Anyone can cook. In Neil Sir’s words, “Everyone should know how to cook, baba! Life skill hai” Not did they just mean it, they implemented it and yes, Batch of 2021 is the first to have a cooking course in KMIT as a part of Trishul.

Trishul was an initiative which primarily focused on programming taken by KMIT three years ago. But now, they’ve included interesting courses like Solar Engineering, Electricity, Web designing, and cooking. If I were given an option to choose any course among the above, I would choose cooking. That’s exactly what I did. Who wouldn’t want to come to college and have fun with friends experimenting with a variety of dishes!? And most importantly, do or learn something different than listening to JNTU classes!

It was a 3 months course. We learnt and tried different recipes from Vada Pav to Pineapple Kesari. The classes were held behind our canteen for three days a week from 8:30 to 10 am. The college provided the induction stoves, utensils, and basic ingredients while we had to get only the main ingredients. Whoa. I know right? That was our reaction too as we didn’t expect any course like this in an engineering college!

It felt more like a fun activity than a course. The best part was not when teachers came in to taste our recipes and appreciate it but when we save the food for our friends! 9:40 was the time we used to get calls from friends attending other courses saying  “Aaj kya banare? Accha theek hey, mai aa rahi hu. Mereliye kuch bachake rakh!!”

Our course began in the first week of January. The first two classes involved discussion on culinary skills while the rest involved the actual cooking. We started off the course preparing breakfast items like basic grilled chutney sandwich and famous South Indian poha. Then, we made Rava idli (We didn’t expect it would be that good listening to the name either! But it was pretty good!)

Our very own Vinay Patankar sir taught us 3 amazing dishes! The best ones, I’d say, were yummy snack items like Vegetable cutlets, Bread pakoda, and Pineapple Kesari.  Then we prepared recipes like Sambar rice, Fried rice, Paneer butter masala, Pav Bhaji, Aloo paratha, Carrot halwa, Manchuria, Gulab Jamun and Vada Pav! We also learnt how to make roti and puri! The best part was making them into our desired shapes and sizes…

At the end of the day, all of us had fun learning how to cook. The only thing we regretted was that we weren’t allowed to prepare any non-vegetarian item.

So, this is what few have got to share:

“It is a rare concept of cookery classes for engineering students. I have been cooking for almost 20 years but teaching how to cook was my first and wonderful experience. The most important thing was the curiosity and enthusiasm to learn new dishes. It was surprising to note that the attendance of boys was more compared to the girls and also the satisfaction of the students after preparation of dish was worth capturing.” – Smriti Gharipurikar

“You gotta eat the spaghetti to forgetti your regretti” – Ashrita

“It was such an awesome course which gave me the confidence to cook. Initially, I would be satirized by my friends and my brother who know cooking. But today, I can cook food tastier than them.” – Prathyaksh

“It was pretty fun. I miss those paratha with curd days! One of the best courses, maybe? I really loved it!” – Sundar

“It was an experience we can never get to learn in any other college and actually helps us to be independent. It was fun to cook with friends!” – Rakesh

Images:

Images courtesy: Rakesh Anduri

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