Kitchen Cook-alongs

Whilst life in lockdown can feel a lot like 'Groundhog Day', cooking and experimenting with food can be a way to shake things up. For our foodie teachers across DSC, it's their time to shine, as they connect with our College community through the joy of cooking.

Cooking with Miss Lattanzio 

Italian language teacher, Miss Lattanzio, perfectly embodied the amazing spirit of our Donnie teachers last week, finding a creative new way to keep her students engaged and motivated during online schooling.

With her apron on and fresh ingredients at the ready, Miss Lattanzio pressed ‘record’ on her camera as she filmed her first ever cooking tutorial for her Year 9 Italian Class.

Miss Lattanzio’s students were quick to jump onboard their cooking task and as a result, there were some proud students presenting their beautiful pasta dishes to their families for dinner. Please click through the image gallery to view some of the incredible dishes the students shared with us. You can also read about their experiences below.

Student Reflections: Cooking in Italian Class

Dominic K – 9K:

"In Italian we cooked pasta and we could choose between a meat and vegetarian option. Prof Lattanzio did a great job organising the lesson. I had fun cooking while my brothers had a great time eating. It was nice to take a break from all the grammar we have been doing and just head to the kitchen and cook a beautiful meal for our family. The sauce was full of flavour and it was finished by the end of the night. I highly recommend this becomes part of the curriculum because it is great to learn about and cook food from the amazing culture of Italy."

Carla M - 9J: 

"Last Monday we had a fun project of cooking authentic bolognese sauce for our family. Due to stage 4 lockdown, I wasn’t allowed to go to the supermarket. I put my order in with my mum. I watched the YouTube video Prof Lattanzio sent, but lucky for me we cook bolognese quite regular in our house, so I already had an idea of how the process worked. I got to use our family's homemade passata and my Nonna’s homemade pasta. It was a really authentic experience. My family really enjoyed my pasta." 

Gabriella T & Madi L – 9J 

"This week in Prof Lattanzio’s Year 9 Italian class we switched it up and did a practical lesson. We made pasta and the pasta sauce from scratch for our family with the help of a very insightful video by Prof Lattanzio. It was a good activity to break up a tough week of remote learning. We were fortunate enough to call our friends during the activity which made it more fun. The result of this lesson was a very happy Italian class and a lovely family dinner."

Sienna S –9F 

"In week 7 of Term 3, Prof Lattanzio prepared a video for her Year 9 Italian classes on making pasta sauce. The sauce required onion, celery, carrot, garlic and meat if you wanted to add it. Most of my class along with myself chose to add the meat, making it a delicious bolognese sauce. The addition of the onion celery and carrot is called ‘soffrito’, which we had been taught in the previous lesson. The purpose of the soffrito is to enhance the flavour of the sauce. The video clearly displayed how to prepare everything, with Prof Lattanzio going into detail at the important steps to make sure we did not make any mistakes. It was great to learn the many tips and tricks to make pasta sauce taste spectacular. The main one being to have the sauce simmering for at least 2-3 hours on a low heat. It was a very fun task that broke the now normality of sitting in front of a screen all day in quarantine. Sharing a delicious meal with my family made the experience just that little bit better. Hopefully we will be able to have a spectacular lesson like this again." 

Georgia W and Ruby T - 9J  

 "On 25 August our teacher Prof Lattanzio set up an activity for our class to do some practical work and bring the Italian culture into our own homes! We followed a recipe that our teacher had made for us via YouTube and we followed along with her. Ruby and I worked together to cook the spaghetti bolognese over the phone on FaceTime. We had to take multiple photos along the way and we wrote a response after the cooking. Overall, we really enjoyed cooking and learning about the Italian culture and we hope to do more cooking in quarantine again."  

VCAL Student Project: Share Your Recipe, Share your Culture

Tania R from 12V invites parents/carers, students and staff from our school community to take part in her VCAL project which aims to build connections between cultures through the sharing of recipes. The project is one of her major assessments on Human Rights. 

If you have a family recipe you can share, please email Tania here. Be sure to include your name, a small description of the cultural origin of the dish, and if possible, a photograph of you either cooking or sharing the meal with your family.

To get the ball rolling, please see the below recipe contributed by Sarah of 12 V. Sarah is of Indonesian and Chinese background and she has shared her grandmother's family dumpling recipe below for you to enjoy. 

'Making a Difference': Food Tech Cooking Tutorials on ClickView

DSC Food Tech Assistants Ms Sonja Allen and Ms Elena Menta have stepped up to the plate in more ways than one! 

Lockdown 2.0 wasn't going to stop these dedicated ladies from making sure that students would get the most out of their Food Tech classes. As a result, Ms Allen and Ms Menta have collectively uploaded a staggering 65 cooking demonstrations filmed either in the DSC kitchens during the first lockdown,  and now in their own homes. 

Despite the additional challenges of remote teaching this 'hands-on' subject, Ms Allen and Ms Menta have persevered, and we are pleased to share that students are reaping the benefits:

Jackson - Year 12 Food Tech

"Hi Ms Allen. I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you and your husband for making and uploading those two videos about the chicken and vegetables.  They were a big hep for me with the SAC for tomorrow.  I really appreciate it!"

Students can view all the step-by-step cooking videos in the ClickView library under "DSC Food Tech Class". Some of the dishes you can try include mini meat pies, chicken tenders, risotto, self-saucing pudding and the DSC big breakfast. 

Even if you're a kitchen novice, these videos are simple yet delicious. Why not give one a go this week!