Trinity College, Cambridge: Food Hell?

[Dukeofyork]

Hello all, this is my first real query to eGullet (save a paranoid post about botulism ).

I'm about to leave Toronto, a wonderfully cosmopolitan city when it comes to food, and where I cook for myself, to attend Trinity College, Cambridge. I'm anxious about many things ... one comparatively minor issue is, as you guess, food.

When I started at the University of Toronto four years ago, the food was so terrible that I lost 10% of my bodyweight in first year. I promptly moved out of residence into an apartment, and found that I would much rather cook for myself than eat mealhall food. I'm worried that the same thing will happen when I go over to Cambridge in a few weeks... and I can't afford to lose another 10%!

Does anyone know about the quality of food in Hall at Trinity, or more generally in the colleges at Cambridge?

[racheld]

I have no answers, but I do envy your sojourn into those halls of tradition and honor. Best wishes for a wonderful term.

rachel

[racheld]

And since all our children are now out of college, I could send you an occasional care package. We're known for our super brownies and KILLER cookies.

just a thought.

[Jon Tseng]

Given Trinity is rich as croesus you should be fine (unless of course you mean Trinity Hall, which is an entirely different proposition...)

Ask Jackel10 for more goss. Think hes at Emma

ta

J

[jackal10]

Yes, I'm at Emma. The food there is much better than Trinity.

When on song, and for set piece occasions such as formal dinners the food can be wonderful, as a good as any grand hotel in the world, in the old country house tradition - 7 course feasts, for example. Everyday its reasonable mass catering, usually heavy on chips (fries) and carbohydrates, but certainly edible.

Trinity has the odd tradition in the fellows Parlour that the port only goes round the table twice - to the left of course. Abstemious fellows.

No you won't starve.

The every day food at Trinity is average institutional, but the wines are magnificent. The cellar is one of the best in Cambridge, and Dr Perry is a wise and informed wine steward. That reminds me, he was getting me some Zind Humbrecht Gerwurz Heimbourg VT 2002 - I must see if its arrived.

You can also cook for yourself - Sainsbury supermarket and the stall holders in the Market are close by, and there is a farmers market on Sundays. London is only an hour away, for the restaurants there.

Trinity May Ball is famous, as are the feasts. Trinity bar is OK.

Cambridge, as might be expected has many cheap restaurants and pubs catering for students, and one or two upmarket ones, including Midsummer House, now 2* Michelin.

What are you studying? I guess its postgrad. PM me, and I'd be happy to show you around.

[Carlovski]

looks like Trinity is quite with the times and publishes it's menus online

See Here

Sounds a lot better than the food was at Durham. That really was low level institutional stuff (I started a thread on that somewhere...)

Looking at the BA society pages I saw this too

On alternate Sundays at 12 p.m., the BA Committee organises a brunch in the BA rooms. Croissants, baguettes, bagels, cold meats, cheese, fruit, yoghurt etc. are served. The brunches are subsidised and cost only £1 per person. For environmental reasons, we ask you to bring your own mug, plate and cutlery. There's no need to book - just show up.

That could help keep you going.

Or bring over a few bottle of ice wine and trade them for dinner round at Jackal10's place!

[Dukeofyork]

I had seen the menus before, and they are indeed impressive for 'Hall' food ... nice to know that the execution isn't horrible, either.

[adt]

You'll doubtless end up wanting to escape hall food now and again (don't know about Trinity, but Emma's aforementioned everyday catering, including the daily 'formal hall' dinners, can leave something to be desired). If so, I'd recommend Limoncello on Mill Road for some ingredients. There's also an okish organic shop (Arjuna) and various oriental supermarkets on Mill Road.

The cooking facilities in college are likely to be somewhat wanting, but there's plenty at Limoncello that doesn't need heating.

Should Dr Perry's reserves prove inaccesible, Veritas on Cherry Hinton Road is an excellent wine merchant.

[Fengyi]

You'll doubtless end up wanting to escape hall food now and again (don't know about Trinity, but Emma's aforementioned everyday catering, including the daily 'formal hall' dinners, can leave something to be desired).

All the Trinity Formal Halls I've been to have been uniformly pretty awful (even compared with other colleges....the only one I've been to that beats it for 'badness' is Caius), except for the in-college made ice-cream, which is actually edible.

If you're joining as a post-graduate (i.e. graduate / MCR member/ BA society member), the BA dinners aren't that much better than regular Formal Hall....and the wine provided is TRULY terrible. Really bad. Really, really bad. Dr. Perry is wonderfully knowledgeable about wine and Trinity has some awsome cellars...but you won't get to those wines!

Trinity also charge corkage for wines brought in from the outside (a couple of pounds) too

Trinity ordinary (i.e. Buttery) food is also pretty disappointing...at least judging by the number of Trinity graduates who come around for supper at my house!!!

However, if you can get a nice Trinity flat with a decent kitchen (yes, they DO exist...) Cambridge has some wonderful sources for fresh food as people have pointed out above.

Trinity is also one of those colleges (I think) that sometimes give you the choice of paying more for High Table Food - which is actually pretty good, as it goes!

For after dinner relaxing, Trinity has one of the poshest MCR/BA Soc (as they call it) rooms known to CU - very swish looking.....

