18 Oct Green curry, apfel strudel and enchiladas, student diversity in action
During the fall semester 2012, the Arts Steering Committee will approve ten small grants to be disbursed out of the Winterline Centre for the Arts Fund. Any staff member can propose a food-related project, activity or event that reinforces the ‘Thought for Food’ theme this year and involves students.”
When Marcus and Fabi Shaw received this all-staff email, they knew instantly they wanted to be involved. As advisors for Grade 11 and with Fabi organizing the Spanish Club, their idea was to diversify and specialise in countries and their cuisine.
Thailand was the country chosen to begin and the Grade 11 advisor group wrestled with Tom Yum Soup, green curry, Chicken Phad Krapow and Thai Salad. Students crammed into the Shaws’ small kitchen alternating among preparing, cooking and cleaning. After this first success students changed continents to Europe and Marcus approached language teacher Elsa Amy with an idea to run a German night. Ten to twelve interested students were to prepare, cook, and eat together at the Shaws’ home. The menu was created with some input from the students while trying to stay around 2000 rupees; unfortunately, their wish lists of shrimp and lobster politely had to be turned down. Instead the menu with much fine tuning was:
Cheese and Potato Soup
Homemade Bread Rolls
Sausage and Potato salad
Green Beans and Carrots
Apfel Strudel and Ice Cream
Squeezed around the Shaws’ dining table the food, as wonderful as it was, came second to the students sharing their German heritage or interest.
“We are celebrating our diversity in action by using food that brings people together. It was mass chaos, but so much fun. Part of the fun is not to have it organized, to be in a home environment and to showcase our home countries to one another,” Marcus said.
Staff members whose grants were approved were asked to work with the students to informally document the activity with photographs and brief written responses. See a slideshow of the students at both German and Thai cooking night below.
Spanish will complete the third of the three cooking adventures and will occur next week.
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