The college experience, perhaps more so than any other, should be defined by a sense of freedom – the freedom to study what interests us, the freedom to transform ourselves into whomever we want to be, and, of course, the freedom to let loose like we’ve always wanted. I’m happy to say that it was this freedom that pervaded at Wilson College’s last study break.

Just over two-thirds of Princeton upperclassmen are members of an eating club. There are 11 clubs in total and each has its own distinct feel.

Juniors and seniors at Princeton have several eating options. Many become members of eating clubs, some elect to eat in residential college dining halls, some choose to “go independent” and cook food for themselves, and some join co-ops. I chose this final option and joined Brown Co-op.

Brown has around 30 members, and we have our own kitchen and dining room on the second floor of Brown Hall, a campus dormitory. We get regular food deliveries from a company that typically supplies businesses, so our pantries are always full.  

Once a week, each member joins a cook team of around four people to prepare dinner for the whole co-op. Here’s how a typical cook night goes down:

10 a.m.:  Select the meat 

Princeton has three co-ops: 2D, a vegetarian co-op; IFC, a co-op that focuses on international food; and Brown. Since Brown has no official theme, we joke that our unofficial theme is meat.  We eat meat nearly every night, and always have lots on hand. Each morning, a member of that night’s cook team will select a type of meat to defrost.  

4:30 p.m.:  Meet as a team and decide what to make 

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We usually don’t plan meals in advance, so we start by looking around the kitchen to see what ingredients are available. The team then decides who will cook the meat, who will cook a vegetable, who will cook some sort of grain, and who will cook dessert.  I love making desserts, so I always hope for that job.

5:30 p.m.:  Cooking!! 

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Cooking is always an adventure at Brown. A cook team has two hours to prepare food for 30 people, so we have little room for error. But nearly every night something goes wrong—we suddenly realize we’re out of eggs, the oven starts to smoke, or a burner stops working.  Somehow, though, everything always comes together in the end.

6:30 p.m.: Dinner time

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Around 6:30 p.m., hungry co-op members start to arrive and begin to eat. Everyone sits around a long table, and we have lively conversations while enjoying our food.

7:15 p.m.: Cleaning up and saying goodbye

After dinner, the cook team cleans the kitchen and says goodbye, leaving with good memories of cooking and eating!