Louis Cholden-Brown cooking in his dorm at Columbia University in New York. AP
　　ONCE upon a time, eating in an American college dorm meant soup in a hotpot or getting pizza delivered. The most interesting thing about the campusdining hall was often the salad bar.
　　No more. These days, US college students have refined tastes and a growing interest in preparing their own food. Mini-refrigerators and microwaves in dorm rooms are as essentialas laptops.
　　"The cooking awarenessof college students is increasing," said Tom Post, president of campus dining for Sodexo, a major food service company. "Students today grew up watching celebrity chefs on TV, eating organic food and valuing good nutrition."
　　In response, cafeteria menus have changed. Sodexo’s top campus foods for 2009 include Vietnamese noodle soup, goat cheese salad, and Mexican chicken. But colleges are also catering to student demands for more flexible and personalized dining options.
　　Chartwells, the company that prepares food for dining halls at Ohio Wesleyan University in the state of Ohio, offers microwaveable meals that students can take away, as well as a program where students can have food individually prepared. Or they can even do their own cooking.
　　This fall, Sarah Lawrence College in New York will offer students on its meal plan a chance to pick up groceries in the cafeteria as an alternativeto a cooked meal.
　　"Students want things that are easy to make, things that don’t take long and will still taste good," said Rachel Holcomb, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst student who updated recipes for the new edition of The Healthy College Cookbook.
　　Angelo Berti, a chefat the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, teaches cooking in dorm kitchens. But Berti says he’s not just teaching recipes. He’s encouraging students to use dining together as a way to socialize and as a means of self-expression. "The meal is your canvas," Berti said. "You paint what you want."
　　That’s why at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, students produce a cooking show filmed in a dorm called "Everyday Gourmet". One episode was "Date Night Cooking: A 3-Course meal for under $20," featuring grilled chicken stuffed with goat cheese and basil.
　　BONUS
　　关于"食堂"美国大概有以下两种说法，它们在功能上有细微的区别：
　　Dining hall: generally refers to a cafeteria on a college campus, often attached to a dormitory, with the size and food being offered varying, sometimes widely, depending on the size of the school. They generally offer options such as salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas, burgers, pasta, breakfast cereal, and hot meals (such as roast beef, chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables), fruits and desserts. Dining halls also stock different kinds of drinks such as water, tea, coffee, milk, juices, and sodas.
　　Food court: Larger universities may have a dining hall that looks more like the food courts you see at malls. These food courts have different stations offering different kinds of things like submarine sandwiches, vegan food, Mexican, Indian, Chinese or Thai food, or sushi. Each station will have its own staff who might prepare the food in front of you.