In a town like Gainesville, where game days can feel more important than what’s for brunch, cooking isn’t always the top priority. Nevertheless, everybody has to eat. Cooking at home can provide an inexpensive and creative experience. Here are five quick tips for the less-than-Michelin chef.
Don’t cook alone
More often than not, the afternoon lull of cooking lunch can feel more like a punishment than self-care. Sometimes, a little push from a friend can make all the difference.
UF English senior Mags Penza said accountability from a friend keeps them in the kitchen. The 21-year-old said cooking with others halves the work — and the dishes.
For Penza, a big part of cooking is creativity, the chance to create something they’ve never had before. And with two chefs in the kitchen, a boring meal is off the table.
Cooking in pairs or groups does more than one might think. Penza said cooking keeps them eating, a chore that sometimes falls to the bottom of the to-do list.
“If I don’t cook, I don’t eat,” they said. “So doing it together makes it easier, and I survive the day with enough food to go on.”
Grab a chair
Nothing is worse than coming home after a long day, trudging to the fridge, and realizing dinner couldn’t be farther from the plate. Cooking can be fun — or exhausting, and sometimes a place to sit makes all the difference.
When cooking elaborate meals, investing in a counter-height chair can pay off for chopping, stirring and drooling over the eventual culinary success.
If a meal takes 45 minutes to complete, a would-be chef might feel hesitant standing over a hot stove for the entirety of the meal. One way to compel even the least seduced and culinary-crazed is to prevent accompanying foot pain. And if there’s no chair in sight? At least grab some cozy slippers.
Turn cooking into a game
The easiest way to make cooking fun is to turn it into a game. The rules are undefined.
Noah Hamer, a 19-year-old UF linguistics and psychology senior, swears by his chaos-riddled cooking approach. To him, cooking is about the fun of trying to arrange each carefully curated component of his meal perfectly.
Hamer said his favorite part of the cooking process is the mayhem of having a full set of burners, each working on a different part of a complex meal.
“I enjoy the challenge of timing things so nothing burns and everything is done at once,” he said.
And to the comfort of newly-minted chefs, Hamer admitted, “Sometimes, it doesn’t work out.”
Lean into habits
The need for diversity is a common misconception among occasional chefs. Donovan Muratore, a 22-year-old UF English senior, said not every meal has to be groundbreaking.
Muratore leans into the habits he’s developed over his experience as a home chef. As a strong advocate for pre-mixing spices, he said it’s his secret to perfect ratios.
“I grew up eating unseasoned food, so I’m always trying to make it DELICIOUS,” he wrote in a text message.
Muratore said that although seasoning is important to him, he knows there’s not always time to think up a new recipe or spice mixture. Sometimes, new chefs need something premeditated.
Muratore recommends finding recipes that can be streamlined for ease of completion.
“It could be a simple sauce that you can put on any protein, quick sides that go with any meal, or things that help you hit your macros without spending $300,000,” he wrote.
In cooking, habits can save your dinner.
Scratch isn’t everything
Pre-packaged ingredients may be unacceptable to criticism-connoisseurs, but they are a lifesaver for a quick meal.
Simple recipes paired with help from semi-prepared food items can be the perfect starting point for a career in home cooking. Ready-to-use spice blends or prepared pasta sauces are made for a reason: to make cooking easier.
For those who covet delicious meals, Mags Penza has one message: “Food Network is lying to you. It doesn’t have to be a nightmarish crunch mode every time.”
Contact Rachel Mish at rmisch@alligator.org. Follow her on X @mish_rache62827.
Rachel Mish is a junior English and business major and the Fall 2024 Food Reporter for The Avenue. In her free time, she enjoys playing pick-up basketball or sewing a gameday outfit.
