My parents have bestowed many wonderful qualities to me that I am truly grateful for. However, a growing intolerance for lactose products is one I would have liked to reject, given the choice. It is quickly becoming one of the greatest tragedies of my life. What woman out there doesn't like to curl up on the couch on a rainy afternoon with a sad movie and a bowl of Chunky Monkey? Steel Magnolias will never be the same... - Stephanie Weaver, House Dean, Hill College House

YUM! -Elise Bruhl and Michael Gamer, Faculty Fellow, Rodin College House

I grew up in Los Angeles, hence my love of the shadowy world of film noir. Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood is so noir it was even frequented by Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. It's expensive and, honestly, the food isn't so great ­ but sitting in a cool, dark wood booth, chomping on a porterhouse steak, I felt like I was really something! -David Fox, Director of New Student Orientation and the Penn Reading Project

Walking into our kitchen was always the highlight of my day growing up. I was always greeted with the sight of my grandmother working over the stove. Even more vivid to me are the smells: garlic, tomato, olive oil, freshly grated cheese. I catch a whiff of these scents now and I'm instantly transported back to that kitchen and the delights that it held. - Michael DeAngelis, Arts & Culture Events Coordinator, CHAS

Variety is the spice of life. Dipping sauces now determine whether I enjoy my meals. Even just eating pizza, I find myself trying to dip it into hot sauce, BBQ sauce, or whatever sweet and zesty concoction I can find. Did this start from my days working at McDonalds? - Troy Majnerick, New Student Orientation Coordinator

My mother, a culinary connoisseur, insisted her two inner city children would learn to have discerning palates. While other children were eating Spaghetti O's, my brother and I were dining on escargot and veal piccata with salad as the final course. Needless to say, none of my friends ever begged to stay for dinner. - Pamela Robinson, Associate Director, CHAS

I quit eating meat 17 years ago, as a teenager in South Carolina. Still, whenever I visit South Carolina I order a steaming bowl of shrimp and grits; it is probably the most enjoyable meal I ever eat. Somehow this ritual keeps me in touch with who I am and where I come from. - Nathan Smith, House Dean, Ware College House

A summer evening, the game has ended. I am speeding home on my bike, baseball glove and bat flying in the breeze. I think of the strawberry shortcake that is waiting: home-made cream of tartar biscuit, fresh strawberries directly from our garden and a great dollop of whipped cream. Could life be better than that? - Andrew Binns, Associate Provost

"Indian Summer" in Oregon was my mother's signal to pile her 5 kids into the Chevy to go blackberry picking. Armed with as many plastic bowls, cups, and containers as we could find, we'd spend the afternoon driving from blackberry patch to roadside blackberry patch, filling the back of the station wagon with juicy berries. I didn't even notice the hard work, scratched skin, and hopelessly stained purple hands because it meant I'd spend the coming days with my mom baking, pressing, boiling and mixing berries to produce a steady stream of warm blackberry pie, and our year's supply of mom's blackberry jam. - Kathy Howard, Faculty Fellow, Hill College House

The gauntlet for me was to duck that pesky wasp that always entered the opened windows of the little country churches in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas that were predictably intensely hot in the summer months. I loved the singing, my father's dynamic preaching, and lived for all of the good food that was packed in the trunks of the cars parked under Weeping Willow trees out in the church yard. How those church ladies kept potato salad from going bad in that heat I will never know, but the wasp was soon forgotten at the benediction as I and the other kids ran out of the church and tumbled in one thunderous movement down the wooden steps to the delights of good southern soul food stocked high and orderly in the trunks of Chevrolet and Ford sedans! - Will Gipson, Faculty Master, W.E.B. DuBois College House

I can't stand the thought of eating liver. Moreover, the smell of liver cooking in the kitchen makes me nauseous. All throughout high school, I always knew when my family was going to have liver for dinner. I would wake up in the morning to find a $5 bill on my dresser. The money paid for my dinner at McDonalds! - Ken Grcich, House Dean, Rodin College HOuse

Fresh, southern Italian, buffalo mozzarella; not from any latteria but the right one. Glistening, round, full; gentle but resisting the fork and knife; creamy, salty, smooth. The sun reflecting off your hands and left cheek; the breeze from the open door to the balcony. Satis. - - Kent Bream, Faculty Fellow, Harnwell College House

Working at my family's furniture store growing up, I used to walk over on my breaks to White Lightnin', the gas station in the parking lot. My ideal snack: a self-serve soft-serve chocolate and vanilla twist cone and an IBC Root Beer. - Heather Love, Faculty Fellow, Gregory College House

