was hired was ‘Don’t touch fried chicken on Thursdays,’” said Duke Dining Executive Sous Chef Todd Dumke, who came to Duke around two years ago. “Any normal lunch period, if we’re doing chicken in the rotisserie or if it’s baked, we might go through about 50 pounds. When we do fried chicken, the conversation starts at about 80 pounds. And there are days when we’ve gone through all of it.”

300 omelets and counting each morning

At first, when Lavonda Robinson and Maria Singletary started working together on weekday mornings at the omelet station at the Marketplace, it took them a few days to figure out a routine that would keep the omelets coming out quickly.

About three years later, the system of wordless communication the pair uses to keep pace with an unceasing demand, is something to behold.

“At first, it was rough,” Robinson said. “But now we’ve got it.”

It begins with Singletary taking orders and dropping customers’ desired omelet fillings – spinach is the most popular – in a small frying pan, which she then turns around and places on one of the gas burners in front of Robinson. On a metal ledge in front of the burners, Singletary then places a clue to help the busy Robinson know what to do next.

If she puts a small spatula in front of a pan, it means no cheese. A spoon facing down means mozzarella instead of the usual cheddar. A spoon facing up means feta cheese.

Robinson then drops a ladle full of scrambled eggs into the pan, followed by a small pile of cheese.

She closely watches each pan, giving them periodic shakes to keep the eggs from sticking. Once they’ve cooked, Robinson folds the omelet, takes it off the heat and slides it out onto a plate.

The whole process takes less than a minute. And with 300 to 500 omelets ordered each day, it’s repeated constantly.

“You’ll see the same people in here every day,” Robinson said. “I always think, don’t you all get tired of this? Obviously, they don’t.”

"It has to be spot on"
 

When he sees diners at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life enjoying the macaroni and cheese, Darelle Bey is relieved. He knows that the regulars know how it should taste.

Kosher dietary laws dictate that dairy and meat can’t be served in the same meal. Most meals that come out of the Freeman Center’s kosher kitchens are meat meals. But once a week, on Thursday evenings, the menu features dairy. The undisputed star of those dinners is the macaroni and cheese.

Bey took over the Freeman Center kitchen earlier this year and has mastered making the beloved dish using a recipe that’s unique to the venue. They’ll go through four pans on Thursday evenings.

Unlike the version at the Marketplace, which uses a wider variety of cheeses, the macaroni and cheese at the Freeman Center, which has a tighter list of ingredients due to a small kitchen, uses only cheddar and occasionally parmesan cheese. It’s also thickened with cream instead of a roux.

And when Bey makes the macaroni and cheese in the afternoon, he leaves it somewhat runny before he puts it in the warming cabinet, where the consistency will tighten up and turn velvety by mealtime.

“It has to be spot on,” Bey said. “If it’s not right, they’ll notice.”

A deep, golden crust
 

For lunch on Fridays, there’s little time to waste when it comes to fried catfish. While cooking it in the Marketplace kitchen, Barbara Phelmetta keeps one eye on the clock.

“The line opens up by 11:30,” Phelmetta said. “The first thing they go for is catfish.”

Phelmetta has been on the Duke Dining staff for 33 years. For much of that time, she’s prepared the fried catfish, a staple on the Friday lunch menu.

Phelmetta’s fried catfish, which is all farmed-raised in North Carolina, is marinated in Cajun seasoning and then dredged in a mixture of seafood breader, flour, Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper. Phelmetta said the key is using an 80-20 ratio of seafood breader-to-flour.

“I like to put flour in there because it makes it crunchy,” Phelmetta said. “You want it to be nice and crispy.”

After watching the oil bubble away for around 20 minutes, Phelmetta starts pulling out filets with a deep, golden crust.

With Phelmetta cooking them, the catfish filets make it to the line in time for the start of lunch service. But with hungry Duke diners well aware of how good it is, there’s no guarantee that there will be any left as lunch service winds down.

“Sometimes it lasts and sometimes it doesn’t,” Phelmetta said.