St. Patrick’s Day might not be known as a day celebrating love and lifelong devotion, and True Grit’s may not come to mind as the most romantic place to eat, but for Marcie and David Zisow the booth in UMBC’s dining hall was just perfect.

The Zisows will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary later this year, but on March 17, 2022, the couple took the time to mark the 53rd anniversary of their first conversation. “We’ve always celebrated both dates,” say Marcie and David, who first spoke to each other at a shared table in UMBC’s commissary (predating True Grit’s by several decades). She was eating a tuna sandwich packed by her mother, and he had a homemade PB&J. Marcie ’72, French, M.A. ’84, instructional development systems, a retired educator, and David ‘71, mathematics, a retired OB-GYN, laugh now at how that day played out. 

“We are Jewish,” says Marcie, “but my mother, she always wanted us to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. So I put on this ugly green plaid skirt. I really did look ugly, but that’s all I had that was green.” David admits that he was looking for a date to the mixer that Saturday night as a rebound from his previous UMBC girlfriend.

The conversation did not start off well. As Marcie retells it, “At one o’clock the whole table gets up to go to their next class, and he stays there. He was making me nervous. He starts talking, and the next thing I know, he’s asking me to the dance.” Marcie knew of David, a pre-med student who had recently starred in UMBC’s musical production of “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” (“She didn’t even come see it,” David says as an aside. “I didn’t have a ride!” responds Marcie in what must be a 53-year-old conversation.)

Marcie says now, in retrospect, she surprised herself by being brutally honest with David. “What you have to understand is, I grew up in a Jewish community, in a Jewish household. I never had to say anything to anybody about being Jewish, we all understood. So I told him, ‘I don’t date people who aren’t Jewish.'” David immediately erased her fears but sharing his own Jewish heritage with her. Marcie said she didn’t waste a minute, but ran to the nearest payphone to call the girlfriend she was supposed to ride to the mixer with to cancel their plans.

Looking back, David can’t believe their luck. “The dance was an amazing evening. We just had such a good time together. We were so in tune with one another. I knew she was the one.”

The Surprise

The Zisows have been telling this tale to their four grown children for so long, that Jamie Silverman, their youngest, can tell it by heart as well. She was inspired to create a surprise celebration for her parents, recreating their meet-cute, albeit at True Grits and with slightly upgraded fare from their home-brought sandwiches. UMBC Dining immediately offered up their services, including baking an anniversary cake, playing music from the ’60s and ’70s, and creating a slideshow of Zisow pictures to show on the screens of the dining hall.

Silverman eventually had to reveal to her parents the big surprise before she drove them to campus. Arriving during a spring shower didn’t dampen their enthusiasm for the date though, and both alums had big smiles on their faces when they saw the lunch set up. 

Going steady for 50+ years

The Zisows reminisce fondly on UMBC, not just for allowing them to meet, but because of how formative their time here was. “This is an old story,” says David. “When you’re the son of immigrants, you’re kind of an outsider. You’re raised differently. You have different attitudes. When I came to UMBC, I found a group of people that were completely accepting. So in the theater group, I was the med-school nerd. But that was okay.”

For Marcie, UMBC left her with lifelong friendships, but also with a career she couldn’t have imagined. When she started college, she wanted to be a hairdresser, but her father strongly encouraged her to apply for a teaching scholarship that would require two years of teaching following graduation. “I didn’t want to be a teacher because my sister was a teacher, but then it turned out that I loved it. I taught for over 20 years,” she says. Eventually Marcie returned to UMBC to earn her master’s in 1984. 

Seated at a booth in the dining hall, enjoying chicken Caesar salads while Zooming with their two children who couldn’t make the in-person event, the Zisows are feeling pretty lucky. “We just took a chance,” says David. “I just knew from that moment that she was the girl for me. And then a couple weeks later I asked her to go steady, and the rest is history, as they say.”

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All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11, unless otherwise noted.

Most students come to college armed with the essential adult knowledge—make a dentist appointment every six months, don’t lose your social security card, and never wash a red sock with your whites. But Tim Dunn, UMBC’s executive chef, and Adam Sachs, UMBC’s dietitian, think we can do a little bit better. Enter: UMBC’s new Teaching Kitchen. 

“Most students don’t have great cooking skills, so we want to help them out and teach them about how to construct a meal,” says Dunn. 

As part of a required Chartwells higher education initiative, UMBC spent the summer of 2019 making updates to True Grit’s Dining Hall to incorporate a Teaching Kitchen. Equipped with cameras and screens, the new addition aims to give students the skills they need to up their culinary game. Students are able to see the chef preparing meals in front of them, utilizing the screens to concentrate on the up-close action of chopping, dicing, and slicing. The scene is set with blazing lights and individual cooking stations so each student has the ability to put their own spin on the recipe. 

“The method of using TVs to show the students the cooking process in real time was really helpful. I found it way more effective than if we were just being given verbal directions,” says Johanna Alonso ’20, English, of her first Teaching Kitchen experience. “We were able to look at what the chefs were doing—like how they were cutting the onion and garlic—and imitate it.” 

The first meal students prepared at the inaugural Teaching Kitchen in September was chicken and lentil enchiladas. While the entree was fairly simple to create, students were able to produce a meal that both looked and felt more intensive. This was an introduction to lentils for some students, and the nutritional value and cooking process was a valuable kitchen skill. 

“We want to help students create meals that are easy to cook, but also well-rounded and full of nutrients,” explains Sachs. 

Easy to cook and nutritional value are definitely factors that Sachs and Dunn look at when deciding their menu for the Teaching Kitchens. But they also want to incorporate seasonal favorites and support local vendors. The October menu includes a pumpkin salsa, the designated campus superfood and a fall favorite. 

Sachs and Dunn both went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, so perhaps their close partnership was destined for success. 

“During the Teaching Kitchen, it’s a lot of going back and forth. I talk about what ingredients we’re using and what the nutritional benefits are, and Tim demonstrates prep techniques and the execution,” Sachs explains. “We are helping students in real time as things constantly change.” 

The duo doesn’t expect that students will show up ready to make their “Top Chef” appearance. To lay a proper foundation, they start with the basics—knife skills and technique. 

As the program grows, Sachs and Dunn hope to add cooking competitions, visits from professionals in the food industry, and integration with various campus organizations. Students who were part of the pioneer Teaching Kitchen walked away eager to put their newly learned skills to the test— and like any good UMBC student, they’re even prepared to share. 

“I’d definitely make these enchiladas for my roommates sometime. And really, I want to try to make some of the other recipes in the cookbook they gave us. I’m already looking forward to the next one,” says Alonso. 

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Sign up for the next Teaching Kitchen workshop on November 13. 

All images by Marlayna Demond ’11. 

With mouth-watering masalas, sushi, fried chicken, and other delicious dishes to be had in The Commons, True Grits dining hall, the UC and elsewhere on campus, what exactly do current Retrievers choose to eat when left to their own devices? UMBC Magazine intern Allison Cruz ’18 braved the lunch lines to find out.

Read more about UMBC’s high marks for dining here.

From UMBC Magazine Food Issue, Winter 2010. Video by Jenny O’Grady.