What it’s like to cook in college

Cereal in the dining hall doesn’t count

Burning food, fire alarms going off and exploding stoves – we have seen (and done) it all!

And even though we know that our grandmother had already been a chef at our age back then, fill the bellies of an entire army, most of us still don’t find ourselves in the kitchen too often.

And to be honest, do we really have to? An unlimited meal plan and the delivery guy only one phone call away doesn’t really require college students to either prepare a great meal (best case scenario) or to burn down the kitchen first (worst case scenario, but definitely possible).

My only experience cooking at Wake was waffles in the microwave – I accidentally pressed ‘Dinner plate’. Three minutes later I opened the door and saw a black waffle.

Being curious about the latest five-star spaghetti or ruined kitchens my friends and classmates had cooked, I asked them what was the last thing they made and how did it turn out.

Here is what they said:

Shannon, junior

“I decided to make eggs over easy, but my egg wasn’t cooking so I dumped it into the sink. I was going to try again and as I placed the pan back on the stove, it suddenly exploded. It made a very loud noise and there were splitters everywhere. It turned out there was a glass sheet on top of the stove that I was supposed to remove – but I didn’t know…”

 

Ellie, junior

“Does oatmeal in the microwave count? If so it was pretty average.”

Melissa, junior

“I was making red velvet cupcakes. I saw that the oven light was on but I didn’t think about it so I put the cupcakes in. Three minutes later it started smelling really bad and when I opened the oven-door my eyes teared up. That’s how hot it was. It turned out that the oven has been on a cycle and was actually at 600 or 800 degrees instead of 350.”

Madison, sophomore

“Instant Mac and Cheese is a staple…until you forget water. Sorry for the fire alarm.”

Heather, freshman

“My sister and I made cookies once. I didn’t have any ingredients or a car so we went to the dining hall and got peanut butter, milk and oats. Then we went to the little store on campus and got chocolate chips. When we got back, we mixed it all and they kind of turned into good cookies.”

Caitlin, senior

“I opened the door for the pizza delivery guy and it was excellent.”

However, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to get better in order to be able to impress our future spouses in a couple years…

And some meals actually go well.

Kendal, senior

“The last thing I made that wasn’t drunk Mac and Cheese with Dino nuggets (it’s soooo good) was salmon with rice and asparagus and it was delicious.”

Ciara, junior

“After hundreds of pizza and pasta dishes in Italy, I honestly needed something different, so I started to make those Israeli salads. They actually taste amazing even though they are healthy. And a couple snaps later, everyone asked me for the recipe so I am kind of the salad master right now.”

Kendall, Freshman

“I only cooked at school once and that was chicken pasta. And even though my co-chef was in the way all the time, I overcame the obstacles in the end and it turned out pretty well.”

So, in the end there is definitely some room for improvement but some dishes already turn out pretty well. And we all have some more time to practice and will probably appreciate that setting off fire alarms etc. is already included in our tuition.

More
Wake Forest