Cooking is an art. Learning to cook helps to understand world cultures, customs, and flavours. Cooking is also an life skills which everyone should learn. During the lockdown, I had a lot of time and seeing my parents cook, I gradually developed interest in cooking and so I thought of learning baking and cooking. I learnt cooking and basic baking from my mom/grandmother but to learn more about baking, I visited a baking professional who runs a baking business (Business name “Bellaria Desserts”). We can also learn and explore many different types of cuisines and desserts. Last year, I choose cooking as my AS (Art’s special) which is offered to students by school. So I had some knowledge in cooking but due to a lot of students, I could not learn cooking thoroughly. As the whole world is facing the pandemic, many poor people could not earn money because all businesses and almost the whole nation was shut and so there was no source of income. I thought why not give the food to the poor, they are the ones in need and so I gave the food made by me to the poor people.

LO 1- Identify own strengths and develop areas of growth:
I am honestly a food lover! However cooking is not my cup of tea. But during the lockdown, the period has made me realize that I need to learn cooking and through time I wanted to learn cooking and so during the lockdown, I started to learn cooking. It really helped me to learn a lot of new cooking skills and different recipes. Through time, I identified my major strengths in cutting and chopping. I could cut any vegetables and fruits in different cutting styles, such as finely chopped, dice cutting, parallel cutting, slicing and etc. But when it comes to making perfect round chapatis, frying and flipping, I lacked in these skills. Adding on, I also learnt a bit of baking and before, I didn’t know anything about baking but after learning and watching videos on baking, I started developing interest in baking.

LO 2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process:
The challenges I faced were making round chapatis and frying. Talking about baking, baking is time-consuming and the process needs to be perfect because a extra cup of sugar or vanilla essence could change the whole taste and so being precise and being careful was necessary. I had to be very careful and attentive around all the hot utensils and food. Over time, I learned to be more patient during the process of cooking. I have developed communication and research skills. I learnt cooking from my mother and my grandmother. We constantly communicated, in the start, I just used to watch my mother/grandmother cooking and she used to tell me and I used to listen and ask questions. For some baking recipes, I looked to youtube videos for baking and followed the same steps at my home. While learning baking from my mom’s friend, her name is Shweta Mistry, I have developed communication skills as she used to guide me and explain how to follow the process of baking so there was a constant interaction between us.

LO 3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience:
When it comes to cooking, there is always a process and steps which need to be followed. Before making the dishes, I had to make sure that I had all the ingredients with me and follow the recipe by order. There were certain recipes which included mixtures of recipes/multiple mixtures, for example, if we are making cheesecake or some sort of frosting, we need to start the process a bit earlier because the cheesecake needs time to cool down. Basic planning is needed just to make sure that the recipe is perfectly made.

LO 4- Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences:
I planned to learn different dishes and recipes during the lockdown period. I tried to learn variety of dishes under my mom/grandmother’s supervision. I had to show commitment and perseverance in this CAS experience as it was long term and cooking is something which you never stop learning, there are 40 cuisine in the world and hundreds of dishes you can learn. Adding on, my mom’s friend is a baking professional, she runs a baking business. So to learn more about baking, I had 3-4 cooking sessions with her.

LO 6 and 7- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance & Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions:
I had to make sure that I do not waste any food or even any of the food ingredients. Poverty is a major issue in India and we have to make sure that we do not waste food and many do not even have the privilege to eat everyday and so I thought that I will give the food made by me to the people in need. Giving food to the people in need contributes to good health and well being in the society. Ethics during cooking is really important, there are rules to adhere while cooking such as wearing full pants for safety be careful while working near the stove and dealing with hot food.