Glenn Wagstaff
Shivani Shirolkar
Cooking isn’t one of those things most college students are very keen about. With readily available meal plans on campus, and for some, going home on the weekends, it doesn’t seem to be a necessary skill to acquire this early.
According to NC State Dining, all first-years in University Housing at NC State are required to have a meal plan during their first two semesters regardless of academic standing, making it seem even less important to learn this vital skill.
This was usually the stance I used to take whenever my mother told me to watch and observe her moves in the kitchen. I could barely remember recipes, and the last time I had taken any interest in fixing a meal, I ended up with second-degree burns. Not to mention, I found the task boring and tedious.
Looking back, I now realize that knowing how to feed yourself is an important college hack, which can not only save money, but also keep you fit.
My mom knew this at the time, and argued back that the food at dining halls wasn’t the healthiest I could find, and that if I took even a bit of effort, I wouldn’t be settling. So, one of the things she had taken upon herself to accomplish in the past year was to push the extent of my culinary skills beyond ready-to-make soup and frozen pizza.
We students are much more incompetent at feeding ourselves than we think – more than a third of students don’t know how to boil an egg and four out of ten cannot make an omelet. I was partly in the same boat for almost the entirety of my first year at NC State. I liked the food at Fountain Dining Hall, which was right next to where I lived in Lee Residence Hall, making life even simpler.
Since my parents lived about 30 minutes away from campus, I’d visit home on the weekends; I had the privilege of enjoying the food my mother made, and also stocking it up to bring back to school. Thus, learning how to cook was never a necessity, nor a priority.
Nevertheless, I gave in to my mother’s demands when I realized I’d be living off campus in a matter of time. I wouldn’t be doing my health a favor by having some sort of takeout for every meal during a busy week.
My first step to being a pro at “adulting” in this sphere of my life was learning how to make an omelet. Having never done that before, my first omelet was less a perfectly round and flat solid than a yellow mess. I hit a few dead ends the next couple of times, but eventually pulled through. I soon learned that this fine skill of turning raw ingredients into something not only edible, but also tasty, wasn’t as complicated and fancy as I thought it was. It was just a matter of following instructions, practicing and being alert (a bit similar to working in a chemistry lab).
Furthermore, it was a refreshing change and a stressbuster from classes. I actually had fun as I went through a recipe and followed, or sometimes modified by personal preference, what had to be done. It was also one of the ways in which I could maintain my health in the future and keep away from unfamiliar eating environments, and of course, save money.
Every college student needs to know at least the basics of making a simple meal so as not to go hungry, but avoid junk food at the same time. About 25% of incoming freshmen gain around 10 pounds during their first semester.
This seems inevitable when most of your weekly meal plan includes fried stuff with ketchup. Coming from an Indian family and being used to homemade Indian food as my staple diet, I really couldn’t afford to rely on restaurants all the time. I enjoyed the occasional burger or wrap, but I knew I needed to strengthen my cooking game in order to survive.
Clearly, this applies to men and women equally. Women are often stereotypically expected to take over the kitchen, while it is socially acceptable for men to not know how to cook. According to Time, women still do most of the housework — 83% of women compared to 65% of men take part in household chores like cooking.
However, in today’s fast paced world, cooking cannot be only a woman’s job anymore. As more and more college students move out of their homes to live alone, we must extend our vision beyond stereotypes to see that it is necessary for every student to know how to make a healthy meal.
Cooking can be a fun social activity, as teamwork encourages bonding and gives everyone a sense of achievement and pride. As my mother taught me this skill, my sister would join in out of interest, and we’d enjoy ourselves. After some experimentation, we devised new ways a certain recipe could be altered to remake our own version of it.
Not that I don’t make mistakes while cooking now, but I’m sure I’ve become a lot more independent in terms of being able to take care of myself.
Do yourself a favor — gain more independence and better health by learning basic cooking skills. Who knows, you might just come to love it.