The Dining Influencer

From oxtail and ackee in Jamaica to Thanksgiving dinner in the New Vassar dining hall, Michaela Brown loves telling stories about food and friends. 

Last fall, Campus Dining recruited a group of students to make short videos and share their experiences as student diners on Instagram. The Dining Ambassadors program is an effort to get students talking about—and helping to improve—MIT’s food services and systems. One of the inaugural ambassadors, Michaela Brown, a biochemical engineering major from Kingston, Jamaica, sat down with us to discuss what she’s learning on her new job, how she has adapted to dining-hall life, and her mom’s cooking.

Q: How did you get involved in the Dining Ambassadors program? 

A: Last October, my friend got a job. So I was like—I need to get a job. When I read the description, I said, wait, this involves food, and talking to people, and posting on Instagram? That’s literally what I do every day. 

And I wanted to do my part. The ambassadors program has clear goals. They want to encourage students to use the dining halls, and they want us to find genuine issues MIT can work on. I wanted to be a part of that. The food at MIT is ok, but everything can be better. And you can’t make things better in any circumstance without trying.

Plus—getting paid to eat food and talk? That is good money.

Q: What did you eat growing up? 

A: I love Jamaican food. On Sunday, we do a big dinner. (Well, my mom would do a big dinner; sometimes I would wash the vegetables.) She would cook rice, peas, and vegetables with a sauce, and either fried chicken with sauce or stewed chicken. We would eat that food on Sunday, and then maybe Monday, too. We call it “Sunday-Monday” in Jamaica. 

During the week, we eat flour dumplings, boiled green bananas, and lots of plantains. Sometimes, when my mom is on a health kick, she will boil everything, but plantains are so much better when you fry them! Often, she will serve that with ackee. That’s our national food. And she will cook saltfish or mackerel mixed with coconut milk. She also makes things like corned beef or tuna. On Fridays, we usually go out. 

For special occasions, sometimes we do pork or oxtail. Or sometimes we have escovitch fish; I think you fry it and you steam it. And then we have sides like dumpling, or banana, or bami, which is fried flour. And usually we eat these with okra and pickled onions, and add a little spice with Scotch bonnet pepper. 

And curry chicken! If I am home and I smell the curry, I get so happy. I genuinely feel better about myself. If you’re buying food from a vendor, like fried chicken and rice, you would ask for curry gravy because it is very essential in Jamaican culture. 

Q: What was your first project for the ambassadors program?

A: I did a video about Thanksgiving. I was excited because it would be my first American Thanksgiving. As a kid in Jamaica, I saw it on TV. I watched Nickelodeon. Also, we learned about it in school. But we didn’t do Thanksgiving in Jamaica. So I was excited.

In the video, I was trying to cater to students who don’t normally celebrate Thanksgiving and show them the experience from a fresh perspective. I brought my friends with me and we all ate together. And luckily everyone thought the food was good. I really wanted to show the food—the mashed potatoes, the turkey, the jelly, the ham, all those things—because I think New Vassar did it really well. I wanted to show that. 

There are a lot of international students at MIT. I didn’t know what MIT was like until I got here. I wanted to show that I came here and liked it. Even while I was missing home, I was being introduced to other cultures—like the one in America—and MIT was helping me appreciate it through food.

Also, I wanted to show the community—being with my friends, giving thanks for the people around me. I really enjoyed that and I thought it went well. My mom loved it.

Q: What have you done since then? 

A: Usually, I just try to take pictures when I’m in a dining hall and post them on Instagram. You know—regular life.

The other major thing was the global Olympics. Each day over two weeks, they had a special theme at each of the dining halls—Latin American at New Vassar, East Asian at Simmons, African at McCormick, European at Next House, Indian at Massey, and North American and Caribbean at Baker. 

My favorite was Baker, because, well, I’m a little biased. And also, I love the burgers at Baker. 
I told my friends they had to come. A lot of the cooking staff in Baker are Haitian. They would know how food from Haiti and Jamaica should taste. I knew they wouldn’t mess it up. 

I interviewed a lot of students, including two Haitians and one of my Jamaican friends. I asked about the food, about how it compared to regular dining hall meals. They were really positive. I think they liked the change. 

Q: Do you like to cook? 

A: Not really. The summer before I came here, I was like, okay, I’m gonna learn something. 
And then I proceeded to spend the summer out with my friends and volunteering. So I wasn’t really in the kitchen. My mom would call me to come help her, and when I stepped in the kitchen it was so hot! I was like, I can’t do this, and I went back to my room. 

So I’m not really a cook, even though I live in Burton-Connor. It’s a cook-for-yourself dorm, so it doesn’t have a dining hall. A few weeks ago, I tried to do burritos. I got the beef and the seasoning. It was actually really good! I’m looking forward to it again. It’s just really hard to find the time. 


Q: When you’re posting, who do you imagine is looking at it? 

A: My friends. And my mom. Honestly, I just try to make sure you can understand what I’m saying because sometimes my Jamaican patois comes out, and I talk too fast. I also think about how the people I’m interviewing want to be seen, because this is not their job. They don’t have to be on camera or help me. I try to make the experience as fun as possible for them. 

Q: What have you learned doing this work?

A: Walking up to strangers and getting their permission to record them is really new to me. I have learned so much about people. The other day I was looking at a job application and it asked, are you comfortable talking to other people and being social? This job has prepared me for all that so well. 

It also prepared me for dealing with people who might not be open to talking. I have learned to be okay with that, just walking away and handling it well. This is a skillset that I have now, and I look forward to working more and doing more interviews. I feel like, you know, a YouTuber!

Q: What dining stories do you want to tell next? 

A: I’m not sure. Dining is different for different people. For me personally, sometimes eating is a time to get together with other people. But sometimes I go to the dining hall by myself. It’s very much a time for me to decompress. Sometimes I don’t even want anyone to sit with me. I’m just trying to be with myself, watch my show, or do the learning sequence I have due at 11 o’clock. Or I just watch my TikToks. 

Maybe I’ll do a day-in-my-life dining story next, and go for breakfast at a dining hall. I would have to wake up earlier, but I would do it.