Transcription

Robert Vega | Cooking Club Instructor & Music Teacher
Cooking Club is an opportunity for students to participate in another club after school. I started Cooking Club because I wanted students to gain another skill outside of being collegebound. I wanted to focus on the world ready, and I believe that everybody should have the opportunity to learn how to cook. I started it primarily because of my enjoyment and love for cooking. I got that through my father. My father went to culinary school when I was a little boy and used to make all these extravagant dishes. Now, I love all kinds of different food, and I want to give the students the opportunity to partake in that.

Student walking through Cooking Club kitchen set-up
Right now, they cutting up the onions at Cooking Club, trying to get the best quality I can. The broccoli is cooking, and the chicken is steaming.

Vega
So, throughout the week, I always, first off, I give students choices on what they want to cook. It’s obviously based off of what they like. So, I give them suggestions, and they give me suggestions of what they want to do.

If it lines up, we’ll go ahead and pick that particular dish for the following week. A lot of it comes down to just making the order. I got to know exactly how many students I have for the club at that present moment; what kind of ingredients do I need? And then I make a list of that and order. I have it brought to the school so that at least I have it all prepared for the students.

When they come in, I make sure that I give them the recipe and they have all of the tools necessary; we have everything that they need in order to start the cooking process. Then, at the very end of the process, we enjoy the food and sit around and talk about good times.

Student Interviewer
What is your favorite dish that you have made at Cooking Club?

Vega
Honestly, there have been so many amazing ones. We made Julienne French fries. We made bacon jam cheeseburger sliders. All the way down to ham and cheese sandwiches. I really can’t pinpoint any favorite one, but if there was one I had to go with, I probably would say it was the chicken Alfredo casserole that we made. That was incredibly delicious!

And I think the hardest one— and it wasn’t that hard, I think it was just challenging to maintain. I really felt like I should have had the chef hat on for this one, but the Thanksgiving cooking class that we had. We had a group deep-frying the turkey. We had another one making mashed potatoes. We had another one making salad. We had another one making carrots. We had so many different dishes going on at the same time, and I think the hardest part about that was just being able to maintain going back and forth. It almost reminds me of my music class, the independence that certain sections have, and they need to be able to fulfill that for the common goal of the meal that we had.

Student Interviewer
What skills do you think your students have learned in Cooking Club?

Vega
Well, I mean to start off, cooking—culinary is an art. So it’s a great opportunity for students to express their feelings or their intentions through the food. Every single group makes something different. I do have an opportunity to taste test all of them, and they all have their unique personalities to it. So, that’s one of the greatest things I love about what they learn from this.

I think, like, some of the soft skills that they learn, for example, they know how to use measuring cups. They know about temperature, most notably, and most importantly, they know about sanitary and safety parameters around using raw food.

Vega talking to students in Cooking Club

It’s a small piece here. It’s almost like you’re dicing it again.

Vega in Interview

Whether they become chefs or cooks as a career, or they’re just doing it as a little thing to have a one-on-one date with their significant other. I still think it’s a great thing for them to know.

Off Camera Student
What do you like about Cooking Club?

On-Camera Student
You actually get to learn something new, and it’s really fun! I’m trying to learn how to cook, so when I go to college, I don’t have to eat Maruchan all day.

Another Student
What made me come to cooking class was I heard that they were going to make meatball sliders, and I wanted to try something new, do an extracurricular activity.

Another Student
What made me come to cooking class? I don’t know how to cook at all. So, I was just trying something new.

Student Interviewer
What advice do you have for the viewers?

Vega
I think the most important thing, if you are interested, is being curious. Like, think about some of your favorite foods. I think for me, that’s how I started. I started with, you know, one of my favorite dishes. I’m like: Hm, how is that made? I do recall one—one time in particular, my father wanted to make an arroz con gandules, and I know that there’s a lot of different ingredients that go along with that. And you know, at least my Latin family, they don’t write down recipes, so you’re just sitting there throwing spritz of stuff here and there. So, I had to catch on to it. But it was the curiosity that I really got out of the thing to know how to do that. So, yeah…