Cooking is a quarter-long wellness elective, available to students in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. In this class, students learn a wide variety of kitchen skills. Students learn how to clean up after themselves, how to properly keep and prepare foods, knife skills, and valuable nutrition facts to consider when choosing what to eat. The foods that students make in this class might not be what you would expect, as classes have made coconut roti, dumplings, boba, noodle dishes, and more! It might seem daunting, but truly you need no background skills to take this class. Throughout the course of the quarter, students cook cuisine from a variety of cultures with a focus on Asian and Mediterranean foods.  Then, at the end of the quarter, there is a potluck for each class. Students show off what they have learned by bringing in a dish that their peers will try. Originally cooking was offered every other year, although its immense popularity has caused that procedure to change. Just this year, around 400 students listed cooking as their first choice for their wellness elective. Cooking will now be offered every year!

One student stated, “When signing up for my next quarter elective, I put cooking as my first choice because I wanted to try the food I made.” Students emphasized that one of the main reasons they wanted to take cooking was to try new foods and recipes outside their comfort zones.  Another student explained how cooking is much more than just making food. They stated, “Many of the first classes in cooking we just spent learning knife skills. By the second or third week…is when we started cooking regularly.” Cooking is a valuable life skill, and it is a class that all students should consider taking in their time here at LS.