Cookin’ It Up College Style
Cookin’ It Up College Style
BY SYDNEY FLUKER
People come to college with all levels of cooking experience.
I was lucky to come to Gonzaga with some tools in my belt — I could scramble eggs with the best of them from years working at a café, but hadn’t yet mastered the art of cooking rice. Through trial and error and my parents’ helpful advice, I slowly acquired enough cooking skills to confidently work my way around my fun-size dorm kitchen.
But others aren’t so well-versed, and some folks are limited to the staples of ramen and microwave mac and cheese. The crowd at Wanderlust Delicato’s recent series of private classes for the Gonzaga Student Body Association welcomed students of varying cooking backgrounds to teach a three-course Italian meal.
“Community is a huge part of the culture at Wanderlust,” owner Amber Park says. “Seeing the students bonding over cooking meals and dining together is a great opportunity for our community to grow stronger.”
Though an introductory class, the two hour session moves quickly. Chef Toni Flavor, a certified pastry chef of 8 years, begins with a brief introduction about herself and the dish before having students pair off to work through the recipes on their own. Flavor doesn’t provide extensive instruction — she prefers to let the students come to her with questions as needed. This lets the students learn problem-solving skills along with the techniques Flavor offers to those interested.
This class featured four stations, each with two pairs working to prepare the food the group eats together at the end. Students hand-whipped cream for crème brûlée, diced onions for parmesan risotto, pan fried chicken for the picatta and assembled antipasto salad.
50 students from all grades and majors attended the class over the course of two weeks. Private classes choose the region of cuisine they prefer, and the chef develops dishes based on the request.
Flavor teaches these kinds of private classes often, but most of those are capped at 12. She’s one of the few chefs willing to work with such a large group of people — 25 students is no easy feat to manage.
Preparing for these classes also takes time. Flavor says it's easy to get caught up in autopilot and that writing her recipes down to be used by the students later allows her to think through her recipes on a deeper level.
“It’s definitely a learning experience for me, too,” Flavor says. “I feel like I learn just as much as they do, but in a different way.”
Some students, like Mia Person, a senior at GU, cook regularly for themselves and have even taken cooking classes before. Person liked Flavor’s hands-off style more than the previous classes she’s taken, which she says moved at a more unified pace that sometimes left her feeling rushed and confused.
“I’m glad we could be partnered up so that we could figure out stuff together because it was a really hands-off process,” Person says. “We just figured it out along the way instead of being babied, and I liked that.”
Anna Hermes, the coordinator for the student organization, collaborated with Wanderlust last year for a similar cooking series. This year, when the organization was deciding what to host, Hermes insisted on heading back to the kitchen.
“I just loved it,” Hermes says. “It was such a great moment for building community. When we went last year we met a wonderful group of grad students and had such a wonderful experience, and I feel like that’s what GSBA events are supposed to be there for. I was super excited that we did it again and I got to come back because I love to cook, eat food and just be with wonderful people.”
Though Hermes and Person were more on the experienced side of those in the kitchen, neither had cooked the dishes they were stationed at — crème brûlée and risotto, respectively.
Flavor even lets the crème brûlée team use a blowtorch.
“It’s fun to get to learn to make something more elaborate, but still pretty simple,” Hermes says. “I’ve never used a torch before, either, so that was really cool.”
Flavor is teaching a series of classes this April in the Wanderlust kitchen, along with a few other local chefs. Check out their website or swing by in person for more information.
421 W. Main Ave., Suite 103
www.wanderlustdelicato.com