For students who skipped home economics \u2014 or didn\u2019t pay attention in class \u2014 Alison Crerar\u2019s \u201cUnderstanding Foods\u201d course is feeding their brains and stomachs.<\/p>\n
It comes as no surprise to Crerar that some of her first- and second-year students don\u2019t know how to use kitchen appliances or even how to turn them on. They may have grown up in families that were too busy to prepare home-cooked meals and relied instead on take-out and frozen dinners.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou definitely see the learning,\u201d she says. \u201cThey gain that confidence because they know the \u2018why\u2019 of what\u2019s happening. They\u2019re able to adapt recipes and create their own recipes because they know how one ingredient interacts with other ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students not only learn the basics of cooking but also the science behind food preparation in class and food safety. They then apply their knowledge in a food lab, which consists of a fully-equipped kitchen and pantry. Whirlpool recently donated eight new stoves, a washer\/dryer and a stand-mixer to the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Not to be confused with U of G\u2019s food science program, \u201cUnderstanding Foods\u201d is aimed at non-science students such as those in hospitality and nutrition \u2013 the course is a requirement for both degrees.<\/p>\n
Students learn about a new food group each week and try recipes using those foods. They began the fall term learning about salads, followed by fruits, then vegetables. When cooking vegetables, Crerar recommends adding a small amount of lemon juice to Guelph\u2019s alkaline water to keep them from getting slimy.<\/p>\n
The baking component of the course teaches students how to use common ingredients found in cakes, muffins and desserts. \u201cEven though they\u2019re all the same ingredients, but in different ratios, you get a totally different product,\u201d says Crerar, who studied nutrition at U of G and took the course she now teaches. The order in which ingredients appear in a recipe also matters. Adding lemon juice too early to a lemon meringue pie, for example, will turn it into soup.<\/p>\n
As for grading, the proof of the pudding isn’t in the taste. Students are graded not on how well they executed a recipe but how well they demonstrated their learning of the material. Crerar can tell what their concoctions taste like by the looks on their faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccidents happen, but they learn from accidents,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes the accident is edible, sometimes not. There\u2019s a learning opportunity in everything you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the most popular recipe? Crerar often gets emails from former students, asking her for the beef stew recipe they learned in class. \u201cIt comes out when they try to impress their significant other\u2019s family.\u201d \u2013 SUSAN BUBAK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For students who skipped home economics \u2014 or didn\u2019t pay attention in class \u2014 Alison Crerar\u2019s \u201cUnderstanding Foods\u201d course is feeding their brains and stomachs. It comes as no surprise to Crerar that some of her first- and second-year students don\u2019t know how to use kitchen appliances or even how to turn them on. They<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null},"categories":[31],"tags":[83,39,242],"yoast_head":"\n