Cooking for Fourteen

One of the features of Luther's Nottingham Program is that all of the students sit down for a meal together with the Directors each evening, Monday through Friday, in the large dining room of the Flat. Another feature is that the Directors do not always prepare this meal. Students take turns.

Our cooking (and eating) crew, shortly after arrival.

Over the 39 year history of the Nottingham Program, tales of mealtime disasters have been handed down as part of the folklore. Because boxes of mac & cheese are not available here, and because many students have little experience in the kitchen, the potential for starvation (or more likely, the necessity of calling for delivery of pizzas) is very real.

Thanks in large measure to Mary's organizational skills, and in part to this surprisingly talented group of students we have, we have been eating exceptionally well. We have no disaster tales add to the folklore (yet). In fact, we were visited by two program alumni last week who told me they had not eaten as well even at the end of their Nottingham year as we are eating in our first month!

Before they arrived, Mary polled the group to ask who had cooking experience, and who was a novice. She then paired the experienced with the inexperienced to minimize the danger of having a kitchen full of people who are clueless. Students assigned to cook a particular evening must then select their menu and write down what they will need to prepare it.

Shopping is a major first step. The weekly chore sheet names two students to assist in keeping an inventory of what's in the pantry and accompanying us on one or more shopping expeditions. Many Britons still shop daily or several times a week (many do not have cars and huge piles of groceries don't work well on public transportation, and refrigerators here are much smaller). So the sight of two old folks and two students with two or three shopping carts piled high with $200-$300 worth of groceries draws some attention.

As we've mentioned below, shopping brings a number of challenges other than the quantity of food we need. Some things just aren't available here. Some are here, but under different names or hidden in other parts of the store. The recipe mom sent from home or discovered on the internet may call for ounces, but everything here is packaged in grams or milliliters. Even with four people, it takes a good hour, usually more, to get through the list.

After shopping, groceries are separated into five bins, one for each day of the week, according to the menus that have been planned. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be bought from the green grocer up the street on the day of the meal (we run a tab with them).

The Flat has a fairly large refrigerator/freezer (by European standards -- most Americans would find it tiny) and a larger frig in the pantry. We also have a large chest freezer in a shed behind our house. Refrigerator space is at a premium -- 12 kids go through a lot of milk.

Our dining room, table set.
[photo by student Alex Forbes]

Cooking for 14 is not easy. Even Mary, who is an accomplished cook, finds it a challenge. It's easy to have too much of something, and too little of something else. Timing the meal has proven to be the biggest challenge, and the closest thing we have had to disaster is meals that are late getting on the table. As students become involved in more and more evening activities, that's an issue.

But our young cooks have taken a rather competitive attitude toward their cooking. Despite Mary's constant reminders and a simple meal can be just as filling as a fancy one, each group seems determined to "out do" the meal of the night before. They often try on an average weeknight a dish that is only served on a special occasion back home. We suspect that will change as life gets busier and busier. Meanwhile, we are eating very well, even if not always on time.