By now, the student body, particularly the freshman class, has had a good month and a half to settle into the routine of campus food.
But WesKitchen offers a new twist in traditional cooking lessons. Rather than one head chef instructing novices, WesKitchen places participants into groups based on the dishes they want to make. Working together, the group learns how to make the dish.
“It’s always interesting to cook with other people, because although you thought that you knew how to cook many dishes, you just never know what you can learn from others,” said WesKitchen’s treasurer Satyawidya Wulansari ’07.
She said WesKitchen is always open to people who just want to experiment with food or try new recipes. WesKitchen, when not cooking for specific events like Homecoming Weekend, becomes a “test kitchen,” where many dishes are prepared without the pressure of making a meal for guests.
WesKitchen began in 2001 at Wesleyan as both an educational and fellowship oriented cooking club. Its mission is to bring people who are interested in cooking or want to learn how to cook together. WesKitchen also has an international bent and facilitates sharing culture through food.
Cooking with friends or cooking with a club is a hallmark of college life, because many students are between families.
“I’ve always liked to cook, especially with many people,” Wulansari said.
Cooking for WesKitchen is as much about the variety of food and the challenges of college cooking as it is about bringing people together and working towards a common and delicious goal.
Tu Chi Nguyen ’07, a WesKitchen leader, said cooking with the club is always interesting.
“We think it’s great that we can eat what we cook,” she said. “Through cooking, we learn a lot about food, nutrition and culture.”
WesKitchen doesn’t meet regularly but makes food for specific events. During Homecoming Weekend, WesKitchen will have a table at the ‘Taste of Middletown,’ with food the group has prepared for sale. At past Homecoming weekends, WesKitchen prepared several dishes with more than 100 servings for this event. With so much food to make, WesKitchen remains open to cooks of all levels of expertise and loves new members.
The club also has a community education element. On Saturday, Oct. 9, WesKitchen ran a very popular freshman-oriented event: the microwave workshop. The event was tailored toward frosh who want to cook on their own, but only have a dorm room microwave and Tupperware to work with. Among the dishes possible with only a microwave were risotto, chicken pie and the chocolate ball.
Nguyen describes the chocolate ball as very easy to make, requiring only crackers, chocolate syrup and sprinkles. She divulged the recipe:
“First, you must crush the crackers by putting them in a plastic bag and mashing them. Secondly, pour chocolate syrup on the mashed crackers, covering them. Third, roll the cracker-chocolate pieces into a ball. Lastly, cover the ball with nuts or sprinkles… and enjoy!”
Organizers say that WesKitchen has been quite successful since its conception and that food is something that brings people together.
“Everybody loves to eat,” Nguyen said.
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