If there’s one thing the NYTimes loves to do, it’s chronicle the fascinating lives of the young, smart and privileged: Ivy League students.  The Times has documented naked parties at Brown University, and porn and chicken clubs at Yale, among many others).

Yesterday’s story, “In a Yale Dining Hall, Independent Study at the Microwave,” follows that trend.  The article reports:

“AS students streamed into a towering Gothic dining hall at Yale University last week, appraising the plats du jour on a cafeteria buffet, one of their classmates was concocting his own sauce from peanut butter and a dark liquid.

“You have to be careful with the sesame oil,” cautioned the student, Zach Marks, a self-described dining hall gastronome. “Too much of this and the texture gets watery.”

The article goes on to detail the creative methods Marks’ uses to create his culinary concoctions using dining hall fare, and Yale’s well-stocked salad and condiments bars.  

If it isn’t already apparent from my snarky tone, I was irritated that this “dining hall gastronome” was given so much coverage in the Times.  He’s already eating in one of the country’s best college dining halls (Yale’s dining facilities recently joined the ranks colleges focusing on gourmet and locally grown food.)  So what if the kid can cook?  So what if somehow finds the freetime between classes, soccer practice and Anna Karenina rehearsals to concoct thai basil sauce and chicken satay?  Why is that newsworthy?

But although part of me will always be slightly annoyed that the Times devotes so many articles to the crazy hijinx of America’s student elite, I actually think this particular story has more universal implications. 

The article continues, “His message may find a national following. He said he had been approached by a publisher to write a students’ guide to dining hall food.” 

Indeed, the most interesting thing about Marks is not any particular culinary creation, but his insistence that students can make “home cooked” meals if they a. familiarize themselves with a few basic cooking techniques and b. embrace ingredient improvisation - a lesson all novice cooks should learn.  He also encourages students to build relationships with the dining staff, which may be for self-serving ends (i.e. they can provide him with things not stocked in the salad bar), but still breaks down the privilege barrier between staff and student found too often in American universities.   

Marks may or may not be a true culinary talent, but if he empowers others to become more comfortable and creative in the “kitchen,” then he’s worthy of those 1,000 words in the New York Times.