By Mary-Eileen Gallagher

Drop the name Rachel Ray or Emeril Lagasse in the middle of a conversation with a parent, and you may get a quizzical look.

However, mention Bobby Flay or Iron Chef America to college friends and you can expect them to rattle off show times and specials. “This week’s secret ingredient: Bacon!”

From the shelves of Barnes ‘ Noble, to close-ups on the Today Show, to college kitchens across the country, “foodie” culture is “in” and it is everywhere. And with the sudden stardom of chefs, college stereotypes of surviving on popcorn and cereal seem more fairytale than reality.

By the end of sophomore year, most college students know how to remedy a starving stomach without relying on BHOP or Qdoba 24/7.

Making spaghetti with marinara is no mystery: boil water, enter pasta, warm ready-made sauce, bingo! Fast and easy dinner with days of leftovers.

And while culinary jargon such as deglaze, blanch and poach may be as unfamiliar as those bio flashcards you’ve neglected to memorize, it has yet to deter college students from heating things up in the kitchen.

But what of those mystical words? What exactly does it mean to deglaze a pan or poach chicken? Or how about to mince, saut