If you were to accept the movie “PCU” as fact, you’d think the average student’s diet consists of beer, Easy Mac and more beer, with the occasional Cup-o-Noodles thrown in. There are many who crave something more, however, those who aren’t satisfied with the greasy but oh-so-tasty grilled cheese sandwiches from MoCon. Despite their jam-packed schedules, many students have mastered the art of quick and easy cooking.

Halim Rizk ’08, who lives on Washington Street, considers his cooking more resourceful than the stereotypical college cuisine. He loves to bake, usually for friends’ birthdays. He has baked red velvet and German marble chocolate cakes.

“I can sauté and crème brûlée as well,” said Rizk.

It seems that while many students wouldn’t be able to make salad if their lives depended on it, there are many others who are experienced enough to prepare full meals. For example, Zach Fried ’08, who lives in Eclectic, has made tortellini with pesto sauce in the building’s “super nice” kitchen.

Students’ low opinions of MoCon and other on-campus dining facilities often lead to gastronomic experimentation.

“I like to cook meat at home because most of the meat at campus dining [facilities] sucks,” said Lucas Carrico ’08, of Eclectic.

“I just wish my meal plan wasn’t all meals because then I would cook more,” said Ted Feldman ’09, who has made quesadillas for his friends in the WestCo kitchen.

Many students are frustrated with the poor quality or complete lack of kitchens in their dorms. The Foss Hill dorms, which are to be renovated next summer, have smaller kitchens than the new Fauver dorms. Many complain that WestCo’s kitchen, while useable, is far too small and hot. In Nicolson the kitchen consists of a microwave whose time display no longer works, a sink and several cabinets. On a recent tour of the kitchen, all that could be found was a steak knife and a moldy sponge.

The Butts do not have kitchens either, to the dismay of many.

“If I had a kitchen, I would automatically gain 900 pounds and rub lard on my face with glee,” says Lesley Chapman ’09, who lives in Butt B and likes to bake scones.

However, even those people who do not have kitchens have found ways to cook. Sonia Balram ’07 lives in Hewitt 9, a dorm without a kitchen. Luckily she has friends living in senior houses and more modern dorms. She has cooked chicken wings, lemon pepper chicken, herb-roasted potatoes, vegetables, and rice and has baked several cakes.

“[It’s an] inconvenience to have to go other places to cook,” she said. “If I had access to a kitchen, I’d cook all the time.”

Fauver residents have their own challenges when they want to cook, namely the popularity of these up-to-date kitchens. Shar-dé Ricketts ’07, an RA in the Fauver freshman dorm, found that a crowded kitchen made even spaghetti a tedious dish to make.

“I like the fact that we have food other than campus food, but it’s annoying to share a kitchen with 160 other people,” Ricketts said.

Ricketts added that she prefers to cook food such as chicken molé (chicken with a Mexican-style chocolate sauce) and tacos at LoRise, where her friends live.

For those who don’t have access to a kitchen or enough points to buy ingredients at Weshop, MoCon is, after all, home to Connecticut’s second largest salad bar. And for those who can’t wean themselves off of Ramen and Easy Mac, there’s always late-night Summerfields.