Student-Led Cooking Class Teaches Medical Students How to Prepare Healthy, Economical Dishes
For the first half of his life, Aryan Wadhwa lived in Toronto, Canada. Then, his family moved to Austin, Texas, which bills itself as the live music capital of the world and touts its barbecue and Tex-Mex cuisines.
“If you love food and music, Austin’s the place to be, and that’s what I’m all about,” said Wadhwa, a second-year medical student.
Preparing meals alongside his mother inspired his love of cooking and Wadhwa loves to host dinner parties for friends. And so, it seemed natural that he’d be tapped to co-host the inaugural medical student cooking class Oct. 8, run by the Student Affairs Office as part of its Medical Student Wellbeing program.
“Students are very vocal about food,” said Wellbeing and Advising Program Coordinator Tiffany Wong, MA. She said students appreciate when medical school events or presentations are accompanied by free refreshments or a meal; many students enjoy the free coffee and fruit provided each day in the Student Affairs Office.
Wong said the cooking class was a response to student feedback that they wanted healthier, less expensive food. The Student Affairs Office decided to offer student-led cooking classes as part of their Wellbeing Program, demonstrating how to cook inexpensive and nutritious meals. Wong felt skills learned in the cooking class could help future physicians when they are counseling their own patients about healthy eating.
“It builds community; students get to support their friends and at the same time learn something very practical,” she said.
The cooking demonstration was a first for Wadhwa and co-host Giulio Cataldo, a first-year medical student. It was done in partnership with The Teaching Kitchen at Boston Medical Center.
“I like to cook, and I’ve taught a lot of individual people how to cook, but it was definitely different for me to teach a large group of people,” said Cataldo.
The BMC teaching kitchen is set up like those seen on TV cooking shows. It has knives, utensils, kitchen gadgets and appliances, as well as microphones and an overhead camera that gives the audience a bird’s eye view of the cooking surface and workspace via a large-screen monitor. 
Student Affairs purchased the supplies for the demonstration and provided each of the attendees with a bag of the ingredients and recipes to duplicate Cataldo’s Asian-inspired fried rice and Wadhwa’s shakshuka, a dish of Tunisian origin.
“Cooking and food are the best way to dip your toes into someone else’s culture,” said Cataldo, who learned Italian and Irish cooking from his parents. Time constraints tend to push students, and the greater population, toward a grab-and-go culture, but Wadhwa and Cataldo’s families prioritized family dinners.
Cataldo tries to keep the spirit of those dinners by refraining from studying while he eats.
“It’s good to make rules like that for yourself, to ensure that there’s a life beyond school. Because at some point we won’t be in school anymore, and you’ll need to have a life for yourself,” he said.
“Cooking can be a form of self-care and a time to connect with other people,” said Alessandra Anderson, MS’24, RDN, a registered dietician at BU’s Sargent Choice Nutrition Center. “It also can be a social event, like taking this (cooking) class, where students can take something and apply it to their own life.”
Cooking can also help students reconnect with familiar and culturally significant foods, which can be comforting if they are far from home
“Food is really meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to satiate us and fuel us for our day, make us show up as the best version of ourselves and help us to thrive in the ways we want to,” she said.
Wong is working on a schedule to incorporate cooking classes into the wellbeing program.
“I’m a big fan of the Student Affairs’ wellbeing program,” said Cataldo. “They care a lot and provide opportunities for so many different things. There’s something for everyone.”
