Jordin Foran

Members gather and eat buffet-style to enjoy all of the dishes.

Thursday, October 23rd, the South Windsor High School’s Cooking Club met to enjoy a wonderful afternoon of “Scream Cuisine.”

After school, 14 members of the Cooking Club convened in the High School’s Annex kitchen to work together to make a feast of different Halloween-themed dishes. With them, Advisor Señora Ruiz and Co-Advisor Mr. Ly guided the process and were large parts of the fun.

Members paid $5 to secure their spot in the meeting and to help contribute to ingredients, then broke into groups to make their respective recipe. Once completed, all of the dishes were placed together and everyone participated in a buffet-style meal. 

The lineup of food included Hocus Pocus Punch, Hotel Transylvania Rats, Mummy Dogs, Jack-o-Lantern Pizzas, Jeepers Creepers Eyeball Cake Pops, and Fright Night Vampire Cookies.

The groups worked with 2-3 people to prepare their portions of the feast within 1.5 hours, then placed them all on a display for everyone to enjoy.

Each month, the club meets once to plan the recipes and theme, and again a second time for cooking day. Recipes are chosen collaboratively to match the fun theme for the month, as well as accommodate for any allergies or food restrictions there may be for participants.

“I think it came out phenominal!” club advisor Señora Ruiz said. “The kids took the personal liberty to personalize the ingredients and recipes. As a result, the end product was even more delicious.”

After the cooking itself is completed, the members work collectively to clean any used dishes, put away all ingredients, and clean all surfaces. Even with the hard work, the laughs and joy from within the room were contagious.

“The environment of the Cooking Club felt very safe and inclusive,” junior Camryn Hunt added. “All the dishes came out great. The community was amazing and it was very fun.”

As a wonderful bonding experience and a way to expand food pallets and meet new people, Cooking Club is an inclusive space that proves to be fun every meeting. They look forward to November’s meetings!