Most people like to EAT food, but I actually like to PREPARE it, especially the big family dinners such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. And no matter how my kids complain about how the aromas are driving them crazy and that I am too slow I am in the kitchen, I take my time and in the end, they all agree the meal was well worth waiting for. I like to cook big family dinners because they help me to commune with my mother. I prepare most of our traditional meals the same way she taught me to do as the oldest girl in a family of 7 and I feel as if she's looking over my shoulder, nodding in approval. With her as my Muse, while cooking I've created some of my favorite poetry and short stories. - Patricia Williams, House Dean, W.E.B. DuBois College House

I'm certainly in the category of readers Pollan dismisses at the end of his prologue; I'm not wrapped up in "the pleasures of eating," to put it mildly. In fact, my culinary tastes are so basic that I'm often a source of bafflement to others, particularly the many "foodies," staff and students alike, in Gregory. My rotation of meals is limited to four or five ridiculously unhealthy items, from the same four or five places, and I've no appetite for anything else. If I walk into Izzy and Zoe's, or Won's, or, yes, our local Dunkin Donuts, I don't even have to speak; they already know what I'm going to order. Take to me to one of Philly's world-renowned restaurants, on the other hand, and I probably can't find anything on the menu I'm willing to eat. Talid Sinno, who runs our House dining club, has a pet theory that I'm a "supertaster." But that's just a epicurean struggling to rationalize how someone could be happier eating at Philly Diner than Vetri. - Christopher Donovan, House Dean, Gregory College House

I'm a New York City girl at heart so there are three things I'm a snob about - bagels, pizza, and hot pretzels. As much as I love my adopted city of Philadelphia, I still contend that there is no beating a trip to NYC for any of these three things. You can take the Chinatown bus up there for a quick taste test and then we can argue about it when you get back! - Michele Grab, House Dean, Stouffer College House

When I travel, I never know what I will get for breakfast. Noodles, eggs, soups, slabs of meat, fish, beans, dahl, fruit, insects, pastries, bread, spicy, bland, filling, sparse, healthy, artery-blowing - around the world breakfast seems to be the most varied meal and that most likely to surprise. - Phil Nichols, Faculty Master, Stouffer College House

My parents divorced when I was very young. I ate a ton of pasta growing up, and both my mom and my dad had very unique tomato sauce that they each made. I enjoyed both of them a great deal, but when I came to college and finally had my own kitchen, I tweaked both of their recipes and created a fusion sauce of my own. - Corey Hulse, NSO Student Coordinator

As a whole I find food to be my first love. The better the food, the happier I am. I consider myself a connoisseur of sorts, and food is one of the key reasons I train so rigorously. I can eat and eat and eat and when I am finished...eat some more. - Alex Kalish, Class of 2011

Food is undeniably good, but I HATE when people tell me to eat. This is especially directed to well-meaning, but very annoying friends and relatives. My thinness does not indicate that I am somehow incapable of eating when I want to. - Helin Shiah, Class of 2011

I became a vegetarian the year that I heard "Meat is Murder" (check it out if you've never heard it) by the Smiths and read "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer--I was 17. Michael Pollan's discussion of "Animal Liberation" doesn't do it justice. - Nick Okrent, VanPelt Library

I eat chicken, steak, egg whites, and complex carbohydrates(gluten free), however, my downfall is a trip to the greatest burger establishment in the world, White Manna. If you're from North Jersey you should know exactly what I am talking about. - Adam J. Triglia, Class of 2011

I'm kind of a vegetarian but not really.I don't eat mammals. probably the best response I've ever heard to that was when I was talking to one of my friends about it, and he didn't understand why I could still eat chicken. - Elena Vespoli, Class of 2011

I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian when I was in 9th grade. One year later, I decided to start eating some seafood and that has been working out for me for the last three years. To be honest, I just could not stand eating animals. I felt super guilty every single time I ate a steak or a hamburger...I know I eat some animals but...I plan to stop eating seafood sometime soon. I cant live without beans, cheese, broccoli, and chocolate milk. - Maria L. Conde, Class of 2011

I've been a vegetarian my whole life. My parents raised me that way, I don't believe in killing animals just b/c I like the way they taste, but if I hadn't been raised as one, I prob don't care enough to have become one on my own. I used to eat seafood till I was like 10 then decided to give it up because I can. I'm not to up on the different classifications so I can't give you the specific name, but I do eat milk and eggs, just no seafood, poultry or meat. - Doug Holin, Class of 2011

I'm a sucker for southern comfort food. Mashed potatoes, fried chicken (well, basically anything fried), veggies cooked so long that they're practically mush. Mmmmmm. I respect vegetarians though. I tried it once, but I just can't resist a good cheeseburger. - Rachel Romeo, Class of 2011

I love pizza, but not normal pizza. Cheese and tomato sauce on some dough just isn't interesting enough for me. It has to be some strange concoction of a pizza. Recently I had nacho pizza. It could not have been better. I can't remember everything on it, but it was amazing. Or the Chicken Ranch pizza, amazing. - Antonio Vergara, Class of 2011