7A- Testing the Hypothesis

Opportunity:

The opportunity that would like to pursue is the opportunity I talked about last week where I teach a cooking class to young adults and students then take those meals that they cook and feed the homeless. Currently the options for students and young adults that don’t know how to cook are extremely slim they either, pay 2000 dollars for a meal plan with stale food, pay thousands of dollars a month on restaurant or fast food, or eat dollar top ramen cups every day. I provide a way for those people to take back control of their lives and learn how to be a delicious cook and give back to the community while they are at it.

The Who, What, and Why:

The Who: Young adults and students in college that do not know how to cook. The homeless.

The What: Due to economic or societal and cultural setbacks many young adults do not know how to cook and waste a fortune on restaurants (that take the food they don’t use and throw it away instead of donating it).

The Why: Due to not having the money to have a meal plan or buying consistent groceries. Family cultural divides prevent the male from ever learning how to cook. Being focused on schoolwork and extracurriculars throughout your life so cooking is never a second thought.

Testing the Who, What, and Why

The Who: In my opinion, I believe that the “who” I listed are the people who would get the most out of my idea. The other culinary classes on focus lack the quality that mine will have due to one simple ideology. The other cooking classes focus on showing you how good food in general looks. My club will focus on showing you how good food YOU make can look and taste. They’re others who fit in this need as well such as older individuals needing to learn how to cook. But most adults know how to cook to some extent.

The What: Overall my “what” has stayed true because I am mostly going to be dealing with people who do not know how to cook.

The Why: I think that they’re exceptions to my “why” because they’re individuals who did not learn how to cook due mostly to laziness and lack of motivation. Even though most of the people I interviewed and talked to fell into one of the categories that I listed under my “why” I now know that other reasons do exist, and they are not excuses but actual issues that could be alleviated with the proper knowledge.

Interviews

1.      The first person I spoke to was Adrian W. a sophomore computer science major who did not know how to cook. The first question I asked him was “Why do you think you a lot of young adults never learned how to cook?” Adrian said, “Because of the convenience we have now period.” Adrian then made a great point because if you look around you on every other corner or building on a college campus has to do with easy food. Not fast food, easy food that can be shuffled out in no time. We talked about that for a bit before I asked him my question centered around my “what”, I asked, “Do you think a lot of people make up excuses for why they don’t know how to cook?”. Adrian said yes and no, he believes that people will lie and make up stories not to make themselves look cooler but instead to hide the shame. “When you’re an adult that can’t cook it makes you feel weird, almost like you’re still a child.” This was something I had never heard before. I never thought of cooking as a desirable skill with how convenient it is to get food but apparently, I was wrong. The final “why” the centered question I asked was “Do you believe that if people that were disinterested in cooking had another incentive, (community service) they would join?” Adrian gave me another yes and no, he said yes because feeding the homeless is a universally praised thing that they could put on their record. He said no “because some people actually really just do not care about the less fortunate whatsoever.” and if they don’t care at first a philanthropic incentive would not make a difference.  

2.      The second person I spoke to was Noah P. who is a sophomore marketing major who does not cook. I started out with my first question (“Why do you think a lot of young adults never learned how to cook?) Noah responded with “To be honest a lot of my friends and I never learned how to cook, and to be real it was because we had other things to do.” We then spoke about societal expectations and how members of our generation are hit with things back to back at such a fast rate we really can’t slow down to grow up and how we constantly keep moving forward. Next, I asked Noah “Do you think people really even want to learn how to cook?”. Without hesitation answered yes, “people are afraid of failing, and when you look online what do you see “food fails comp.” and YouTube videos of Gordon Ramsey harassing people for learning how to cook.” Noah then said that an open learning environment where people know they won’t be harassed is key to helping promote learning. Noah and I then talked about how YouTube has created almost a hub for people learning which is where I asked him the final question “What does my cooking class need to bring as many people as I can in.” Noah then said something that gave me brain blast “utilize social media” people like binging with babish and Bon Appetit has created fortunes out of cooking and teaching through social media.

3.      The next person that I spoke to was Shae J. who is a sophomore psychology major who did not know how to cook? When I started talking to her she had just gotten back from work and she was wearing her uniform (fast food) and I immediately jumped into my first question, “Do you think fast food is a reason why so many young adults don’t cook?” and Shae responded with “ I mean its mostly why I don’t cook.”. With the way that Shae laid out her it made sense, class all day with work until 11pm, free food from where she works would be the dream. Next, I asked “If you had the option to learn how to cook, what would seal the deal?”, she responded saying that price is what would matter. If we were able to keep the club dues low while providing unmatched quality in teaching, my idea would be perfect. Finally, I asked “What would you expect every class?” She said that all that she and other students would look for is the fun factor. If we were able to provide an environment where students could learn safely and have fun while doing it, more and more people would join.

4.      Next, I spoke to Luke G. a freshman bio major that never learned how to cook. The first thing I asked him was “Why did you never learn how to cook?” and he responded with “I never felt compelled to, I would see my mom get burned on the oven and it would put me off.”. Now, this was a new concern that was brought to my attention because it never occurs to me because I am used to it, but cooking is dangerous. If not taught the proper ways to handle certain kitchen equipment people can get hurt. Next, I asked “What would a cooking club need to have in order to interest you enough?” He said, “It would be all on why you cook, if I learn how to have a robust arsenal of recipes under my belt that would be ideal.”. Finally, I asked “Would you enjoy the club more or less if what you were cooking feed the homeless. Luke thought about it for a bit and said “more” the reason why is the pride he would feel knowing that that person was able to survive a bit longer due to his help. It was good to see someone still care about helping others.

5.      The last the final person I spoke to was Shania S. a sophomore chemistry major who does not know how to cook. The first thing that I asked her was “Home cooked meal or dining hall meal?”, now Shania has the meal plan when she heard my idea involved food, she immediately talked about how bad the dining hall food was. Shania responded to my first question with definitely home cooked, unless it is my home cooked food.” I asked why she never learned how to cook, and I found out that Shania comes from a predominately Hispanic family where the cooking was done by the older females, like in my previous blog cultural differences stopped another person from learning how to cook. Next, I asked “What kind of recipes would you like to see?”, Shania said, “a wide variety, I don’t mind most styles of food but the diversity of what was being taught matters the most.”. The final question I asked is “Would you feel comfortable cooking a plate of food for someone who was homeless?”, she paused for a sec then said yes as long as she was taught well there should be no issues.

Conclusion

In conclusion this the assignment was the best thing that I could have done to cultivate my idea. I had many intellectual and logical conversations that helped me think deeper about my concept for example in my second interview, I describe how we talked about how societal expectations from our families and friends keep up moving at a pace where we never really get that time to group up. I believe that this the post was a crucial step into building my idea and I can't wait to see how my the idea is cultivated in the future.