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Student feedback and Belgian chocolate truffles (made from scratch) are two main ingredients in the success of Wheaton College's food program, which ranked number one in Princeton Review's 2009 Best Campus Food list. Klaus Mandl, the General Manager of Food Services at Wheaton, previously worked at Boston's Ritz-Carlton hotel, and this week's menu reads like he still does. Main courses include lavender-infused pork chops with onion gravy and cumin-lime baked chicken with avocado cream sauce.
These gourmet dishes are created with input from "The Wheaton Cuisine Team," a group of students who gastronimically represent the student body. When it comes to the cafeteria, this kind of staff-student partnership is a growing trend. "Many of the schools [in the Best Campus Food list] have similar student-and-staff groups that are really nimble about answering students concerns, and many are using organic and locally grown food," says Robert Franek, author of Princeton Review's Best 368 Colleges 2009, where the Best Campus Food list appears.
Franek's list is based on student reviews and is being regarded as increasingly significant by students and staff. The New York Times recently reported, "As palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms." Here are the top 20 schools that made the cut for 2009...
BEST CAMPUS FOOD
(In the book, Princeton Review's Best 368 Colleges, 2009)
1. Wheaton College (IL), Wheaton, IL
2. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
3. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
4. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
5. James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
6. Colby College, Waterville, ME
7. Franklin W. Olin Col. of Engineering Needham, MA
8. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
9. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
10. Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN
11. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
12. University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
13. Scripps College, Claremont, CA
14. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
15. Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
16. Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
17. Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH
18. College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME
19. Bates College, Lewiston, ME
20. University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Worried about the Freshman 15? Check out these tips.
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