The Brown Co-Op kitchen has become one of my favorite spaces on campus, and one of the places I feel most at home. Making breakfast for myself in the mornings and going to dinner every evening are the best parts of my daily routine, and I’m always excited to see what new things—or what delicious staple—other co-op members will cook.
When I first joined the co-op in my fall semester of junior year, I remember feeling extremely intimidated by the prospect of having to cook for so many people. At that point in time, I did not have much experience cooking beyond baking the occasional dessert at home. I’d never cooked a meal for more than four people, let alone twenty to thirty. However, cooking with two or three other people every cook shift has made this experience not only extremely manageable, but really fun too.
Cook shifts normally last between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm. I know this sounds like a long time, but those three hours really do fly by. At 4:30, members start cooking the menu of the day. One member takes charge over the protein being made for the meal, another is responsible for the sides (typically rice or some kind of pasta and a vegetable dish), and the third member makes dessert and a plant protein for our vegetarian members. In cook shifts with four people, the tasks are split up accordingly. If some members are less confident in cooking, they take over more supportive tasks like chopping vegetables and cleaning as the cook shift goes. There is always something for each person to do.
Dinner is usually ready by 6:30, at which point those on cook shift send out a message that dinner is ready. (By 6, members have already received a message with the menu for the evening.) A typical dinner has ten to fifteen people in the room at any given moment, and music is normally playing from our Bluetooth speaker. In two years of meals at the co-op, it is hard for me to pinpoint any meal that has not been delicious. Below are some of our more recent creations.
As members finish eating and washing their own plates, those on shift begin putting leftovers away and cleaning up the kitchen: running loads in the dishwasher of dishes used while cooking, sweeping and mopping the floors, cleaning the countertops, and taking out the trash. Everything is normally clean and put away by 7 or 7:30 at the latest.
It is not uncommon for some of us to stay behind chatting or doing work (or both) for hours after dinner. These are some of my favorite memories from the last two years because it reminds me of home, when I do the same with my parents and my sister after dinner. More than anything, it is a reminder that the co-op has become a second family for me on campus. I’ve met some of my closest friends through the co-op and have spent some of my best and hardest days sitting in our dining area. Every semester, I look forward to our co-op version of "formals," when we order takeout and put away our tables in the pantry to create a dance floor. I think that when I graduate in a few months, I’ll miss this place most of all.
