According to me cooking skills is something everyone should learn at least the basics. To learn the basic cooking skills I joined the cooking classes my school offered for 1 academic year as my arts special. We had one cooking class every cycle and me and my friends waited for the class as not only we learnt cooking different dishes but also, at the end we were allowed to eat them. We made a variety of dishes from normal Vegetable and Chapati to delicious desserts like pancakes. During this whole tenure I learned all the basic cooking skills like cutting, chopping and preparing the food.

LO1:  Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

After starting cooking I got to know that cooking is not very difficult and following guidelines lead to amazing food. Before this class the only dish I ever had prepared was Instant noodles. So, my classes were from scratch. During the whole process, I got to know that I am not very bad at cutting and chopping and was able to do everything perfectly. But also once during one for the event I got a small cut from the knife. But the incident did not stop me from chopping vegetables and I do personally like to chop vegetables every time. 

Also, I got to know that I am very bad at rolling chapati. I never was able to make a round chapati and most of the time I invented a new shape. That is a skill I am still trying to work on and believe that practice will bring perfection. 

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences 

Cooking is a job where patience is needed and without patience the dish will be a disaster. Patience is needed while chopping tiny and thin slices of vegetables, waiting for the cake to bake, waiting for any dish to cook. If at any point of time you lose your patience the dish will be not be up to the mark. During our cooking classes we also had to wait for others to complete their task and many times people were very slow but we had to make sure either we help them or wait for them to finish their work. Overall the patience resulted in some delicious food.

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

We only had 50 minutes to prepare a dish and one alone cannot make a different dish in 50 minutes. Every class, after the teacher gave the instruction we used to divide ourselves and start working collaboratively to make sure the dish gets prepared on time. Most of us would divide the vegetables and start chopping them and others would start the other preparations. After chopping some people used to sit while others used to cook the dish as too many people spoil the broth. This collaborative effort allowed us to make new and different dishes every time. Also, our teacher sometimes used to do some pre hand preparations to make sure that the dish get finished on time. This shows that working together always helps.

AS cooking classes were very fun as it was one class where we were able to learn an entirely new skill. The skills learnt are very helpful and I have already applied it at home and one school event. The best part of the classes were the delicious food we had and also sometimes making fun of each other when one makes a mistake. 

The video below is not from the cooking class but from a survival class as the photos of cooking classes was not available.