Donald Keough | Staff Writer
After virtually fading away last year, the culinary club has returned full swing and hosted cooking events almost every week this semester. It’s taken a collaborative effort to get the club back on its feet again by students and staff. Dana Pursley, the director of the Community Leadership and Involvement Center (CLIC), started searching for new students to help run the club at the beginning of the fall, and Noah Fishman ‘25 and Meg Kennedy ‘25, the club presidents this year, were among those who Pursley reached out to.
“I took the club freshman year and then the club didn’t happen last year,” Kennedy said. “Then this year we were reached out to and told that the club was gonna die unless anyone wanted to take charge. Noah and I are both passionate about cooking and making things happen and so I asked him, ‘hey, would you like to start this up again?’”
They decided that the club played an important part in making the most of Denison’s community.
“We’ve got a really beautiful opportunity here because Denison students are so intersectional and so multitalented,” Fishman said. “These are people from all over the world with all types of interests that they can bring together and create as a whole.”
The club also gives students the chance to make food that they like from home that isn’t made in the dining halls.
“It’s a nice way for students to also be able to make the food that you don’t have access to here,” Kennedy said. “For example, last week we made a student’s recipe of something that isn’t made here normally, and we all really enjoyed it.”
The club has received attention from both students looking to learn the basics of cooking and those who want to share their recipes with others.
“We’ve seen a lot of variation in who comes, like each time we see familiar faces, but also we see around five new people every meeting,” Fishman said. “Which is
great because then we all get to meet new people, and we know that the skills and also just kind of the love of cooking is growing.”
Alongside the students helping run the club, the kitchen staff at Denison has done cooking demos with the club, and provided helpful resources at events. Rick Poulos, a cafe manager at Denison, is one of the staff members who has given his time to help students learn to develop their cooking skills.
“We’ve had a really good time, and [the demos] are really hands-on,” Poulos said. “We try to harness whatever [the students] are in the mood for, and it’s been just a blast.”
The demos focus on tackling different aspects of difficulties and struggles which might keep students away from cooking.
“What I’ve really pinpointed is that no one has time to cook because you guys are busy,” Poulos said. “We want to show [stu- dents] that you can cook things very easily.”
Poulos also hopes that through the demos, students will be able to use what they’ve learned outside of school to develop healthy eating habits.
“The moral of the story is that [students] are all a few years away from being in a situation where you’re probably going to need to feed yourself,” Poulos said. “Students may potentially end up going a more unhealthy route rather than trying to cook for themselves, so the idea here is to keep it simple and show them that you can have some fun with friends while cooking, too.”
Poulos and the other staff who have helped at club events enjoy it because of the opportunity to help teach students.
“I mean, one of the main reasons why I’m on this campus is because you guys are so much fun to work with everyday,” Poulos said. “We’re trying to help you guys for your future. It’s almost like the feeling that professors get when they’re trying to form students into professionals. Although we’re not professors, we can definitely help students prepare for the next step in life.”
Looking ahead, the club is planning more demos and student run events, and the co-presidents of the club are excited to see what the future holds.
“It’s all going really well, and I think that it’s been one of the best experiences for us,” Fishman said. “Just seeing everybody that comes and brings something to the table, whether it’s skill or cultural background, or the work our amazing food company has done, it’s all been fantastic.”
