Foreword

Anne Marie D’Agostino ’91 Years ago, when I compiled and published Scrumptious Delights, a cookbook of Athenaeum dessert recipes, I did it because I wanted to say thank you.

My earliest undergraduate experiences at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum (which everyone knows as “the Ath”) were novelties and excitement as I met new classmates and advisors on Orientation Day. I experienced many firsts at the Ath: first time I met a professor during afternoon tea, first dinner lecture with a distinguished guest speaker, first Madrigal feast and first sip of wassail (that was especially memorable…or not, depending on how much wassail you drank).

The Ath was the place where we celebrated defeating Pomona and winning the SCIAC for the first time ever in women’s swimming. It was the center of many other unforgettable experiences, too: reading Moby-Dick during a 24-hour marathon led by Professor Robert Faggen; listening to the insights of Donald McKenna, the man for whom our institution is named; sitting next to George Benson, the College’s first president, who spoke Italian to me as I was just learning it; listening to my classmates play their instruments at afternoon tea

foundational. I found the rooms filled with and savoring the taste of the famous Rice Krispies Treats. These were bedrock experiences of my time at CMC.

In the fall of 1989, my junior year, I started working at the Ath. On my first day of work, I remember being completely surprised that all the desserts were made fresh each morning. I met Bonnie Snortum, whose kindness and genuine sincerity helped me find my voice as an artist and young adult. David Edwards always demonstrated plenty of wit and a genuine appreciation for culture. Robert Webber, the head chef at the time, taught me about presentation; Jackie Hawkins, who was the dessert chef, taught me how to cook (she had the patience of a saint). Chef Dave had been working at the Ath only one month before I graduated. By the end of my senior year, these same people orchestrated a beautiful senior art show for me with caviar and ice

sculptures, chocolate-covered strawberries and beautiful flowers. Seeing my art hanging next to famous historical works made me truly feel that I had arrived.

Before graduation, I wanted to preserve something of the Ath to take with me. That led to the creation of Scrumptious Delights, which provides much of the material, along with new material on main dishes and other entrées, in the book you have before you.

In the years since, the Ath has remained a presence in my life whenever my mom makes Athenaeum bars or a friend calls and says, “I just made that triple chocolate torte with raspberry sauce yesterday and had to call.” When that happens, I am reminded how all the moments at the Ath bound us. It is in these desserts that we’re reminded how sweet those times were and how we can still carry those memories into our present.