Cure Your Cravings with the Culinary Club

Chaminade University student Alina Coller found herself bored amidst quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like many others, the Biochemistry senior attempted to keep herself occupied and found a passion for baking. Without prior knowledge or experience regarding either cooking or baking, Coller decided to immerse herself in the practice and learn along the way.

Eventually, the 19-year-old became quite good at baking and wanted to continue doing so when she returned to university as she dorms on campus. Unfortunately, a baking or cooking club of the sort was unavailable at the time.

“I want to keep doing this [baking and cooking] when I go back to school, so I wanted to join a culinary club,” Coller said. “But I realized there wasn’t one at school. So I figured, well, you have to make it.”

The idea formerly commenced as an informal gathering of friends who cooked recipes together through zoom sessions in the fall semester of 2020. Upon returning to in-person classes in the semester of Fall 2021, Coller followed the appropriate procedures and completed various paperwork to commence an official club on campus. In turn, the Chaminade Culinary Club was born with Coller leading as the president. Although the name may sound sophisticated, Coller describes the club as an informal place to make friends, make delicious food, and ultimately a place for de-stressing.

As of this month, the club boasts a roster of 21 members. Though the meetings are on no set schedule, the club does try to meet on Saturdays in the Hale Pohaku kitchen.  

“It’s not like anyone has to be super good to join or anything. It’s just for fun,” Collar said. “It’s supposed to be geared more towards people who are just there to have fun and not people who are there to, you know, win competitions.”

In addition, the Waipahu native geared many of the recipes toward the college demographic. Simple meals that are easy to make and require few ingredients are shared to show members how to budget and cook as college students. Club members cook, bake, and enjoy the freedom of experimenting with various ingredients. For example, during a quesadilla-making session, the traditional quesadilla was given an additional five layers. The club has already made teriyaki bowls, musubis, fudge, and brownies.

“We’ve kind of have gone out of our way to pick things that we know might be easier for college students,” said Coller. “So a lot of the things that we have considered are kind of along that line that this is easy and you can reasonably do it as a college student because there’s not too many ingredients and not too difficult.”

Culinary Club member Caleb Cloud recently joined the club this Fall Semester 2021. The 18-year-old is a CUH freshman majoring in Forensic Science. He regularly commutes by bus from Kailua to Chaminade. He does so for the culinary events held on Saturdays as well and explains he does not mind at all. Cloud had an interest in learning to cook and wanted to continue the practice in university.

“I just like cooking; I’ve always liked that. I took a culinary class in high school. So I wanted to continue with that without having to invest credits and official time into it … I mean, you get to eat free food, and I feel that was enough to convince me”.

For more information or to express interest in joining, message the team on their Instagram culinary_club_cuh or email at [email protected] to fill an application to join.