Tastemaker: Baking her way into the hearts of students

What do back-yard carnivals in Edina and teas at Harvard University's Adams House have in common? Three guesses: Rachel Vessey, Rachel Vessey, Rachel Vessey.

Vessey, a senior at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., honed both her baking and organizational skills at an early age. "I used to organize kids to have carnivals in the back yard and pet shows when I was 10 or 11, and I started baby-sitting when I was 10. I've always been into doing projects. I thrive on being busy."

Her latest endeavor is baking goodies for the twice-monthly teas given for the 400 students who are members of Harvard's Adams House. At Harvard, similar to arrangements at England's Cambridge and Oxford universities, students live in adjacent dormitories grouped into various "houses" that share a dining hall and activities. House masters, usually a married couple who are professors, live in a separate house within each complex and preside over teas, receptions and other gatherings

'Chief domestic goddess'

Vessey, one of four children, has been baking since she was a kid, and she missed spending time in the kitchen during her first year at Harvard. When the house masters asked if she would help prepare the food for the teas during her second year, she jumped at the chance. "I think it's the best job in the world," Vessey said. She and several others, including her friend Jessica Zdeb, from New York, bake dozens of cookies, breads, bars and appetizers for each tea -- often making them ahead and freezing them. Her enthusiasm for the job led the house masters to jokingly dub her "chief domestic goddess."

About 200 students usually attend the teas, but a tea held for juniors and their parents drew 300 to 400. Vessey, Zdeb and the rest of the crew worked extra hard to prepare, using recipes that were a bit more upscale than the casual student teas.

Simply divine

"Jess and I use a lot of recipes from both our moms," Vessey said, "and we double or quadruple each recipe." Another student favorite is a cookie made from a recipe Vessey kept from her seventh-grade home economics class.

The students appreciate the home cooking -- a change from dorm food -- and tell Vessey how much they like the baked goods. "I get so many compliments," said Vessey, "and I always have to remind them that it's not just my work." Nevertheless, she has lots of fans. At last spring's graduation reception at Adams House, she was presented with one of two awards given to juniors for service to the class. Vessey's award was for "baking her way into our hearts."

A new audience

This summer, Vessey worked as a tour guide at Harvard. "I baked a lot for the other guides. It was a whole new audience for me. I got to practice my baking."

Vessey, whose academic major is American history and literature, hopes to combine her cooking hobby with schoolwork in her senior year. "Harvard has all of Julia Child's letters, and I'm thinking about writing my thesis on some aspect of them."

-- Anne Gillespie Lewis is a Minneapolis freelance writer and the author of "So Far Away in the World: Stories from the Swedish Twin Cities."