Fresh salads and wraps, soups and juices, steaming world (and Dutch) dishes - the range during the tasting sessions (served from multiple counters and from trays continuously handed round) is diverse and, above all, abundant. In advance, one caterer had distributed paper bags among the participants, inviting them to be sure to leave the tasting with something for friends, colleagues or people at home. Because 'averse to waste and environmentally aware' is, of course, an apt description of the parties presenting themselves; their selection and compatibility with the university's schedule of requirements has not been a matter of chance.

Durga Batchu, Master's student of Automotive and an Indian national, is acting as one of the international gourmets this week, together with a friend. He lives in the residential tower Aurora on site at TU/e and has a kitchen there, “but cooking takes a lot of time”. And undeniably the Netherlands has less of a passion for street food than India, where outlets are found on every street corner. So Batchu eats out regularly in the city, and partly because after 2 p.m. and on weekends there is barely anything to be had on campus - a definite point for the successful new caterer to address, is his tip.

Aside from the opening hours, he is pretty satisfied with the range of catering available at TU/e, as he is, he says, with Dutch cuisine - stamppot ('mash pot') and thick pea soup with bacon bits (erwtensoep) are among the Dutch dishes this Master's student likes. That dishes from other continents are also on the menu at the various TU/e catering outlets is something he welcomes, “but then it has to be good. You shouldn't be serving something just so you can check off that you catered for the internationals today. It has to be better than that.”

Not supermarket quality

Close by, Aiik Biermans is standing in line at a counter offering soups and dishes with an Arabian touch. The first-year student (“I'm going to be here for a couple of years yet so I'd welcome a good caterer”) is making his judgment not only with his tongue, but also with his wallet. Next to the dishes and products on offer during the tasting sessions, prices are mentioned. “Students tend to go for the slightly cheaper items, don't they?”

Incidentally, the amount the prospective biomedical engineer is prepared to spend on a meal on campus may vary  from day to day, admits Biermans. And that, it seems, depends not only on when DUO lines his proverbial pocket: “On a morning when I'm feeling a little hung over, I tend to spend a bit more”. But his initial focus on the cost does not mean that Biermans will let himself be fobbed off with, what he calls, ‘supermarket quality’: “In that case, I might as well walk to the Spar. The food must be really tasty.”