Cooking with Xan

My name is Xander and I am a 12th grader at LREI. One hobby of mine that most people don’t know about me is how much I love to cook. I have been cooking my whole life and am very excited to cook for my senior project. For my Senior Project, I would like to make a cookbook with my takes on recipes. My entire life I have always loved to cook. When I was younger, I was watching a cooking show with my mom and thought of the idea of making a cookbook full of my recipes and creations. I love to cook for myself and others. Cooking for other people, family members or not, makes me feel like I accomplished something for other people and something that makes others happy and that is part of the reason I love to cook. With school and homework, I usually don’t have as much time as I would love to for cooking, although I still try to cook once a week. Cooking releases anxiety and makes me feel free. As someone who struggles with anxiety, getting to cook helps me relieve stress. When I am in the kitchen all I can focus on is the dish in hand, nothing that is going on in the world around me. I would like to not only cook meals every day for my senior project but also work on this after as I want to cook when I am in college and out. I want to improve my cooking skills and go beyond the basics of cooking. 

For my project, I plan on focusing on one cuisine per week and creating a dish based on that cuisine. I will prepare that dish 4 times per week with minor tweaks every time in an attempt to perfect the dish by the end of the week. By perfecting the dish, I mean having a good understanding of how to prepare the dish and make a dish I will be proud to let others try. I will start by going to grocery stores based on that cuisine and getting the ingredients needed for that week of cooking. Then I will plan out how I will prepare the dish by writing the steps. Each day I will prepare the dish every time and tweak something to make it better. I will use tools such as youtube, cookbooks, and blogs, to better my skills and learn how to prepare that dish. Each cuisine has its way of preparing dishes so I will learn those skills from those platforms. Once the week is complete, I will add the photos to my book and add a brief description of my process, and a short paragraph on the cultural impact that dish has across the country. I would work for about 5 hours a day doing this. That time will be split up, thinking of recipes, going to grocery stores based on that cuisine, finding ingredients, cooking, and writing about my food after I do so. An example of this day would be I think of what dish or side, go to the grocery store depending on the cuisine, come back, prepare and cook the dish, then write about it. My writing component will consist of writing about the food, how it is prepared, the recipe, and the significance of this dish in the culture. I think that is the most important part. At the end of the senior project, I will have a finished book where the recipes I have adapted and photos of my food will be. This cookbook not only is for me but other new chefs who are trying out new dishes and concepts. I also want this book to be something I am proud of and a piece of art I can look back at and realize I accomplished something great with my time. Lastly, I will give food back so once a week, I will give out some of the dishes I have made to food shelters. There is a food shelter around 6th ave and 15th street that I am in contact with where I will bring a tray full of the dish I prepared and bring that once a week. 

Working for 25 hours a week on cooking and preparing dishes will make me a better chef and also learn how to write about the components I am working with. I also play baseball for LREI which will take time each day whether I have practice or games. I have played baseball my entire life and have been on the LREI team since 8th grade and want to finish what I started my senior year. I am so excited about this project and can’t wait to start cooking. I think my first cuisine will be French.