Well to kick off I want to put out that i am a foodie, i love eating food, it doesn’t matter which culture the food is. I enjoy most types of food, however I am not fond of cooking till 2020 when the pandemic started. As no one was allowed to leave the house according to the guidelines, I got extremely bored and I needed some type of activity to keep me busy and interested. My mom suggested that I cook as every time she sees me I am on my phone and I was so bored that I accepted cooking food. During this activity I learned and understood that cooking is a life skill and most people should start learning it as soon as possible because in the future we will be the only ones in universities to cook for ourselves. I learned the majority of cooking from my mom and my sister and my dad taught me the egg recipes.

L1–Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

Pandemic has been going on for 2 years now and honestly some part of me is glad about it because I got to know my strengths and weaknesses that I developed during cooking skills my strength is i have very steady hands which is good while cutting vegetables or fruits. I can also make almost symmetrical chapatis. However I still lack the baking skills, I am not a very patient type of person and because of this many times I remove the dough out of the oven quite early which messes up the whole recipe. 

L2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Although I found cooking interesting and not boring I faced some challenges like my cake being tasteless and not puffed up. This demotivated me and I came very close to quitting baking but then I saw some baking videos to get better at it and I also did a baking course which helped me immensely. Main reason for baking being challenging me was that I had not done anything similar to this. Eventually now I can say that I am the best baker at my house when it comes to making cakes and cookies.

L6 and 7- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance & Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Learning cooking means making food and showing creativity in it means trying to make new recipes with the same items. When I became better at cooking I started to make some new unknown recipes. However, I tried my best to waste as little food ingredients as possible because India is already struggling with poverty and hunger, there would be people dying from starvation because of me wasting some amount of food. Keeping this in mind I kept my mom on my side so that she can help me and give me advice on which ingredients go with each other. Whenever some of the food is leftover instead of throwing it away, I try to give it to homeless people in my area so that they at least sleep with a full stomach. Even Though cooking is not that difficult, I always wear an apron and maintain my distance with the stove for my own protection. Also I always wash my hands with soap and water before cooking to prevent bacterias entering my food.

Final Take away

This experience was the most fun one as it helped me to survive in the pandemic from getting bored. Despite of fun i learned and developed many skills including learner profile skills like research skills as i had to before hand search on net on how specific type of food is made. I developed creativity skills as I tried to make different food recipes with ingredients. At last I also became patient. These skills will help me in future as they can be applied to anything or in a broad amount of jobs.