Rob Landolphi, culinary operations manager of dining services, worked with UCTV to create culinary demonstrations to teach students cooking skills.
The initiative began before the University of Connecticut adapted its spring semester to remote learning, but the videos are still being released as they are developed. Landolphi said this initiative’s primary focus is to help students craft affordable and healthy meals that can be made at home.
“I want to show you some really affordable, healthy, easy meals that you can make at home that will fill you up and allow you to focus on what you’re really here for: Academics,” Landolphi said.
Landolphi’s first demonstration shows students how they can craft parmesan pesto chicken with pasta. Throughout the six-minute demonstration, Landolphi outlines ways students can save money when purchasing ingredients.
Similarly, his second demonstration shows how to make black bean burritos. He explains why he chose certain ingredients over others, for example, cabbage over iceberg lettuce, because of factors like price or reusability.
“The reason I chose cabbage instead of shredded lettuce or iceberg lettuce is because if you go buy a head of lettuce — especially iceberg — you’re going to put it in your fridge. You’re probably going to use part of it and then within a week, it’s going to be wilted, it’s going to be wet and you’re probably going to have to throw it away,” Landolphi said.
Landolphi’s third demonstration has yet to be released by UCTV, but it will show students how to cook grilled salmon and broccoli.
The videos can be found on uKindness’s website and UCTV’s YouTube channel.
Thumbnail image courtesy UCTV’s Youtube Channel.
Thomas Alvarez is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at thomas.alvarez@uconn.edu.
