One reason many college students miss home is the lack of home cooked meals. After ordering Chick-Fil-A or Panda Express for the third time in a week, fast food starts to get old.
Many college students say they don’t know how to cook, instead relying on fast food and microwave meals. According to Science Direct, 45.7% of college students reported cooking often and 40.3% reported cooking sometimes.
Kristian Niemi, owner of the Cajun-Creole restaurant and a bar called Bourbon, didn’t learn how to cook until college. Niemi was attending the College of Charleston after serving in the army when he had an epiphany.
“I was standing in my apartment one day and realized that, for my entire life, other people have cooked for me, and I had never cooked,” Niemi said.
Niemi was inspired to drive to the nearest bookstore to purchase a cookbook. After that, he went to the grocery store next door to buy the ingredients for his first cooking adventure. Then, Niemi cooked a recipe from the book and realized cooking really wasn’t as challenging as he had thought.
Ricky Mollohan is the co-owner and head chef of Mr. Friendly’s, an upscale Southern bistro. Mr. Friendly’s opened in 1995, and Mollohan started working there as a server the following year when he was a student at the University of South Carolina. In his last year of college he became manager and now has worked up to co-owner.
As a self-trained chef that grew up surrounded by the restaurant business, Mollohan’s biggest piece of advice for beginners is to be confident.
Mollohan said he encourages people to cook because it gives them a sense of independence.
“I’m always amazed at people that can’t cook because the person you’re doing it for the most is yourself,” Mollohan said.
Additionally, Mollohan explained that after spending time cooking your own food, you feel accomplished.
Mollohan recommended starting with a meal that doesn’t require a surplus of dishes.
“I’m big on something where you can cook everything in one pan,” Mollohan said. “Pastas, to me, are probably the easiest thing.”
On the other hand, Niemi suggested beginning with a different type of meal.
“If you go to grocery stores like Publix, they’ve got in the meat section partially-prepped meals that you just have to finish, and that’s a great place to start,” Niemi said. "When you've made a few of these meals and you see what the ingredients are that they put in them, then you can expand, and you can go and buy those ingredients separately."
Niemi said the hardest concept for college students to understand when they start cooking is portioning. He said it can be hard because it is often the same amount of work cooking for four people as it is for one. Niemi explained this problem can be solved by meal prepping.
"Take a day, Saturday or Sunday, and meal prep a bunch of meals, and put them in containers," Niemi said. "Throw some in the fridge and some in the freezer. You're set for a week or two."
Niemi also recommended utilizing the internet when cooking.
"If there's something you want to make, jump on YouTube," Niemi said. "There's probably a hundred different people that will show you exactly."
Harold Pendleton has been the executive chef at The War Mouth, a restaurant focused on Southern cuisine, for 10 years. The War Mouth is a farm-to-table restaurant, meaning the food at the establishment came from a specific farm without going through a store, market or distributor. Because of this, Pendleton encourages college students to support local Columbia farms.
“Always cook fresh, get good ingredients, and don’t eat processed foods,” Pendleton said.
Pendleton grew up in the restaurant business, since his parents owned a deli. According to Pendleton, the secret to cooking is quite simple.
“If you want to cook, just follow the recipe,” Pendleton said.
Then you can start to experiment, Pendleton said. If experiments don't turn out as planned or end up a complete mess, Pendleton encouraged new chefs to try again.
“The cool thing about cooking is you can start over," Pendleton said. "You can learn from your failures to try and get it right the next time.”