‘A decent meal’: eating culture at Utrecht University
Blog: Dorsman dives into university history

After the holidays, not everyone might be in the mood to talk about eating and drinking. But receptions and meals are inseparable from the university culture. There is always a reason to sit at a table together. For centuries already.
A tradition of eating and drinking
This already started with the opening of the university in 1636. Besides speeches, playing the organ and the singing of ‘some musical pieces’ by students, “a decent meal prepared by the city in the Agnieten monastery”. People would also eat and drink for the occasion of the anniversary of the university, a tradition still continued today.

At the inauguration of Stadtholder Willem V in 1766, the inner man was not forgotten either. His four-day visit was even ended with a ‘Ball and Feast’. The stadtholder was involved in the appointments, so being on good terms with him was important. Unfortunately, the report of that visit provides no clues on what a ball with the professors would look like.
Always a reason for a dinner
But there were also dinners for no special occasion. In the seventeenth century, a fine jar was already put in place for professors who were late at PhD defences or did not attend meetings. In 1666, the decision was made to annually empty this jar by means of a joint meal. Not everyone was equally enthusiastic about that: especially the theology professors occasionally objected to such a frivolous pastime.
In the eighteenth century, these meals were sometimes held outside the city, giving them the character of a modern-day staff outing. How all of them got to Loenen aan de Vecht (and back to Utrecht) is not reported.
From intimate dinner to mass meal
These kind of dinners were quite intimate occasions, with no more than twenty persons (the wives were sometimes also allowed to join), but there were occasional more massive events. At the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the university in 1936, one of the rooms of the Jaarbeurs building at Vredenburg hosted a meal for over 300 people.

There was an exact seating arrangement which was published in the commemorative book, so we know exactly who were at the table together. The menu is known too, as well as the wines served with it. It included salmon, lobster and veal, and ‘Mocca-Liqueurs’ and ‘Cigares‘ at the end.
Students were also up for a dinner or two
It was not only the academic staff who enjoyed more or less exuberant feasts. Of course, students had their own eating culture. In the seventeenth century, it was common that senior students would charge the newcomers kind of an entrance fee, which was used to fund a party later in the year. Meals were also common for the occasion of completed exams, as well as debates or PhD defences, and even at the end of the classes.
Today too, many a PhD defence ends with a dinner at which speeches are held. It should be said that this could occasionally get quite rowdy in the first years of the university, as quite some toasts were made while eating. This is the reason why in 1641, only five years after the university opened, there were talks of “abolishing the meals and feasts, held by the students after completed debates”. These were festivities which led to “big costs for the students and their parents”.
Not only the academic staff enjoyed more or less exuberant feasts. Students of course, had their own eating culture.
Party menus of PhD-defence meals
For this reason, the municipal government recommended the professors to not hold debates or classes without having the students first promise not to hold meals or feasts. Less than fifteen years later, meals were apparently allowed again. But the decision was made that PhD-defence meals were to start no later than half past one in the afternoon, to prevent students from starting the meal while already drunk.
The PhD-defence meals did eventually become somewhat more civilised, although they remained typical of student events. This is shown by countless preserved menus of what were called PhD-defence parties in the nineteenth century. Cartoon-like drawings of the young doctors were often made on them. These party menus are beautiful sources for a culinary history of university life.

For instance, we know that at a G.J. Weijers’ PhD defence on 26 May 1914 in Hotel des Pays-Bas at Janskerkhof, a Graves Blanc was drank with the salmon and a Rüdesheimer with the lobster (served on top of lettuce with a mayonnaise sauce). Sometimes, a photo was made of the feast as a memento surrounded with signatures of the attendees. Since the end of the nineteenth century, such meals were often held in Huize Molenaar on the Lange Nieuwstraat, where this still takes place today.
Bickering over the costs
The financial side of the university meals is quite a thing, such as the meal costs for participants in conferences. This was a meagre arrangement for quite some time. In 1953, one of the professors even spoke of ‘scrounging’. Staff members from Utrecht were met with hospitality everywhere, but what Utrecht had to offer in return was frugal: the means to ‘repay’ that generosity were lacking.
The infamous ‘cheese sandwich with buttermilk’ has become a thing of the past, but it can still get quite tricky to fund a conference dinner.
The same complaint was repeated In 1960 by Professor of Pedagogy Martien Langeveld, who spoke of a ‘generous reception’ of Utrecht employees abroad, but of an ‘embarrassing insufficiency’ at the receptions of foreign guests in Utrecht.
Cheese sandwich with buttermilk
The infamous ‘cheese sandwich with buttermilk’ has become a thing of the past since then, but it can still get quite tricky to fund a conference dinner. Even though the importance of a good meal is evident: you get to know each other better and it is often on that occasion that plans are made for a joint project, for further collaboration. Or am I merely deluding myself and is it really all about having a good time together?
Dorsman dives into university history
Out of the thousands of people who study and work at Utrecht University, fewer and fewer know anything about the history of this institution. We can do better than that. Leen Dorsman was a professor of University History until 1 August 2022. Each month on UU.nl, he describes something from the university’s long history that you would want to know or should know.