Dinner to please the palate of Stevie Wonder or James Gandolfini? A tailgate party for celebrity chef Mario Batali and guests? A vegetarian menu suitable for the Dalai Lama and 1,000 of his followers?

It’s all in a day’s work for Rutgers University Catering Services, whose chefs, managers, and waitstaff are the culinary masters behind 5,000 events every year, from morning coffee deliveries to black-tie galas, from Rutgers Board of Trustees meetings to customized alumni wedding receptions.

“We just catered a wonderful dinner for Rutgers Preparatory School which was very, very well-received,” said Susan DiMaio, manager of Central Catering and a 30-year veteran of the food-service industry, including 10 years with the Rutgers Catering operation.

“We offered panko shrimp with pineapple marmalade over coconut rice, filet mignon-saltimbocca skewers with fresh mozzarella and baby spinach over potato gnocchi, and polenta and porcini vol-au-vent with Gorgonzola cream,” she said, the names of the courses tripping off her tongue as smoothly as the finest béchamel sauce.

Rutgers Catering is a component of Rutgers Dining Services, one of the largest student dining operations in the country, said Charles P. Sams Jr., Dining Services executive director. “Our catering operation may not be the biggest, but it is certainly one of the biggest, probably in the upper 80th percentile,” Sams said, noting that the self-sustaining catering unit helps control student costs by serving as an additional revenue stream for the university.

The Rutgers Catering offices are located in Brower Commons on College Avenue in New Brunswick, with a satellite office on the Cook/Douglass Campus, located in Neilson Dining Hall. DiMaio and assistant catering managers Ken Budrow, Heather Scarola, and Jenny Gehrmann, and Chef Sebastian Nieto, oversee a staff of 45, about one quarter of them Rutgers students.

“At this point in the year, most of catering revolves around football; on game days, the amount of catering we execute is enormous,” Budrow said. The monthly Treasurer’s Luncheon, designed and managed by Heather Scarola, showcases new menu items in a theme-decorated Rectangle Room in Neilson Dining Hall – all for what DiMaio describes as “the incredible cost of eight dollars.”

September and October find the caterers working behind the scenes at resident-life events such as welcome barbecues, housing get-togethers, and stadium parties. November and December feature holiday parties and end-of-semester gatherings.

“Once we begin each new year, the actual business of the university takes prominence – visiting speakers, guest lecturers, awards dinners, scholarship luncheons,” Budrow said. “Toward May, when we start to get to the end of the school year, departments wind down and commencement looms.”

There’s no summer break for these professionals. Even as temperatures soar, they’re concocting menus for the Sum School of Alcohol Studies or Rutgers Career Services, as well as wedding receptions

The challenge for DiMaio is to develop menus and design events that delight repeat guests from the Rutgers community, including University President Richard L. McCormick.

“I’m always looking for innovative presentations and recipes, ways to keep things bright and new and fresh,” said DiMaio, who attends catering conferences, shares tips with dining-services chefs, and trolls cookbooks and online food sites such as epicurean.com – all part of her efforts to keep current with industry trends.

“I’m a strong proponent of a less structured event,” the caterer said. “I feel eating is a social occasion, so I like to set up vignettes, offering a variety of foods often representing ethnic flavors, as well as familiar comfort foods. This creates an opportunity for conversation and networking.”

Signature sandwiches listed on the department’s website hint at the chefs’ breadth: a combination of smoked ham, roasted asparagus, and fontina on a ciabatta roll is as popular as pastrami with coleslaw, Swiss, and Russian dressing on pumpernickel.

“Rutgers Dining Services has the greatest chefs – I can throw any number of diverse menu items at them and they’ll produce,” DiMaio said of the 15 dedicated men and women who prepare the meals.

 Rutgers Catering’s newest appetizer is not food but information: Ashley Lavelle, event coordinator, has launched a Twitter site designed to keep students, faculty, and staff clued in to what the department has to offer.

The social-networking site – www.twitter.com\rutgerscatering  – combines fun facts (“Swiss Steak, Chop Suey and Russian Salad Dressing all originated in the United States.”) with promotional information (“The spaces upstairs of Brower Dining Hall have been recently renovated and are now available to host events. Come take a look!”).

In coming months, Lavelle hopes to generate excitement by broadcasting specialty menus and new venues to whet the university’s communal appetite.

Also on tap is a monthly catering newsletter, CaterBuzz, featuring such articles as “Party Crashers & Paparazzi,” which shares post-event feedback and photos, and “What’s Cookin’,” a monthly recipe developed by the department’s chefs.