Colleges pass a dining test

Moms, the next time your children complain about college food, take it as a compliment. Based on a survey of more than 150 students at eight Ivy League schools, students who rated the dining hall food as poor rated their moms’ cooking as great.

Conversely, those who rated mom’s cooking as poor thought the food at school was great. This means that students whose mothers are accomplished cooks probably hate the food, and those with cooking-challenged moms love it.

Whitney Baxter, a sophomore at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., perfectly illustrates this idea. “Harvard’s food is good, but my mom’s cooking is great, so I’m a spoiled consumer,” she said.

However, college food is changing to include healthier made-to-order foods, as well as foods that reflect social consciousness, as young people and their appetites become more sophisticated. New dining concepts, such as themed stations, are presented in open-kitchen dining halls. Yet old issues, which include getting the young to eat breakfast, still require attention.

Most students don’t eat breakfast. More than 90 percent surveyed said they don’t consume anything except coffee before 11:30 a.m. Delmar Crim, dining director at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., has noticed the trend, too. “One large dining hall will serve a maximum of 300 breakfasts on a given day but over 1,700 dinners.” The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, serves about 300 breakfasts to its more than 6,000 students.

College dining directors, including Stu Orefice of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., tries to entice students to breakfast with tempting dishes. “We have stations where chefs will prepare eggs, any style, to order. Egg white omelets, too. We make waffles to order every day.”

Cold cereal remains a child’s favorite, but college students aren’t necessarily eating it for breakfast.

Cereal is a late-night snack for many students, and most schools, including the University at Pennsylvania, offer open-all-day cereal bars. Such stations serve a selection of cold cereals with a choice of whole, skim, soy, chocolate or strawberry milk.

Ivy League students chow down on meals with vegan and vegetarian options, kosher menus and ethnic foods.

Executive chef Chris Ince at New York City’s Columbia University is pleased by the college trend toward ethnic fare. “I grew up in England, where curry was popular. Now one of our most popular dining stations is the curry table, where we’ve added other Indian favorites like samosa and tandoori.”

According to the students surveyed, some favorite lunch foods at Princeton include the Fire Bowl, a station where ingredients are stir-fried to order, and Endless Pastabilities, a mix-your-own pasta station. Princeton’s Healthy Eating Lab, which features a sushi bar, salads and specialty teas, is also a hit.

Popular at Yale is the locally grown, seasonal and organic Sustainable Food Project menu, which includes such items as hand-stretched Buffalo chicken pizza and grass-fed burgers. Pizza is popular at Cornell, where it’s made with nutritious bread dough containing a high percentage of soy and molasses.

The Sizzling Salad, a cooked-to-order sirloin or chicken entree that is served as a topper for select-your-own salad ingredients is also popular.

Most Harvard students surveyed agreed that whether it’s broiled, Parmesan-style or stir-fried, chicken rules.

Made-to-order food is also a trend at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. As at other schools, the stir-fry station, where ingredients and sauces are mixed to order, is a favorite.

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