If you want any advice, do PM me (having rowed for ages and been on my MCR committee, I had the dubious pleasure of 'Formal-Hall-Exchanging' over many colleges and have experienced those 'delights' all too well!!).

One bit of advice - if you're interested in doing the 'full-Cambridge' experience thingy, it helps to get some 'on-sale' black tie (i.e. tuxedo) when you get here or even before you arrive (I bought all my ballgowns in Canada on sale after graduation-season as it was SO much cheaper).

Some of the best meals you'll get here are the black-tie events held by various societies,etc (my own college has such dinners for the MCR community once a term)... and most of these require black tie. If you're here for a PhD, it's definitely worth looking out for a cheapy one to save the enormous price of rental! and the hassle when gravy is inevitably split on it!

Sorry to rabbit on so much in my first post, but just wanted to give you the 'heads-up'! HTH....

[JTo]

I've been involved in the BA society of Trinity over the past few years. How you find the hall food is a matter of preference, but I found it average to better-than-average (for institutional food). Other people's perceptions, as read above, seem to differ from mine, but then I have limited experience of their college's food for comparison. Much of what I say agrees with and elaborates on Jackal10's advice.

As a 1st year grad you'll be in central college accommodation (so shared kitchens, no comfy flats) unless you're in married digs. Cooking facilities will be a little limited- usually a small fridge to be shared, two hotplates, a microwave and if you're lucky an oven. You'll usually save money by cooking for yourself, and you'll eventually find some decent suppliers around town.

As for college food, the Feasts are excellent (4-5 course affairs, great old wines and port), but you'll only get one at Matriculation, unless you're on committee or a scholar. The fellows dine like that much more often, but forget about that for now. BA dinners (usually every friday in term) are good for what they cost. I contend that they are much better than the usual hall food, and although the wine is cheap house stuff, you end up with sherry, wine, port and three courses for about 6 quid once subsidised for members. This compares very favorably to many restaurants around town, where the same quality food will set you back many times as much (you do forgo choice, of course). Other "normal" formal halls are less outstanding, but are usually the preserve of undergrads, unless you're active in a drinking society or particularly keen on them.

Onto normal cafeteria food: it's institutional stuff of course, and when so many are catered for then details are less than perfect. Some veggies get a bit overcooked, many dishes reappear with monotony. If you're choosy, you'll cook for yourself most of the time like I did. But if you value convenience and reasonable prices, then the food is quite good (unless you're a vegetarian... then you have fewer options).

For many other colleges you'll need to know people inside to invite you in to dine, and anyway it's not much fun eating alone. The more involved you get in department and societies the more people you'll know who can invite you, and then you'll get a feel for the food elsewhere. From my experience I've seen far worse food than Trinity's, and some better stuff too. I won't go into details here.

Miscellanea: The ice cream is good and made in-house. The wine cellars are massive, but for the benefit the fellows, so enjoy what you get at feasts or befriend a fellow. BA brunches are cheap but nothing too gourmet- a good chance to catch up with fellow grads and try to stuff yourself for 1-2 quid.

Overall, you won't starve. The food is certainly edible if a little institutional, but that's what you get at such a large college. There are some good people involved in the college catering, and if you have special requirements they're usually happy to accommodate them. Ultimately you'll make up your own mind, and unless you chose the college solely for its food, I doubt you'll be disappointed with Trinity. If it's that important anyway, I imagine you'd be better off cooking where ever you went.

Bon voyage for your way over here. I hope you have as much fun at Cambridge as I have had.

[racheld]

So, how WAS your first year? Did you DINE, or merely eat? I hope it was wonderful.

And the cookie offer still stands.

rachel

[Dukeofyork]

It actually went pretty much as described by the others here - not outstanding, but not terrible, either.

As a vegetarian, I found the menues, whether for normal 'cafeteria' style dinner in Hall, or even for Formal Hall, were a tad repetitive. Lots of goats' cheese roulades, vegetables in pastry, etc.. Although I never tired of attending Formal Hall for the chance to dress up in suit and gown, and socialise over a glass of sherry before (and port after) I found myself starting to avoid regular Hall about 6 months after I got here... it just felt like more of the same, and as I started to get more stressed with dissertation woes, I wanted something good that I would enjoy, rather than just fuel.

Cambridge is not Toronto, though. Unfortunately I have found occasionally difficult to find ingredients to make what little I can with my limited kitchen facilities. It's frustrating having to pay £3 for a smallish loaf of rye bread (6$Cdn!), and finding Asian ingredients requires a trip to Mill Road and a good deal of luck. I finally discovered that the 'Sourdough' baguette sold in market square is pretty much the only one worthy of the name available in the city. All the rest is that hideous 'bake-off' fluff baguette that reminds me of the early 90s in Canada. Aside from this I miss sour pickles and other North American favourites, but I'll survive.

The cheeses available have partially made up for all this. The market stall (Fridays and Saturdays) is the best deal, though the Cambridge Cheese company (All Saints' Passage) is nice if you're feeling flush. Formal Hall in other colleges, especially St. John's, can be very good. May Ball had a nice selection of food, too, but of course the tickets to that are £110 and it comes but once a year!

There's good and bad, as any reasonable person will have to expect moving to another place. Today I find out where I'll be living next year, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a place with real kitchens. That will be an improvement indeed!