David has posted about a Wall Street Journal article about food at universities.

Interestingly enough, said article quotes somebody from Rice University saying they have spent $31M to build two megakitchens and five dining halls. I thought readers might like to know what Rice food was like when I was there.

There was this entity called "Central Kitchen" whicih many of us called "Central Central Kitchen", after the evil venue from Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time. Food was cooked there, usually in August sometime. It was then put into food service trucks and taken to the residential colleges, where it would sit in a warming tray all day until it was needed. This food was seriously awful, but one night out of the year each residential college had "College Night" where the food service people came to your college and made you a nice dinner right in the college kitchen.

What an intriguing concept: Food cooked and served in the vicinity of those who are going to eat it. The person who ran this atrocity was named "Joyce Rubash" and she quickly became known as Choice Rubbish. In spite of its name, people did not attend Rice because of its food.

I am fortunate to be associated with Liggett (Floor 3) as a faculty associate, and I get to dine with the floor every Monday night at Center Court (which nobody has yet called Central Central Court as far as I know). The food there is just a shade above excellent.