CATS in the Kitchen

Like many students at Cheshire Academy, Bryn Clarkson ’17 looks forward to the International Community Weekend, a time when all students stay on campus for special events, including globally-themed meals in faculty members’ homes and the beloved Food Festival. In fact, Clarkson enjoys the weekend so much, it inspired her to capture the flavors of Cheshire Academy in a cookbook.

Bryn Clarkson ’17

The inspiration

The annual International Community Weekend offers numerous activities that engage students in understanding and exploring different cultures. Some of the most beloved components of the entire experience? Anything that involves food.

“There’s just something about food that brings people together,” said Cori Dykeman, the International Student Coordinator on campus. Dykeman is a member of the Community Life Office, which sponsors the International Community Weekend. “While the cuisine may differ greatly from culture to culture, food is something that everyone has in common,” said Dykeman. “So many of us, young and old, have fond memories of watching our families come together around meals that reflect who we are as people and honor our pasts.”

Clarkson describes the International Food Festival as, “an evening when all our cultures come alive in a single room more than they do on a daily basis. Rather than just hearing people’s languages, we get to have hands on experiences looking at photos and taste-testing foods.” Some students even dress in traditional clothing, but all students involved make and display videos and decorate their food stations to represent their countries, educating their peers and the faculty about different cultures.

The project

For Clarkson, representing the school in a cookbook was the best way to pay tribute to the school’s diverse community. “It lets us capture the community’s diversity in a tangible object and lets everyone enjoy the amazing foods whenever they want.”

To make this publication possible, she took advantage of a unique offering at Cheshire Academy: the Rizzolo Larson Venture Grant program. Awarded annually, these grants empower students to carry out innovative projects that demonstrate “out of the box” learning, and allows students to pursue passions that might not be found in the traditional classroom. Some students use them to enroll in special programs over the summer to delve into studying a topic they are passionate about, such as medicine or art. Others use the grant as an opportunity to engage in internships that can help them further their career aspirations, such as working with a production studio in Los Angeles to learn about the film industry. Clarkson used her Venture Grant to create “The Cats’ Guide to Comfort Food, Over 200 Recipes from Around the World.”

“So many people contributed to making the cookbook a success,” said Clarkson. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of this community.” Students, faculty, and alumni contributed photography and illustrations for Clarkson to use, and she pulled together an army of faculty and students, even some alumni, to help with collecting recipes, editing, formatting, and more. “It was a lot of work to organize everything, but everyone was so excited about the project. People kept asking how it was going.”

The final result

“I was able to compile a cookbook with more than 200 recipes from 30 different countries,” said Clarkson. “I’m really proud of what we made, and I was so excited when they finally arrived.”

But just making the cookbook wasn’t the end of the project. Clarkson knew she wanted to give back to the community. “That’s why I decided to sell the cookbook and donate the proceeds to both the Cheshire Food Pantry and to the Cheshire Academy Annual Fund.” She plans to make the donations to both organizations in spring 2017, and leave a positive lasting impact on her community.

“This project was especially important to me knowing that I was going to be a senior this year, my last year as a student. I knew that this book would mean that I will always have a piece of CA with me, wherever my future leads.”