The sizzling pan, the boiling water, and the ding of the timer. Cooking is a complex art that many choose to pursue whether as a simple hobby or a serious career.
“The chances of you doing Algebra 2 on a regular basis when you’re adults are very slim unless you are a mathematician or scientist, but you are going to eat three times a day for the rest of your life,” said Jenna Meyer, Foods and Nutrition and Culinary Arts teacher. “So this is the [one of the] most important skills that you should acquire.”
Additionally, cooking creates community and creativity.
“For one thing, food brings people together, [but] it’s also an exercise in creativity and improvising, that you can’t really get anywhere else,” said junior Michael Exner. “Then also you’re feeding yourself and helping yourself survive.”
Everyone’s introduction to cooking can be vastly different, influenced by how they interact with the food around them. Many start at a young age in their own kitchens cooking their own meal for the first time.
“My dad was cooking steak one night and I wanted to help him and he let me cook my own steak,” said junior Connor Lu. “It didn’t turn out very good. I overcooked it, but it was still really fun to just be in the kitchen.”
Similarly, senior Eleanor Draffen had a bumpy start when she first started baking.
“I was trying to make biscuits but I also didn’t know what fractions were,” Draffen said. “It was like my first time baking by myself. I didn’t know that three-fourths a cup meant something different than three out of four cups of milk. So that recipe did not turn out well.”
While greatly rewarding, cooking can be difficult to learn, and even harder to master.
“[A] lot of the time [I] spent in the kitchen was learning … for hours and hours on end without actually doing any cooking,” Meyer said. “That was part of the learning process for me. [There] was no cooking happening, but … being in there and learning how to put in the labor behind all of the dishes that I made was really probably the most important lesson that I learned.”
It’s also an exercise in creativity and improvising
The journey to becoming a professional chef can be tiresome and may take years if not decades to achieve, convincing many to stick to cooking only out of hobby or necessity.
“Going to culinary school kind of cements you down the path of becoming a chef in a restaurant,” Lu said. “I always thought being a [chef at a restaurant] would be too stressful and it would kind of take the joy away from cooking.”
However, many still decide to pursue this career for the unique experience.
“‘It’s a really hard job,” Meyer said. “You don’t get paid a ton of money. But … it’s your passion. Not everybody gets to go to work and revel in their passion and do what they love. But for a chef, that [is what they are doing] every single day of their life.”
The other and more common option is keeping cooking as a hobby, which can look different for many people. However, what connects them is their love for the kitchen and the craft.
“It feels really interactive,” said junior Jose Callejas Lopez. “That’s what got me into cooking in the first place. There’s a lot of independence [in that] you are able to do anything in order to get the food ready.”
While some enjoy a busy and active kitchen, others prefer a place of rest and solace.
“[The kitchen] is relaxing, especially if I have my headphones in and I’m just cooking by myself, or even with my family or friends,” Draffen said. “It’s just kind of calming.”
Whether it is alone or with friends and family, cooking can be a memorable experience.
“I have a memory from when I was eight,” said senior Shadai Batsuuri. “[It was] me, my mom, my sister, my cousin and my uncles. We all stayed up until like two a.m. rolling dumplings … for Chinese New Year.”
Exner also shares having a pleasant memory of cooking with family.
“For me [and] my dad, whenever we have leftovers … we really like to make sandwiches out of it, because we always have bread at home,” Exner said. “[So if] we had a steak dinner and there were leftovers, [we would make] steak sandwiches for the whole family. We like to make use of whatever we have [and] make something fresh out of it.”
Age, skill or ethnicity, cooking is a skill is not limited by these factors and can be developed over time. Whether professionally, as a hobby, or to survive, cooking allows anyone can create something out new of just a few ingredients.
