During Covid many people picked up new hobbies like reading, working out, arts and crafts, and cooking or baking. For seniors Mya Miles and Thomas Powell it was cooking that peaked their interests.
“My mom would always make good dinners so I would help her with that a lot,” Powell said.
“I had a lot of free time and I watched youtube videos,” Miles said.
Cooking and baking was one of the most popular hobbies among people in the United States. In 2023 around 41 percent of surveyed respondents liked to cook or bake in their free time the most, according to Statista. While for many it’s just a hobby Miles and Powell decided to take it to the next level by taking culinary classes at Prosser.
“We’re in the cooking class (at Prosser) but we do a little bit of both cooking and baking,” Powell said. 
Cooking can be fun for anyone whether they are just learning or have been doing it for years but for the more experienced it can be fun to experiment.
“When you’re more into it you can kind of build off of what you know and make your own stuff without having to look stuff up. Then when you make a dish numerous times you can put your own spin on it,” Miles said.
Learning to cook is a very good skill to have under your belt when moving out and going off on your own. While many NAHS students are preparing for college or life after high school learning to cook for themselves is a skill they should learn.
“I plan to hopefully go to culinary school,” Powell said. Although not everyone will go to culinary school, everyone should know the basics and how to cook themselves easy meals.
“I like soups and stews because there is a lot more freedom and less room for error,” Miles said.
Learning easy things like soup and stews is good for beginners because it is hard to mess those things up. However there are many more advanced things to learn in cooking as well.
“Dishes that use both baking and stovetop cooking are hard; or, when they have different meats because you have to know different temperatures they need to be done at,” Miles said.
Cooking meat is a more advanced skill because you have to know the different temperatures that different meats have to be cooked at but it is important to know these temperatures to stay safe and healthy. Practice makes perfect and if you cook a lot then you can master any recipe.
