For grade 11-12, I decided to take cooking as my AS. The primary reason behind choosing cooking was to learn basic survival skills and try to learn become more independent.
LO 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth:
I always was inclined towards arts and have always considered cooking as an art form. The colour of every ingredient, the way we chop vegetables finely and add the perfect amount of salt/sugar to food is just a form of art that can be mastered.
Cooking at home made me realise that I had good chopping skills, and showed various other abilities such as finely blending cake dough. However, I realised if I wanted to start preparing stuff on my own, I will have to learn other skills such as dressing, and peeling of vegetables.
However, after spending considerable time at home and school (2 years) and practicing cooking regularly helped me master different skills such as tossing of rotis, and adding a pinch of perfect flavour to everything. But still, there is a way to go ahead and further through cooking I want to express the ideas that are there in my mind and try to make new dishes that are healthy and delicious. (Currently, with a dietitian I am trying to know more healthy ingredients that could be used as a source in my food).
LO 4: Showing commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences:
Regular involvement and active engagement is a must while initiating a CAS experience. The way I achieved this task is attending every possible AS classes that were scheduled. To add to that performing and being on live counters during AS performances. Secondly, cooking with mom also helped me to gain experience and learn some traditional dishes.
During exams, it became very difficult to go to AS classes and none of my friends accompanied me to the class. However, I then had a talk with my AS teacher and took recipes from her to prepare at home. So during days when I missed my AS classes, I used to perform the dish at home and send her a picture of what has been made.
The final takeaway is that I really have developed the art of cooking recently and there is still more to learn for me. However, I see my two academic years as an advantage for me because I got to learn many things, I got to handle the basic utensils which I couldn’t even pick up earlier. I developed the skill of tasting and developed my taste buds throughout the process. I would love to carry on this CAS experience in this upcoming years.
