DETROIT – Cooking is one of those hobbies I picked up in college. I was tired of eating Ramen and pizza rolls all the time and figured there are a lot of people who can cook, why not me?
Over the course of the pandemic it became a way to cancel out the noise for me. It was a chance to do something that pulled me out of the stress of living through a global health catastrophe to focus on something that was right in front of me. (That thing was usually very hot and I have the scars for the times I lost focus) There’s also something about being able to spend a short amount of time creating something that you can share with the people you care about.
Over the pandemic I’ve made food and given it to friends we couldn’t be around. I cook almost every day for my fiancée, packing lunches and dinners when we work opposite schedules. It was a way for me to show that I cared when the normal ways we used to do that weren’t something we could do anymore.
That’s how I got to here. The pandemic habits we should keep and the importance of cooking at home. I talked to the Nutrition Education Director at Eastern Market, Anika-Kafi Summers. She hosts cooking classes for families of all income levels and walked me through a 30 minute meal: Grilled salmon salad with a peach-cherry galette (it’s basically a lazy pie). Enjoy!
You can watch Grant Hermes’ full story in the video player above.