Centre County offers a marvelous vantage point from which to view Pennsylvania's indigenous cuisine. Centrally located, it has become an island of regional specialties that make use of natural abundance in time-honored ways.

The draw of Penn State University brings the sons and daughters of a vast number of the Commonwealth's citizenry into the area, along with their food preferences. International students create a microcosm of diversity that is unmatched by any other similar-size geographic region in the state. A sophistication spurred by foreign travel, along with the entertaining...