Students of the Belarusian State University of Food and Chemical Technologies regularly conduct master classes for schoolchildren on cooking delicious and healthy dishes at the Center for Culinary Skills.
- Four years ago, we had the idea to invite schoolchildren to the walls of the university and tell them how to cook various types of culinary products. We started with pancakes and potato pancakes, but, as experience has shown, pizza is the most popular among the guys. There is a slightly lower demand for burgers, then there are cookies and gingerbread, - says Olga Matsikova , vice-rector for educational work . - Over time, we have branded aprons and caps. All this resulted in the Culinary Thread project.
And although the university did not particularly advertise these master classes, they are very popular - word of mouth does an excellent job. Olga Vladimirovna continues:
- We work by appointment, and there are practically no vacancies for the coming months. Most often these are Saturdays, but sometimes we meet with schoolchildren in the middle of the week in our free time from school. The absolute record was set on the eve of the New Year by holding 5 master classes a day, and they last about two hours. The groups were up to 30 people. Now before Easter there is also a rush, many want to learn how to cook Easter cakes.
BGUT has already been visited by children from Mogilev schools, children from Gorki, Bobruisk, Minsk region. This week, a master class was held at the university for students in grades 4-7 of the Honovskaya secondary school in the Mogilev region. Without five minutes, master's student Sergey Ogannisyan taught them how to make gingerbread cookies, and Anna Yurkina, coordinator of the Culinary Trend, showed how to make icing and paint treats for her.
- There are three pillars that pushed me to choose a profession , - Sergey lists with a smile. - This is the cartoon "Ratatouille", the series "Kitchen" and the phrase "You love to eat, love and cook." You should not discount the fact that I am from an Armenian family, where there are many culinary traditions. I am happy to share my knowledge with other people, so I also participate in this project. In return, they get an incredible charge of emotions!
One of the most attentive and diligent among the young guests was Varvara Goncharova from the 4th grade. The girl wants to become a doctor, but she also thinks about the profession of a cook:
- Almost every day my mother and I cook pizza, we also like to make sweet pies. But the gingerbread cookies didn’t work out very well for us. Now I understand why. When I get home, we will cook them again, only according to a new recipe. I'm sure it will turn out great!
The boys, by the way, were in no way inferior to the girls. Seventh grader Kirill Luya explains:
- I also often cook at home, I especially like to mess with the dough, so I succeeded today. I thought here: if I fail to enter the cadet school, as I dream, I will consider the option of linking my life with the catering industry.
I could not resist and, together with the children, for the first time in my life, the teacher of the German language Svetlana Laporenko tried to paint gingerbread.
- When we chose activity for the holidays, we realized that we had already seen almost all the museums, so we settled on something unusual for us , - the teacher recalls. - Arranged for a master class. For cooking gingerbread, because many people already know how to make pizza. The children were looking forward to the trip, literally counting the days and were not disappointed. Look how happy! They drank tea, ate their own cookies, and they will also bring a gift to their parents.
For the university, such events are also an unbanal approach to career guidance.
- Pupils can feel like students, see classrooms and laboratories, get to know teachers. In a word, we are doing everything to make them want to return here in a new status - as applicants. Therefore, the most important result of the master classes for us is when the children say: “I will come here to study ,” concluded Olga Matsikova, Vice-Rector.
