Cultural Cooking Club Expands Horizons

For students interested in expanding their culinary horizons, the Cultural Cooking Club offers a unique opportunity to do so. The Cultural Cooking Club was founded by Lacey Lessard and Lauren Lovett, two Berkeley High School teachers, during the school year of 2007 to 2008. It was originally known as the Vegan Cooking Workshop (VCW). Latifah Mills was a freshman at BHS at the time, and was one of the first members of the Cooking Club.

Now in her senior year, Mills is the representative for the newly christened Cultural Cooking Club. The cultural cooking club now meets two Tuesdays of the month in H–106 and is supervised by Lauren Lovett. “We laugh and talk, we set the table, serve each other, sit together and enjoy a ‘family’ meal,” said Lauren Lovett.

Egged on by her love of cooking and the numerous friends she had in the cooking club, Mills was eager to join as she saw the appeal of honing and sharpening her cooking skills. The club is currently a core group of ten, although this number can change from meeting to meeting. All the members of the cooking club come to enjoy the company of others as they cook and learn, or otherwise better their skills in the kitchen. The skill set of the members varies from those just now learning to sauté onions, to people like Mills who aspire to one day “open a school that teaches others how to cook,” she said with determination.

The club was created originally under this mission statement, “VCW was created to serve BHS students. Too often in today’s society there is no place where people can gather and get to know each other in a positive atmosphere. School, though it should provide the most sense of community, often assists in separating individuals.

We go a step further by coming together and actually serving each other. By cooking a community meal every other Thursday, students are able to give back to their peers and teachers for all that they have received and the overall mood at our dinners is one of cooperation and unity.”

In their current goals, they strive to create an environment where many different students can come together after school and participate in a positive activity that helps build friendships and a sense of community.

Befitting of the new name, the Cultural Cooking Club’s repertoire befits a wide rage of various cultural foods. Each meeting they pick a different culture’s food they are interested in and wish to cook and eat.

During this process they also try to learn about the background of the culture. In the past years, even though they were simply a cooking club, they managed to make food from various places around the world. Thai food made the appearance in their monthly meeting, despite the meticulous chopping and complex array of spices and ingredients it requires.

Japanese cuisine, another tricky and time consuming food, also could be seen in the past years, a food which requires care and effort while rolling the sushi, constructing the various broths, or breading some chicken katsu.

For the Day of the Dead celebration they cooked Mexican food. After the changing of their name, the Cultural Cooking Club most recently made Italian food. For their next meeting they will be baking for Christmas.

This occasion will include a bake sale of goods to give for gifts or for your own enjoyment. After this month, their next venture will be Indian food. To complete the feel of a true family sit-down meal, they always cook a complete meal with a main dish, side, dish, vegetable, dessert and beverage.

The members of the Cultural Cooking Club come together by learning to cook. They build a community while at the time hosting and serving one another as they learn about other cultures and experience the food that goes with them. The Cultural Cooking Club is open to all students curious about cooking.

Latifah Mills said, ”[Cooking is] therapeutic and helps me express myself.” The club does not pull favorites when cooking; they are open to all types and varieties of cooking which coincide with anyone’s needs. For example, vegetarian food often graces their table. They are open to all dishes, and explain that if they were to focus on only one dish they wouldn’t be open or able to experience other varieties of dishes.