Out at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Durham Service Center, a new OFL class began last Friday. The class is for teenagers attending high school nearby in Durham. The class started off with introductions and everyone shared why they were interested in being in the class. The predominant answer from all of them was, “I enjoy cooking and want to learn more.” One student, Bruce, already has such a passion for cooking that he knows he wants to be a chef and go into the food industry. His goal after graduation is to attend Johnson and Wales in Charlotte!
During the nutrition section of the class, Bruce proved his knowledge about the subject. The nutritionist had him compare two types of granola bars, and he was able to tell everyone why one bar may be better for you than the other, by pointing out things like calories, sodium, and protein. Though he seems to know a lot already, he modestly said that he is in the class because he wants to be more knowledgeable about healthy eating so he can pass that information along to others.
These students are also incredibly lucky, because they have Chef Terri as their OFL class chef! She taught them some neat tricks of how to cut an onion without making yourself cry and without making it fall apart!
The meal the students made was Turkey Tacos. These made the Durham Service Center smell so good everyone started salivating. The students split up into pairs to work on the parts of the meal: the meat filling, the salsa, and the slaw. The two girls who were cooking the meat filling were very excited when Chef came over and offered the idea of adding in spices. They had never cooked with spices and were excited to learn what foods went well with different types of herbs. Chef taught them about common Mexican spices, like cayenne pepper, garlic salt, cumin and oregano. One of the girls said she usually cooks for her entire family and is happy to now have new recipes to serve them, especially since she has new spices to try out for her foods. She’s ready to come back next week to see what they make!
When it was time to sit down and eat, the room became silent, and all you could hear was munching. Before leaving, Bruce summed up the day for everyone by saying:
I really enjoyed the class and will definitely be back. All of the food we made was great and I look forward to the next few weeks.”
