Making healthy and nutritious food choices is challenging to many people, but college students are presented with the added challenges that stem from a lack of time and money.
This is why, in summer 2015, KSU decided to conduct trial runs for cooking demonstrations on campus. The idea stuck, and for the last four years, the demos have continued, showcasing a variety of inexpensive and easy-to-recreate meals such as pad thai, jambalaya and fish tacos.
“Everything happens around food, and it’s a great opportunity to get students together to learn how to prep healthy foods that they can do at home and that doesn’t cost a whole lot,” KSU Health Promotion and Wellness Director Sherry Grable said. “It’s also great just to get that social aspect — to get students connected, make friends and have a healthy outlet.”
Throughout the years, recipes for the cooking demos have been based on popular requests from previous attendees. In fact, last week’s “Jammin’ Jambalaya” demo was inspired by students’ requests and featured king cake, a traditional New Orleans pastry, often baked as part of Mardi Gras celebrations.
Ellie Thomas, the center’s registered dietitian, said that requests are reflective of the diverse student body at KSU. Many request specific types of meat, and there are also a variety of requests for vegetarian dishes.
Thomas has overseen the demos for this semester and said they are typically held on campus about once every two weeks. Cooking demos begin with a discussion about general safety tips such as proper knife-handling and appropriate meat temperatures. Next, the menu is reviewed step-by-step, and then it is time for students to get their hands dirty.
“You hear ‘cooking demo’ and if you haven’t been to one you think like, ‘Oh I’m going to come in and I’m going to watch someone cook,'” Thomas said. “There is a big teaching component to it, but then everyone’s in the kitchen cooking a recipe. So that part of it is just really fun and kind of casual.”
Thomas said that she hopes students leave the cooking demos with a renewed sense of self-confidence in the kitchen and a better understanding of how to build a balanced meal, whether it be at home in their dorms or in the Commons with friends. Thomas said she also loves the sense of community and togetherness that the cooking demos bring to the student body at KSU.
“You get to meet other students on campus and perhaps try a food that you’ve never tried before that’s also free,” Thomas said. “You’re not going to a restaurant and paying for a meal that you may or may not like. Instead, you get to come here and try things with pretty low-risk and you become more confident in your skills in a really fun space.”
Students interested in attending a cooking demo at KSU can call 470-578-6394 to register. For more information on the cooking demos, as well as a full-length calendar of upcoming events for the spring 2019 semester, visit wellness.kennesaw.edu.
