Summer Job

July 7, 2009

My nephew has a job at his college for the summer. He, and the other student workers, have been given rooms in a dorm. The kitchen is officially closed, but if they keep it clean, they can use it.

So here is how things have evolved: Students eat minimal breakfasts, and are away at their jobs at lunchtime. But come supper, they congregate with groups of friends to cook and eat together.

“It’s not more work to make food for a few than for one,” Seth says, “but it’s a lot more pleasurable. To share the food with people makes it seem worth the effort.” The groups are fluid, but Seth says that people who are good cooks tend to attract a lot of friends.
Also, the industrial kitchen means that several groups can cook at once.

“It’s nice to have other people cooking at the same time,” he says. “They have ideas, suggestions.”
Then the small cooking groups all eat together at the long dining room tables.

“It’s just more pleasant over the summer like this,” he says, “and the meals tend to be very leisurely, because we have the whole night free, and we don’t have structured activities. We sit and talk. It’s pretty nice.”

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