"We joined the club in our freshman year and basically revived it last semester," said Sarah Michelson '02 and Sarah Short '02, current leaders of the Cooking Club. "It was basically dead before now; we got funding for it and signed people up at the club fair last fall."
The Cooking Club operates out of the Newport kitchen, where they have managed to build up a considerable stock of utensils and spices. "At first, about three or four people would cook and 30 members of the Club would come for dinner," said Michelson. "Now we have roughly 20 people cooking and the same number eating what they cook."
The increase in membership has also lead to a more diverse menu. "Last semester, we had Cuban food, a French dinner, Mediterranean night, Thai night and an extremely successful cookie study break during finals week," said Short. This semester, they also organized an Aphrodisiac Night, where 10 members cooked and each later brought a date to dinner. The sumptuous menu included spinach and strawberry salad, coconut chicken, basil tomato pasta, chocolate fondue and the most potent aphrodisiac known to man-green M&M's.
Experience is not a requirement to join the Cooking Club, as neither Short nor Michelson is professionally trained in cooking and usually they have little knowledge of the foods they make. "We assume the members know something about cooking," said Michelson. This assumption has, for better or for worse, resulted in a few peculiar dishes, the most remarkable of which was meatballs which had a greater proportion of bulgur than meat.