‘Yes Chef!’ Cooking Club Debuts at Newman
Photo Courtesy of Ms. Hannah Schafer
A new club focused on students trying and sharing recipes created by Nikos Maniuodakis ‘29 recently debuted at Newman.
This club has been long awaited and in the making for several months, especially popular with many eighth-grade students very interested in cooking and baking. Nikos was interviewed to share his process and hopes for the new club.
“I’ve been interested in creating a club focused on cooking for most of my time at Newman. Especially since I’ve been interested in cooking and trying new recipes and I quickly learned that many others in my grade and generally around the school are as well” Nikos commented, also expressing that through events and projects around the school that involved cooking, he saw other students' interest in cooking as well.
Nikos also wanted to thank Ms. Hannah Schafer, 7/ 8 dean and teacher lead of the cooking club, for her constant help and organization for the club. “Ms. Schaffer’s been such an important part of the cooking club, from helping make it come to be to getting help with recipes, for example when we were making the scallion pancakes for the lunar new year, she got many other eighth graders to help and really made it happen,”.
Using what they have is also a huge part of the cooking club. Being a smaller school without large stoves or cooking appliances has served to be a slight hassle, Nikos mentioned. “Especially towards the beginning of the club, we thought people would only be able to cook and bring [the food] in, rather than having us all cook together… We have however been able to make it work, using the basement and supplies that we do have, and have been able to make recipes together, like the scallion pancakes, which were definitely a team effort,” Nikos added to the matter.
He also recommended the club to anyone who likes cooking or baking, even if they feel they’re not able to bring in food every week. He added, “ We really want the space to feel very casual and welcoming. We want people to be able to participate, even if they can’t cook, they can help with recipes in school or brainstorm and have it just be a very friendly environment that hopefully is carried on for many years,”
There are many high hopes for the future of the cooking club, as well as many projects in the making. Nikos commented, “We hope to grow to be a big part of the culture at Newman, and hopefully a part of more events.”. He also went on to mention a bigger project that is soon to be in the making for World Culture Day: a large Newman cookbook with many recipes from all of our cultures. Overall, many look forward to the next recipes and events for the cooking club!
