In the cooking enrichment class, the teacher teaches cooking skills by first demonstrating, then asking the students to do it on their own. 

   The teacher’s name is Chef Tren. She said  “I like [teaching] cooking because then you know how to cook at home.” A fact about cooking is that there are more than 152,800 chefs in the world. 

   Clinton, a student in the Chef Trens class said,  “Cooking is fun, soothing and relaxing.” 

   Here’s another fun fact: Bananas are berries (but strawberries aren’t). 

   Zoe, another student in the class,  said that she likes cooking because  she likes the experience  and added “Cooking is somewhat hard”. 

   Another student, Benonick, said the class is  “ fun” and added that he would be willing to take this enrichment class again.

   Riley said that “Some of the food is nasty” and “the food combination is weird.”    According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, people eat more mindful portions when they make home-cooked meals. While there’s so much in life we cannot control, cooking puts you in control of every ingredient you use and the portions you eat.  

   Sofia a student in the class said said “I think it is cool because I get to know how to cook” and added “sometimes the food is bad”  

   Another benefit of the class is that baking and cooking helps relieve stress, says another study in the National Library of Medicine.. In fact, it’s often suggested as an activity to help with anxiety and depression. Experts say the soothing act of cooking helps boost confidence and keeps thoughts focused to ultimately avoid negative self-talk.

   Josie said  “Cooking is a good skill to have,” added that  “The food isn’t as good as I want it to be.”   One thing students can do if they don’t like the food they are making is add salt.  Salt is a flavor enhancer shown to improve the “sensory properties” of essentially every food. 

   If you’re worried about too much  salt intake, you can dial it back slowly in your cooking practices while also skipping processed food, cutting back on condiments, and dialing up other flavors like peppers.                             

   Clearly, there are a lot of important things to learn in cooking enrichment.  “You get to cook” and “nothing is bad about it,” said 8th grader Giulia.